No posts for weeks, now three in one day! We're playing catch-up around here...
Thanks so much to Mother Seton Parish, for doing another great September food drive! Thanks to Sarah Burkholder of Messiah Lutheran Church, for bringing in Messiah's excellent food donation last week and staying to put it ALL away. Darnestown Presbyterian Church packs boxes the first weekend of every month; they bring a nice pile of food with them and tidy the pantry beautifully, too! Judy Brodbeck hauled in another donation from Victory Christian Church a few weeks ago, thanks as always.
Despite all this excellent donating, we are buying a lot of food, as usual for this time of year. We need it all: Spaghetti sauce & pasta, soups, veggies, fruits, cereal, peanut butter, tuna, and rice. We are also collecting food specific to our Emergency Services outreach: Soup, ravioli, veggies and fruit in pop-top cans; breakfast bars; and other easy-to-eat nonperishable snacks and foods that can be used with no refrigeration and minimal cooking facilities.
Holiday Giving-specific requests are: New toys; Giant gift cards ($10 and $20); and Target gift card ($15-$20). Referrals are already pouring in, it will be Thanksgiving before we know it!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Germantown Community Coalition
We had a lovely meeting of the Germantown Community Coalition this morning... Present were Megan Foley (Sugarloaf Congregation of Unitarian Universalists), Toni Woods (Mother Seton Parish), Tamara Leonard-Lara (Darnestown Presbyterian), Betty Velthuis (Neelsville Presbyterian), Donna Rojas (Northwest High School PTSA), Marissa Chubb (Hughes Network Systems), Mike Ginsberg (Germantown Athletic Club) and Mike Knapp (Montgomery County Council).
We discussed this year's Holiday Giving Project: The Thanksgiving referral cutoff is October 30th; the December gift cutoff is November 30th. Last year, we had 912 households in the Project; this year, maybe we'll go over 1,000! I hope not, but it could easily happen... We need SPACE for the month of December, so we have a place to sort all the toys. If we could distribute from the same space, it would be perfect.
We are mulling over some new ideas for the Emergency Food Program. We are looking to establish some direct relationships with area agencies, churches and senior living facilities, to provide bags of food to their clients as a group once a month. If you have a small group (3-4 people, students OK as long as there's one adult) that could pack some bags and drop them off one afternoon a month, we'd love to hear from you!
Brigid Ryan came to the meeting to speak on the important topic of Continuing Operations (COOP) planning. A very high percentage of organizations that don't plan for emergency (fire, flood, power outages) never recover after they occur. Think about it BEFORE you have a crisis! The Montgomery County Volunteer Center is also looking to set up agreements with area businesses and churches, to share their resources (volunteers, parking lot as a staging area, etc.) in the case of a local emergency. Large power outages, train derailments, hurricanes and fires can happen in Germantown; your organization could make the difference in the services provided!
We discussed this year's Holiday Giving Project: The Thanksgiving referral cutoff is October 30th; the December gift cutoff is November 30th. Last year, we had 912 households in the Project; this year, maybe we'll go over 1,000! I hope not, but it could easily happen... We need SPACE for the month of December, so we have a place to sort all the toys. If we could distribute from the same space, it would be perfect.
We are mulling over some new ideas for the Emergency Food Program. We are looking to establish some direct relationships with area agencies, churches and senior living facilities, to provide bags of food to their clients as a group once a month. If you have a small group (3-4 people, students OK as long as there's one adult) that could pack some bags and drop them off one afternoon a month, we'd love to hear from you!
Brigid Ryan came to the meeting to speak on the important topic of Continuing Operations (COOP) planning. A very high percentage of organizations that don't plan for emergency (fire, flood, power outages) never recover after they occur. Think about it BEFORE you have a crisis! The Montgomery County Volunteer Center is also looking to set up agreements with area businesses and churches, to share their resources (volunteers, parking lot as a staging area, etc.) in the case of a local emergency. Large power outages, train derailments, hurricanes and fires can happen in Germantown; your organization could make the difference in the services provided!
Germantown Oktoberfest 2009
Carrie Kim & Abby Majane staying cool in the shade.Well, we didn't collect too much food at this year's Oktoberfest, but the first year is usually slow. We very much appreciate JK Moving and Storage bringing a truck, tables and chairs, so we had a free "home base" during the event. They dropped off our food, too! Great guys.
Thanks to Carrie Kim, Marissa Tukpah and Abby Majane, too, for keeping watch over our little area and being generally helpful to the fair-goers.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Paul's Excellent Question
One of our volunteers Paul asked if most of the drivers for Germantown HELP were motivated by Student Service Learning hours. Why different people volunteer to take on various volunteer positions has always been an interesting question! Here's my answer.
Peace,
Cindy
---------------
Very few drivers go because of SSL hours. Probably three that I know of... Most SSL-hour-students go with their parents doing the driving, or at least with them. Some drivers bring their children, but a lot are too young to collect SSL hours. Parents like to have their children help do something meaningful and realize how fortunate they are. Students do collect a lot of food for us, at school, swim team, etc. It's very helpful and they do a great job! Most of the box-packing groups include students.
Most drivers want to help out in their community, but they don't have too much time. An hour and a half, once or twice a month and AFTER work, is all the time they have. That's enough for us! Some are challenged by their church/synagogue/etc. to work in the community, so they help for that reason. Some people have been in need in the past and want to give back; others decide that they're darn lucky to have a job, good health and family, so they want to support those not as fortunate.
What motivates volunteers is an interesting subject. I run three nonprofits, with probably 100 regular volunteers among them, but they are quite different and different things motivate different people.
What makes you volunteer?
Peace,
Cindy
---------------
Very few drivers go because of SSL hours. Probably three that I know of... Most SSL-hour-students go with their parents doing the driving, or at least with them. Some drivers bring their children, but a lot are too young to collect SSL hours. Parents like to have their children help do something meaningful and realize how fortunate they are. Students do collect a lot of food for us, at school, swim team, etc. It's very helpful and they do a great job! Most of the box-packing groups include students.
Most drivers want to help out in their community, but they don't have too much time. An hour and a half, once or twice a month and AFTER work, is all the time they have. That's enough for us! Some are challenged by their church/synagogue/etc. to work in the community, so they help for that reason. Some people have been in need in the past and want to give back; others decide that they're darn lucky to have a job, good health and family, so they want to support those not as fortunate.
What motivates volunteers is an interesting subject. I run three nonprofits, with probably 100 regular volunteers among them, but they are quite different and different things motivate different people.
What makes you volunteer?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
September ALREADY?
We've been buying a lot of food (as usual for this time of year), but contributions from Messiah Lutheran Church and Victory Christian Church have been a big help!
Cindy recently met with some very nice folks from Hughes Network Systems, who have a large facility in Germantown and others nearby in Gaithersburg. They helped us considerably last December with the Holiday Giving Project, collecting, delivering AND sorting a lot of toys. They are looking into ways to be more active in the community, which is great!
We held our third pickup yesterday at Trinity United Methodist Church. As always, thanks Trinity UMC for letting us borrow the front hall! The weather was so pleasant that we brought the boxes outside and waited there.
A very large proportion of Germantown HELP's clients don't have transportation and/or are disabled and can't get to a pickup. This is becoming more clear as we continue trying out the pickup idea, so we're actually rethinking it a bit. If we had our own location, where clients could come to the same place every time, it would be helpful. But, since we don't yet have one, we will go out to area organizations (I'm thinking the Boys and Girls Club, maybe some churches, and the three senior communities in Germantown) and try to partner with them.
The Germatown Oktoberfest committee has agreed to let JK Moving and Storage bring a truck to this year's festival, to collect nonperishable food for Germantown HELP. I'm not sure how many people will remember to bring some, but the timing is great. September and October are our busiest months!
If you have any ideas, please let us know!
Cindy recently met with some very nice folks from Hughes Network Systems, who have a large facility in Germantown and others nearby in Gaithersburg. They helped us considerably last December with the Holiday Giving Project, collecting, delivering AND sorting a lot of toys. They are looking into ways to be more active in the community, which is great!
We held our third pickup yesterday at Trinity United Methodist Church. As always, thanks Trinity UMC for letting us borrow the front hall! The weather was so pleasant that we brought the boxes outside and waited there.
A very large proportion of Germantown HELP's clients don't have transportation and/or are disabled and can't get to a pickup. This is becoming more clear as we continue trying out the pickup idea, so we're actually rethinking it a bit. If we had our own location, where clients could come to the same place every time, it would be helpful. But, since we don't yet have one, we will go out to area organizations (I'm thinking the Boys and Girls Club, maybe some churches, and the three senior communities in Germantown) and try to partner with them.
The Germatown Oktoberfest committee has agreed to let JK Moving and Storage bring a truck to this year's festival, to collect nonperishable food for Germantown HELP. I'm not sure how many people will remember to bring some, but the timing is great. September and October are our busiest months!
If you have any ideas, please let us know!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Bobbing Along into August
Neelsville Presbyterian Church's Vacation Bible School collected food for us, so we deployed Brian, Cory and Tucker to pick it up, bring it to the pantry, and put it away. Then, while they were there, they got four boxes of food and delivered them! They are three hardworking guys!
Cindy went to visit some offices for rent along Wisteria Drive today... None of them quite fit the bill, but we might be getting closer. We really need to find space clients can visit. If at least half of them can come to pick up food, we will be able to help a lot more people! The problem with having pickups at a church has been that sometimes we aren't swamped, especially in the middle of the month. We line up some people to transport food and wait for pickup, but then the need isn't there that day. We just don't know ahead of time!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Clopper Mill Marlins Help!
Last week, some friends from the Clopper Mill Marlins swim team brought in food they collected during the summer swim season. They put it away, then packed twelve bags of nonperishable food and brought them over to Emergency Services, too! Thanks!!
We're buying a lot of food lately; donations are always down and we get our busiest in August and September. We've found that many of our clients don't have transportation, so they can't make it to pickups. Some can, though, and that helps relieve some of the backup. Our second pickup is tonight!
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