LIVE UNITED Y’All!

2004: The words were like beautiful music streaming from heaven, “complete remission.” Ok, back to school – check. Graduation – check. Land a wonderful job teaching 5^th grade – check. Fall madly in love and marry the man of my dreams – check. 5 years cancer free – check!

2009: “Excuse me, did you say that I have cancer? Again.” Wonderful.

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with volunteering.  Well, it was a visit with Natalie that inspired me to volunteer at Gilda’s Club. For those of you who haven’t heard about the awesomeness that is Gilda’s Club, you are missing out. Gilda’s Club (named for comedian Gilda Radner who died of ovarian cancer at age 42) is a place that offers support and education to people living with cancer and their loved ones. Weekly Wellness Groups, Social Activities, Networking Groups, Family Sessions, Lectures, and Workshops are only a few of the great things being offered by Gilda’s Club. The Club also provides many opportunities for volunteers to give comfort and support to the Club Members. I decided to see how I could help…

Let’s see…Gardening – don’t really have a green thumb, Office Support – doesn’t really fit my schedule, Handy Person – ha, that’s funny! Oh, here we go, Dinner Host. Oh, wait, I suck at cooking. But my other BFF, Laura, does not!

Text from Patty to Laura: Want 2 cook meal for 50 peeps @ Gilda’s Club n 2 weeks?

5 seconds later.

Text from Laura to Patty: Sure! When? (my friends are awesome!)

10 seconds later before I can even reply.

Text from Laura to Patty: My mom, sis & aunts want 2 help. Cool? (see, awesome!)

Without a second thought, Laura was in! And, she had even recruited her family to help. The World could certainly use more Lauras.

Before I knew it, the planning was done. I barely did anything…the Wright Family had taken over! It was definitely not my intention to pawn off all the work, but they said they had it…and if you’ve ever met a member of the Wright Family, you know not to argue…you’d never win! (I totally mean that as a compliment by the way…I love you guys!)

The night of the event I think I’m getting there early. Ha! Ellen and Julie and Laura’s dad, Jerry, are already there. Lasagnas (all homemade by the way) are in the oven. In come Laura and her sister Emily…both nursing students who definitely don’t have time to be here right now, but somehow they made it work. So there we are buttering bread, putting dishes out, tossing a fresh salad, playfully bickering….it feels like being at home. I am the only one not related, but I didn’t notice.

 

Ellen and Julie

 

Dinnertime!

Laura, Emily, Me, Ellen, & Julie

 

Doing Dishes.

For more of my Adventures in Volunteering:

Panic Mode

Flood Clean Up; It’s a Dirty Job But Somebody Has to Do It!

Saturday Dog Walking Will Have to Wait

Volunteering cancer, Gilda's Club

A big THANK YOU goes out to E.ON U.S. for sponsoring our Campaign Pep Rally event this year! In showing their support for our community, the great folks at E.ON U.S. have agreed to donate $10 per attendee! So ask all of your family and friends to come, because we want to fill up the auditorium to celebrate all that we’ve accomplished this year and to fire up our team to finish the season strong!

There is no charge for the event, just a whole lot of fun as we recognize your outstanding commitment to Live United!

Metro United Way Community Pep Rally

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

7:45-9:15am

The Auditorium at The Salvation Army Male campus [the Old Male High School]

911 S. Brook Street

Louisville, KY

M.C.: Terry Meiners

Please RSVP to reserve your spot in the auditorium-Yumiko Dunton, [502] 292-6139 or yumiko.dunton@metrounitedway.org

Special Thanks To:

E.ON U.S.

The Salvation Army Louisville Area Command for the donation of their facilities for the day

The Butler Marching Band

Seneca High School Varsity Redhawk Cheerleaders

Kroger

General

By Kelly Hutchinson, Donor Relationship Manager

You may modify the recipe ingredients and feel free to substitute based on your desired results and the number of people you would like serve…

1 gallon of inspiration

2 cups of determination

2 cups of confidence

1 1/3 cup creativity

1 ¾ cup of gratitude

1 ½ cup of stick-to-it-iveness

1 ounce of prevention

Smidgeon of luck

Dash of all-spice

Pinch of encouragement

Mix

Stir

Shake

Knead

Whip

Allow the mixed ingredients a brief time to stew and simmer, check on your consistency and then bake–check midway through to make sure the result is looking good.

Share with your neighbors and celebrate!

What ingredients help you to be successful in your life? Work? Are they much the same or different?

General, Giving, Volunteering Community, Metro United Way, motivation, success

If there is one thing that working with Success By 6 has confirmed for me it is to instill a love of reading in my child. We read everyday at our house. In fact, Luke has made up a new game to play called “naptime.” He tells his dad and me to “go take your nap.” He tucks us into his bed, reads us a story, gives us our kisses, says goodnight and closes the door to his room. My husband actually finds this to be a very cruel game, because just as we are feeling nice and relaxed, Luke will burst into the room, turn on the lights and loudly say, “Time to wake up!” My favorite part of naptime is when Luke reads our bedtime story. He usually chooses one of his favorite books. So, he knows most of the words or uses the pictures to make up what is happening in the story. I think that it is very cool that reading a story has to be a part of “naptime.”

Luke has many favorite books, including the Clifford the Big Red Dog series. One of the reasons that he loves Clifford books so much is that there are pictures of the covers of other Clifford books on the back of each book. He likes to go through all of the pictures and find the pictures of the books that he has in his collection. Sometimes, this can lead to reading six books in a row, but I don’t mind. My bigger issue is that I can’t walk into a book store without checking out which Clifford books they have. I am constantly trying to find as many of the books featured on the back of the covers that I can. In fact, this morning I ordered a set of six Clifford books– three that we already have – from the Scholastic book order that came home from school just so I could add to Luke’s Clifford collection.

As I placed my order this morning, I thought about all of the children who do not have fifteen Clifford books in their collections or entire bookcases full of beautiful children’s books. It made me sad. But I couldn’t be sad for too long because my next thought was of the boxes and boxes of books that we just received from the Borders book drive.

This summer, for the third year in a row, Borders provided its customers with the opportunity to give a book to a young child who may not otherwise have one. And again this year, I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our community.  When I spoke with my Borders contacts about halfway through the drive they told me that it seemed like the donations were going to be down this year because of the economy. We have not yet sorted and counted the books to know for sure how many books there are, but by the looks of the boxes stacked in our basement, our community once again showed its caring power and gave even if it hurt. There will be hundreds and hundreds of small children who will receive a book to take home. I wonder if any of them will tell their mommies and daddies that it is time for a nap, read them a book and put them to bed.

Education, Giving Borders, early childhood, reading, Success By 6

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with an amazing group of Spanish-speaking workers at a company in Shelbyville.  I had been told in the past that these workers were not particularly interested in our Metro United Way campaign and would likely give nothing, especially given the minimum wage salaries that many of them earned.  I had a plan though.  I had a hunch that perhaps many of them simply did not understand what Metro United Way was all about- maybe they didn’t understand how their lives are impacted by Metro United Way’s work.

So the night before, I wrote up some talking points in Spanish.  I decided I wasn’t going to shield these people from the truth about the dire situation the campaign is in this year as a result of the struggling economy, and I wasn’t going to assume that they weren’t interested or able to give.  I thought about some of the services that their own families may use or need such as the Mercy Medical Clinic and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites.  Then the next morning I stopped at the Walgreens in town and bought two large packs of ink pens.  I was determined to make sure that every person in the room that morning 1) understood the need, and 2) had the opportunity to do something about it.

When I arrived that morning I was told I had exactly 15 minutes to talk with the workers.  Then I saw the thirty or so faces staring back at me and I thought for a moment that this might be a tough crowd.  I think they were a little surprised, however, when I greeted them with “Buenos dias,” and continued my talk in Spanish.  Gradually, I started to see more people turn their chairs to face me, and I saw heads nodding and heard voices responding to my questions.  This was a tremendous relief to me for two reasons: first, it meant they comprehended my rather rusty Spanish, and secondly, it meant I was saying something that was resonating with them. 

When I was finished talking I gave a pen to every individual in that room and offered to stick around for about 10 minutes afterwards to answer questions and collect pledge forms from those who chose to act now.  To my delight the majority of the individuals in the room that morning returned a pledge form to me before I left.  To my surprise, I flipped though the pledge forms and was astonished and proud to see that the majority of those forms had the “Care Share” box checked!  In less than 30 minutes, we had raised nearly $2000.00 towards the campaign from people in the community who had never given before.

This experience reaffirmed my belief that everyone has something to offer, and most will choose to act if simply given the opportunity to hear and understand our message.

Giving campaign, give, message, opportunity

By Jim Littlefield-Dalmares, Kids Center for Pediatric Therapies

I wanted to write all my Metro United Way buddies and share a little story that hopefully moves you and might help you also as we enter that final push in the campaign.

Yesterday was a long day for me – up at 5:45, off to a business meeting at 6:50…back to back meetings til about 2, then a tour for 20 at 4 o’clock….raced through traffic to get my kids at 5:50 – just before the $1 per minute penalty to get them after 6..and off to Macy’s where over 60 of our clients were going for “Try on day” to get ready for our big Fashion show on Sat. Nov. 21st.

But just being there for 10 short minutes reminded me of what I already knew..and what makes long days worth it. For everyone with Metro United Way, it’s a reminder of what “productive people with disabilities” is all about.

You see, our kids are not usually the stars, captains of the team, class presidents, or the ones in the spotlight. But at our Holiday Fashion show, it is all about them.

And yesterday they were beaming. I learned of one little girl who had never had a dress before. I watched another boy (a kid who had half his brain removed due to extreme seizures) strut his stuff as he tried on a complete suit, vest and all.

And then I saw Emily, a little girl who captured hearts three years ago in her “Mrs. Clause” type red outfit using her walker, then last year used a cane, and was so excited last night because this year she plans to WALK in the Fashion show for the first time. I am not sure her exact age – but I think she’s about 9 or 10.   In her you have a short, mid-term, and long range “outcome” that was set, strived for, measured, and reached.   And of course to see her cross that stage in a few weeks on her own, will be priceless.

So I tell you this for two reasons:

1. You matter – I know in tough times the campaign can be hard.  But without Metro United Way funding, some of the kids I saw yesterday would not be coming to our Center.  This is the “end product” that the therapy donations to Metro United Way produces – kids out living active lives.   So never tire of working hard for them – the smiles I saw yesterday are what makes it all worth it.
2. Come – and bring others – if you ever wanted to re-inspire a donor, a volunteer, an Employee Coordinator, or anyone that might get behind Metro United Way in the coming year – or right now- what better way to show them why their gift matters. The event is just $5 to come – so it’s practically free.

But I can say based on watching it the past six years that I have never met a person who attended who was not so happy that they took the time to come. It’s even great for families, as many parents love to remind their “regular kids” how lucky they are. So please feel free to “utilize” our event as a tangible way to show those who support Metro United Way why their gifts matter more than ever.

In the past we’ve used church halls and venues that quite honestly we just about fill with all the “fans” of each model. This year we have 66 kids signed up! But this year we’re at duPont Manual High School and there auditorium holds 1,400 people – so I think we have enough room to invite as many people as we want.

Jim

Tickets can be purchased ahead of time from us at the Center, or at the door.

Thank you for what you do every day to help us discover the ability in every child!

(502) 635-6397, ext. 26.

www.kidscenterky.org

- Jim

Events, General, Giving fashion show, inspiration, Kids Center for Pediatric Therapies

Thank a Youth Worker Day

November 5, 2009

By: Kerri Cokeley

I’m sure that we can all think back to our childhood and recall youth workers who positively impacted our lives. Teachers, coaches, counselors, and lunch ladies (and lunch men) are just a few examples of the people who work fulltime tending to our youth. Far too often their hard work goes unnoticed.

This Thursday 11/5 is a special day set aside for us all to say “thank you” to the people making a difference in the lives children. Whether it is someone who is working with your children today, or someone who influenced you in childhood, can you take a couple minutes to let them know how important they are?

For more information on this national effort, visit www.thankayouthworkerday.org.

Education making a difference, thanks, youth, Youth Worker

by Jan Sherrell

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.” (Margaret Mead)

Early spring 2009, about six of us with a passion for financial literacy and youth met. We began with a bunch of knowns:

• The majority of youth get their financial education from their parents.
• Many of those parents are living above their means, spending more than they earn in a year, using predatory lending places.
• Schools are being pushed more and more toward testing and teaching core subjects.
• Schools are doing the best they can but financial elements are not a major component of current curriculum.
• A person needs to hear something repeatedly for it to really sink in and be learned.
• Summer programs are very open to suggested curriculum if you can make it easy for them to adopt.
• Junior Achievement is much more than field trips to Biz Town and Finance Park.

Flash forward to fall 2009, over 400 youth in Floyd and Clark County surreptitiously received some extra financial literacy knowledge.

We were able to partner with Floyd and Clark public libraries, offering them prizes to use in their summer reading program (savings bonds from Your Community Bank) and they incorporated money/finance books into the reading choices. 150 youth completed the requirements.

Using our community connections, we made contact at several summer youth programs (Ed Endres Boys & Girls Club, YMCA of Southern Indiana, Salvation Army, NAFC School Corporation) pitching an age appropriate Junior Achievement program. We (namely Diane Murphy) recruited the instructors for these summer programs. JA spoke with each program director matching the best JA product/program with their needs and supplying materials. 252 youth from kindergarten through high school received information on budgeting, future career development, how to save money and more at no cost to these summer programs.

How cool is that – just by a few people coming together and believing we can make a difference. Do you have something you are passionate about? Rally a few people together and see where your passion leads you. You may be surprised.

General