WOO HOO

VCW VISTA team, 2010-2011, keeping that blog alive! Can you feel it in the air tonight? VCW VISTAs GETTING. THINGS. DONE. Let's keep it alive.

~ L. MACHINE

Back to work

Hi All,

It was fun meeting everyone (again) at IST. Things are going well at Whatcom Volunteer Center. I am working on coordinating volunteers for Make a Difference Day on Oct. 23. I have a bunch of furniture set aside for the day but not too many volunteers to deliver it! I am going to spend the day sending out emails and trying to get more people interested in the program.

Other than that I am working on recruiting volunteers to deliver furniture to formerly homeless veterans. Whatcom County recently received federal funds to house homeless veterans. Because of this we have several people moving into housing without furniture. I am focusing on this project for now.

I am also starting to plan my kitchen items drive. I plan for this to occur at the end of November. I think this will be a good opportunity for House 2 Home to get some publicity. I am going to contact local churches and organizations. I plan to leave boxes at these locations for people to drop off kitchen items including cups, plates, bowls, etc.

It is sometimes difficult being a one-woman operation but things seem to be going well right now.

Falling into fall... make that tripping and stumbling.

Hi All!

Man oh man- hard to believe that September is almost over! My days are chalk full of Career Fairs, school meetings, and being pulled in every direction for volunteer projects. Must be that time of year again.

Although the days fly by faster than I can fly from one fair to the next, great things are coming from it. Aside from my Youth United Alumni Project, staying on top of a couple grants, and mainting our volunteer and leadership engagements, Youth United has been asked to start a club in one of the local schools. It is a great opportunity to really make an impact directly within a school, on a consistent basis. This particular school holds the population of at-risk youth that we aim our program toward. While this will be loads of extra work, I am excited to take a step in this direction. We shall see...

Other than that- still learning how to balanace the lack of funds. :/ I suppose it's a constant learning process.

Looking forward to seeing some/all of you at the training in a couple of weeks!

Peace & Joy,

Vanessa

Everyone is at Disney

Cinderella's Castle must be bustling and buzzing with amazing people who were able to obtain Disneyworld tickets for volunteering. Goofy, Minnie, Pluto and Mickey must be excited to be surroundede by people who are willing to give their free time to help their community. And thanks to Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" campaign, we saw an unprecedented number of volunteers come out and help in the beginning of this year. These volunteers helped with projects that supported education, environmental restoration, hunger alleviation, etc. Their effect was far reaching in many aspects of Seattle and all over the country, and it is refreshing for volunteers to have gotten rewarded with a fun, light-hearted visit to Disneyworld.

While Nemo, Aladdin and Pocahontas shake hands (or fins) with our volunteers, we still have projects here in Seattle that could use love an attention. Though we can't offer any more Disney tickets (Disney gave them all out), we can offer all of the following opportunities and perks of volunteerism:
- Meet new people in your community!
- Network around Seattle
- Learn about the organizations that do amazing things everyday
- Feel good about making a difference; create "A Whole New World" here at home
- Use your skills or build new skills (good for the resume)
- Show your neighbors you care
- And many more...only to be discovered by doing!

Want to know more about how to experience all of the above things: Join us at one of our Hot Projects coming up, we have several that could still use some extra hands! You can also choose to join a Team Works Team coming up in September! Go to www.seattleworks.org for more information on both these programs. See you all out there!

"I want it that way ..."

It's about that time in my service where I feel the need to focus on fun. We threw a fun event last week that included forming new partnerships, recruiting new volunteers, cultivating our current participant base and raising some money for a new program.

Team Up is a nonprofit that produces high-quality music events (like our Gigs4Good event) to raise funds and awareness for other inspiring nonprofit organizations while providing an exciting and accessible avenue for people of all ages and stages of life to participate in meaningful giving.

Team Up for Nonprofits is awesome! Check them out: http://teamupfornonprofits.org/

Last Thursday night the Gigs4Good concert featured Alex Mercier with Thick as Thieves, along with opening act Bekker. Both are Seattle natives themselves and put on an awesome show. My personal favorite was when Bekker decided to bust out some old school Back Street Boys. Even better news: we were able to draw a substantial crowd of over 250 people!

The money raised from the concert is going toward our new HandsOn Leadership program. It's a training course and a volunteer project designed BY volunteers, all rolled into one. HandsOn Leadership gives our volunteers a chance to create new, meaningful volunteer projects that support the needs of local nonprofits. Plus, it was designed, created and implemented by our very own AmeriCorps*VISTA Stephanie. In my opinion, that makes her Larger Than Life ...

Slow August

It was been a slow August.. for volunteers, donations and customers. It has also been a month of change. I am now five months into my AmeriCorps term. Things are up and down. I think I hit that VISTA slump but things are turning around. I have some big plans for the fall. I am planning to do a utensil/cookware drive for my program. Working with the furniture bank, one thing that is often requested but not frequently donated are utensils and cookware. So I am going to go out in the community and talk with organizations about my program and how they can get involved. I am going to put boxes at these locations so people can drop off their donations. Once per week I will pick up the donations, bring them back to the office and sort through them. Then I can organize the donations into paper bags and get them sent out to the community. This way people can get involved who don't have trucks. People who drive cars or even ride bikes will be able to deliver these household items to House 2 Home customers. I am excited for this event. We are going to run it in correlation with our one year House 2 Home birthday. I think this will raise visibility of the program and hopefully recruit more volunteers.

So slow August will turn into a pretty hectic fall! Hope I can keep up!

Lisa

WVC, House 2 Home Network

Bellingham, WA

The school year is just around the corner. The 2010-2011 NOYC program year is about to begin. After a few summer months of investigating and planning, the board is chalked full of ideas. But without any funding, many of these ideas will not come to life. Either way, the program year is about to explode with activity. I will be at summer camp next week, practicing working with "underserved youth", and then the year will kick off with a leadership training and retreat at the lovely Camp Beausite in Chimacum, WA. Best of luck to everyone!

Deuces,

Lee