It's time to start collecting school supplies for the children who live in foster care or poverty-stricken communities. We were fortunate to receive an extremely generous donation from an anonymous donor which will allow us to expand our reach in soliciting donations from local corporations and churches in our collection effort. It appears that Assumption Church in Morristown is going to help us again. Also, we may have recruited the Methodist Church to assist in our efforts. Several corporations agreed to do small drives and the Market Street Mission is helping us one more time for our local people in need.
I must admit that I'm still exhausted. The last holiday season really burned me out. I am slowly getting remotivated now that I've received letters and photos from the new KY community. It's hard to give, give, give and receive no appreciation. The anonymous donor also helped re-motivate me. Their letter was so kind in acknowledging the good that we/I do. A little appreciation really goes a long way. Otherwise, you begin to feel taken advantage of...such as last year at our Project Pencil giveaway when one man sent children in from the street to collect dozens of backpacks so that he could sell them in his local community! We now have worked out methods to avoid similar situations but, that type of action really hurts my enthusiasm to help.
Anne Marie, one of my friends, ran a huge garage sale with items from her days as Miss Delaware and a contestant in the Miss America pagent. The idea was to raise money for Focus America. She wound up selling most of her goods at ridiculously low prices to women from the very communities that Focus America helps! She noted that the women paid for most of their goods with crisp 100 dollar bills! Ironic, isn't it?
I'll get it back. The coal-mining community is in such need that I know they will not take advantage of goods that are shipped out to them. And I know that the children need the school supplies. The money saved by the parents who really need the supplies can buy food or clothing for the children. We are just going to downscale our collections a bit in order to focus on providing the children who really need the goods, vs. a massive giveaway.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
May 2005: New Community to Adopt
A new community has contacted me. This community is located in the coal mining region of Kentucky. The organization that is acting as the liaison is Manna from Heaven. I asked them to send photos and they did. Ironically, for well over three years, I've been asking Pembroke to send photos and have received nothing. Well, the KY community is in bad shape. People live in houses that are literally falling down around them. Cinder blocks are the front steps, doors are barely on hinges, roofs are rusted or full of holes, walls are rotted, you name it.
In one house, there are two adults and four children living in a two bedroom shack. Since this is the coal mining region, there are really no jobs for people. Simply coal mining and that's it. I looked up the community on a satellite website and it is so remote...on top of a ridge with one road leading up to it. Very isolated and, unlike Pembroke, completely neglected and unknown to the general public.
I did send one box of clothing out to them so far. I want to encourage as many people as possible to package up clothing and mail it to this organization. But, if they do, they should label the box with the contents (i.e. clothing for a 3 year old girl, coats for children, etc.). I'll make certain to add them to our school supply and holiday drives. They really need it. These children have nowhere to go and no way to escape. There are always pockets of poverty in every community but this community simply IS poverty. So, we will continue helping out our local families but I'm adding this little community into our circle. I cannot help them all but...even a little bit goes a long way.
In one house, there are two adults and four children living in a two bedroom shack. Since this is the coal mining region, there are really no jobs for people. Simply coal mining and that's it. I looked up the community on a satellite website and it is so remote...on top of a ridge with one road leading up to it. Very isolated and, unlike Pembroke, completely neglected and unknown to the general public.
I did send one box of clothing out to them so far. I want to encourage as many people as possible to package up clothing and mail it to this organization. But, if they do, they should label the box with the contents (i.e. clothing for a 3 year old girl, coats for children, etc.). I'll make certain to add them to our school supply and holiday drives. They really need it. These children have nowhere to go and no way to escape. There are always pockets of poverty in every community but this community simply IS poverty. So, we will continue helping out our local families but I'm adding this little community into our circle. I cannot help them all but...even a little bit goes a long way.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
March 2005: Low-Income Child Care
Last week, I distributed the snack food that my loyal volunteer, Tiffany R, collected to several low-income daycares in Morristown, NJ. It was an unusually bittersweet experience, having just shut down the childcare center in December that we had started to raise money for expanding our programs.
Well, recently I've been a bit down about Focus America. Financial donations are hard to get from people. In many ways, charities are expected to do so many good-will activities but no one wants to pay for them. We run this charity, Focus America, as a volunteer-group, and, since our inception, I have encountered debt upon debt because I believe in this cause. I'm tired of receiving bills that cannot be paid and tired of listening to my husband complain about how I'm trying to save the world. Christmas 2004 burned me out with lots of work and stress, not to mention the overwhelming disappointment from a volunteer from the Illinois area who collected over $800 to purchase beds for a poor family in Michigan...beds that never arrived and the money is MIA although I suspect I know who's pocket it went to. I had disappointments in some people I had considered friends, too...friends who begrudgingly offered to help families but only after they complained that "these people should be given birth control and not hand outs."
There are some dear friends and family who are close to me encourage me the best way that they can. My greatest champion, my mother, always reminds me to focus on the lives that I have touched and not the negative experiences I have encountered. I try but, there are days that it is hard. This is a line of (volunteer) work that doesn't come with a lot of accolades or appreciation.
However, on the day that I delivered the snack foods, something happened that was so wonderful...it turned me back on track.
The director from the one center, Children on the Green, welcomed me with a big smile and praise for all that we do. Then she said, "Come, see Austin! See how big our little boy has gotten." It took me a minute to truly understand what she was saying.
I looked around the childcare center, searching the faces of the children. Who was Austin and why, on this miserable, raining day, did I care? But then I saw him and I remembered. There stood little Austin, his big blue eyes sparkling and his blond hair in gentle waves around his ears. Oh yes, I remembered. I remembered everything that I had blocked out from the horrible experience of running that childcare center...the stress, the tears, the debt, the disappointments. But then I remembered that in blocking out the bad, I had blocked out the good. I had blocked out Austin.
Dear little Austin was born with a terrible physical handicap (and the name of it escapes me right now). He was small at birth and didn't grow properly. He had to have a feeding tube inserted into his belly and he carried a backpack at all times so that he was basically getting 24x7 nutrition this tube. At the time we met Austin, no other child care center would take him. We took him. Or, rather, I took him. My staff didn't want to really have him in their group...understandably so because we were starting out and his "illness" was scary. What if the tube popped out? What if another child pulled the tube out? What if we were sued? But, we did take him because he was a little boy that needed to have friends and socialization.
He was a darling boy and I fell in love with him immediately. But, his time with us was short. His condition was taxing on my staff and, after his tube DID fall out and we rushed him to the hospital, I was even a bundle of nerves. But we worked with his mother, a courageous and lovely young woman, and I pulled a few chits to help expedite his inclusion with a larger daycare that could help him and his mother in more ways than we could...especially since we were so small and new.
Yes, I had blocked out darling Austin. But it came flooding back. And wouldn't you know it? That child remembered me! His face lit up and he danced up and down, clapping his hands. I rushed over to his side and talked to him, my eyes searching his. He wasn't wearing his backpack anymore (although he does still need it). And he was beautiful...a regular little guy with friends at this new center.
Yes, after 7 months, this child remembered me. And surely I remembered him. He was the good...the one true thing that happened with that experience that, as my mother would say, proves that we can make a difference in someone's life. In front of me was the little, living proof.
Oh yes, I remembed Austin and I couldn't talk anymore. The tears came and I rushed out of the center, so choked up that I could not say goodbye to the director. I was crying for so many things...the things that were, the things that should have been, and the things that I truly want so much for the future. Bittersweet thoughts and tears for certain.
Well, recently I've been a bit down about Focus America. Financial donations are hard to get from people. In many ways, charities are expected to do so many good-will activities but no one wants to pay for them. We run this charity, Focus America, as a volunteer-group, and, since our inception, I have encountered debt upon debt because I believe in this cause. I'm tired of receiving bills that cannot be paid and tired of listening to my husband complain about how I'm trying to save the world. Christmas 2004 burned me out with lots of work and stress, not to mention the overwhelming disappointment from a volunteer from the Illinois area who collected over $800 to purchase beds for a poor family in Michigan...beds that never arrived and the money is MIA although I suspect I know who's pocket it went to. I had disappointments in some people I had considered friends, too...friends who begrudgingly offered to help families but only after they complained that "these people should be given birth control and not hand outs."
There are some dear friends and family who are close to me encourage me the best way that they can. My greatest champion, my mother, always reminds me to focus on the lives that I have touched and not the negative experiences I have encountered. I try but, there are days that it is hard. This is a line of (volunteer) work that doesn't come with a lot of accolades or appreciation.
However, on the day that I delivered the snack foods, something happened that was so wonderful...it turned me back on track.
The director from the one center, Children on the Green, welcomed me with a big smile and praise for all that we do. Then she said, "Come, see Austin! See how big our little boy has gotten." It took me a minute to truly understand what she was saying.
I looked around the childcare center, searching the faces of the children. Who was Austin and why, on this miserable, raining day, did I care? But then I saw him and I remembered. There stood little Austin, his big blue eyes sparkling and his blond hair in gentle waves around his ears. Oh yes, I remembered. I remembered everything that I had blocked out from the horrible experience of running that childcare center...the stress, the tears, the debt, the disappointments. But then I remembered that in blocking out the bad, I had blocked out the good. I had blocked out Austin.
Dear little Austin was born with a terrible physical handicap (and the name of it escapes me right now). He was small at birth and didn't grow properly. He had to have a feeding tube inserted into his belly and he carried a backpack at all times so that he was basically getting 24x7 nutrition this tube. At the time we met Austin, no other child care center would take him. We took him. Or, rather, I took him. My staff didn't want to really have him in their group...understandably so because we were starting out and his "illness" was scary. What if the tube popped out? What if another child pulled the tube out? What if we were sued? But, we did take him because he was a little boy that needed to have friends and socialization.
He was a darling boy and I fell in love with him immediately. But, his time with us was short. His condition was taxing on my staff and, after his tube DID fall out and we rushed him to the hospital, I was even a bundle of nerves. But we worked with his mother, a courageous and lovely young woman, and I pulled a few chits to help expedite his inclusion with a larger daycare that could help him and his mother in more ways than we could...especially since we were so small and new.
Yes, I had blocked out darling Austin. But it came flooding back. And wouldn't you know it? That child remembered me! His face lit up and he danced up and down, clapping his hands. I rushed over to his side and talked to him, my eyes searching his. He wasn't wearing his backpack anymore (although he does still need it). And he was beautiful...a regular little guy with friends at this new center.
Yes, after 7 months, this child remembered me. And surely I remembered him. He was the good...the one true thing that happened with that experience that, as my mother would say, proves that we can make a difference in someone's life. In front of me was the little, living proof.
Oh yes, I remembed Austin and I couldn't talk anymore. The tears came and I rushed out of the center, so choked up that I could not say goodbye to the director. I was crying for so many things...the things that were, the things that should have been, and the things that I truly want so much for the future. Bittersweet thoughts and tears for certain.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Snack Collections for Low Income Children
Well, my dear volunteer, Tiffany, did it again! For the third year in a row, she has spear-headed a volunteer drive at her organization, Pru, for the February snack drive and collected tons of snack food to be distributed to low-income child care centers in the area. In the past, we have distributed these foods to Children on the Green to help defray the expense of purchasing snack food for their children, some of whom are from the homeless and battered woman's shelter. This year, we are going to invite Collinsville Child Care Center to receive some goods, too. I've heard quite a bit about this new center and how they have been struggling a bit but doing a wonderful job.
It's amazing to me that this is the THIRD year we have been helping these centers. Sometimes I forget about these wonderful things that we do and the impact they have on our community. It really realigns my own expectations. Perhaps we'll never be a Habitat for Humanity but we are helping people...one day at a time.
Thanks, Tiffany, for another wonderfully successful drive.
It's amazing to me that this is the THIRD year we have been helping these centers. Sometimes I forget about these wonderful things that we do and the impact they have on our community. It really realigns my own expectations. Perhaps we'll never be a Habitat for Humanity but we are helping people...one day at a time.
Thanks, Tiffany, for another wonderfully successful drive.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Answering to donors
I was very excited yesterday when I visited our PO box and found the very first gift card for a shopping center. We just started this program and, like all things charity, they are slow to take off but, as the momentum builds, this program will be as successful as our other ones. Now, our dear client in Ohio who is terribly ill can receive her fresh fruits that she needs but, since she is ill, cannot afford to buy.
The joy of this single gift helps when I have to answer to people who question our existance, afraid to send a gift card b/c we sound "shady". It breaks my heart that so many people must have been hurt or burned in the past by unscrupulous people.
We try so hard to reach out and touch people, to organize this charity to help eliminate any suspicions. We are volunteer-run...no one gets a salary. We have been recognized by the White House...isn't that a good endorsement? We have helped over 3000 children at Christmas in the past three years and over 2000 children during back to school. Plus, we've distributed hundreds of coats to the poor during winter, collected and distributed snack food to low-income child care centers, collected cells phones for domestic violence victims, and so many other wonderful programs.
I just don't know what else we can do to convince people that our grassroots effort is a worthy investment. Well, actually...that's not true. I do know what we can do--marketing. But that costs money...money that I cannot personally afford to spend anymore and, frankly, we shouldn't have to spend as it takes away from the very programs and people we want to help. Every dime spent on marketing is taking food away from the children we are helping.
Do we need financial donations? Absolutely. However, I would prefer more gift cards to be sent out to these needy families and communities. Gift cards take up less storage space which, right now, is our two car garage that we haven't been able to park in for over two years. They also only cost 37 cents to mail...vs. $50 for a large box of canned goods.
To the Katie McGraw's of the world, thank you. You have made a difference in someone's life...and not just our clients...mine.
The joy of this single gift helps when I have to answer to people who question our existance, afraid to send a gift card b/c we sound "shady". It breaks my heart that so many people must have been hurt or burned in the past by unscrupulous people.
We try so hard to reach out and touch people, to organize this charity to help eliminate any suspicions. We are volunteer-run...no one gets a salary. We have been recognized by the White House...isn't that a good endorsement? We have helped over 3000 children at Christmas in the past three years and over 2000 children during back to school. Plus, we've distributed hundreds of coats to the poor during winter, collected and distributed snack food to low-income child care centers, collected cells phones for domestic violence victims, and so many other wonderful programs.
I just don't know what else we can do to convince people that our grassroots effort is a worthy investment. Well, actually...that's not true. I do know what we can do--marketing. But that costs money...money that I cannot personally afford to spend anymore and, frankly, we shouldn't have to spend as it takes away from the very programs and people we want to help. Every dime spent on marketing is taking food away from the children we are helping.
Do we need financial donations? Absolutely. However, I would prefer more gift cards to be sent out to these needy families and communities. Gift cards take up less storage space which, right now, is our two car garage that we haven't been able to park in for over two years. They also only cost 37 cents to mail...vs. $50 for a large box of canned goods.
To the Katie McGraw's of the world, thank you. You have made a difference in someone's life...and not just our clients...mine.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
The Ring of High Hopes
It's always exciting when someone calls, inquiring about how they can help or offering assistance with raising funds or goods. The people who contact us are usually full of heart and spirit. One woman in Florida has been especially supportive, emailing words of encouragement, offering support, and helping out some of our families in need. Today in Walmart, I ran in to a neighbor who had purchased a gift certificate at Cascata Spa in Morristown to help raise money for Focus America. The other day, I received a phone call from someone in Wisconsin (at least, I think that's what he said...my two children were racing around, screaming and playing...he called during the evening "witching" hour). This gentleman wanted to verify we were still operational and to learn more about what we are doing. He followed up with a nice email and a referral to another organization that sounds like a charity we could team up with!
Occasionally we get phone calls from people who offer services or hopes of great things to come but...nothing materializes. I hold my breath, hoping that something might happen when these promises are made. However, over the past two+ years, I have learned that hope can lead to disappointment. Not everyone believes in the cause...not everyone wants to help. Complete strangers have provided more support to this cause than most of my own friends and family.
But there is a positive note behind the hurt of disappointment. Out of the ashes rises a phoenix that is much stronger...the determination to succeed on one's own without hand outs, without assistance, without begging for family and friends to help out. And when the recognition is given...it is much sweeter to know that, indeed, the acknowledgement of a job well done is true and honest. By helping the children and by supporting the people, we have impacted someone's life. If friends and family do not care to share that glory for whatever reason, there are many strangers who become friends and family who cheer and cry with job alongside me. We cannot make people believe in our cause. We can only make them believe in the results. That's enough for me...
Occasionally we get phone calls from people who offer services or hopes of great things to come but...nothing materializes. I hold my breath, hoping that something might happen when these promises are made. However, over the past two+ years, I have learned that hope can lead to disappointment. Not everyone believes in the cause...not everyone wants to help. Complete strangers have provided more support to this cause than most of my own friends and family.
But there is a positive note behind the hurt of disappointment. Out of the ashes rises a phoenix that is much stronger...the determination to succeed on one's own without hand outs, without assistance, without begging for family and friends to help out. And when the recognition is given...it is much sweeter to know that, indeed, the acknowledgement of a job well done is true and honest. By helping the children and by supporting the people, we have impacted someone's life. If friends and family do not care to share that glory for whatever reason, there are many strangers who become friends and family who cheer and cry with job alongside me. We cannot make people believe in our cause. We can only make them believe in the results. That's enough for me...
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Starving Families in Need
When I receive the emails and phone calls from social service agencies, requesting assistance for a family that is struggling to make ends meet, my heart breaks. Right now, we have about 20 families on our list and we are barely able to supply these people with food on a semi-regular basis. Without funding and without a dedicated force of volunteers, it's so hard to motivate those volunteers who do contact us.
If I could help them all, I would. The woman who was living in a motel room, paid for by her social service agency, with three small children. The man who is working for minimum wage but can hardly put food on the table for his four children and wife. The woman with stage four cancer who can barely afford medical treatment, nevermind food for her two children. Their stories break my heart over and over again. Each time a volunteer contacts me, my hopes swell, hoping so much that this time, they will help just one of these families. Some do, like the woman from California who mailed two huge boxes of food to a family in Michigan. Others don't and, while I understand that there are reasons why, it doesn't make it any easier to know that we cannot help every family that is on our wait list.
Of course, with the help of local organizations and churches (like Assumption Church who has consistently support our efforts!), we can make a difference...even if it is only one family at a time.
If I could help them all, I would. The woman who was living in a motel room, paid for by her social service agency, with three small children. The man who is working for minimum wage but can hardly put food on the table for his four children and wife. The woman with stage four cancer who can barely afford medical treatment, nevermind food for her two children. Their stories break my heart over and over again. Each time a volunteer contacts me, my hopes swell, hoping so much that this time, they will help just one of these families. Some do, like the woman from California who mailed two huge boxes of food to a family in Michigan. Others don't and, while I understand that there are reasons why, it doesn't make it any easier to know that we cannot help every family that is on our wait list.
Of course, with the help of local organizations and churches (like Assumption Church who has consistently support our efforts!), we can make a difference...even if it is only one family at a time.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Welcome to the Blog
Over two years ago, I founded Focus America after reading an article in the New York Times about a poor community in Pembroke, Illnois. I suppose what bothered me the most about the article was the timing. Our nation had just observed the first anniversary of 9/11, a defining moment for all of those who watched the horror of the Twin Towers collapse, the burning of the Pentagon, and the smoldering wreckage of Flight 93 in Pennsylvanian. Our nation was entrenched in the war against terror. While we were liberating Afghanistan, the country watching the Middle East, I realized that the distraction of current events was creating a negative butterfly effect: forgotten were the children in this country starving to death, forced to become adults before they have tasted the joy of childhood.
Starting a 501(c)(3) non-profit (and volunteer run) charity was not easy. I fell into it by accident and, strictly by stubborness, I saw it through. As a professional adjunct professor at several colleges near my hometown of Morristown, NJ, I knew this could be a wonderful way to provide my students with an amazing, hand-on and real world experience. My circle of "favorite" students quickly agreed and the then-chair of the Business Department gave me the thumbs up to incorporate service learning into my marketing and management classes.
As I continue my blog, I will share some of the experiences I have encountered with creating, organizing, implementing, running and funding a volunteer-run charity. There have been high-points such as the days when volunteers distributed 600 coats to the needy at the St. John's Soup Kitchen in Newark, NJ or when we distributed thousands of gifts to the new generation Americans at the Market Street Mission during the past holiday season. I hold dear the moment when a larger and older woman, a bit sweaty from trying to weed through tables and tables of gifts and new clothing to find the perfect gifts for her four children, came up to me. She grabbed me by both shoulders and gave me a kiss on both cheeks then clutched me to her chest. In broken English, she said "Thank you, thank you. God bless you." Nor will I forget the moment when I stopped my white mini-van on the streets of town in front of the day laborers. I pulled over and they stared at me, wondering why the young white woman was getting out of her van and flipping open her trunk. My son leaned over the back of the seat and helped hand me grocery bags filled with food as I shouted, "Comida! Libre comida para tu!" in my broken Spanish. The men converged on me, grabbing at the bags, laughing at their good luck of finally being in the right place at the right time. As I drove away, one of the men shouted out, "You are an angel! God bless you!"
These are the moments I hold dear. These are the moments I remember when times are tough, when volunteers let me down, when those people closest to me disappoint me, and when opportunities slam the door shut in my face. By sharing these moments and these stories, I believe the world can understand the motivation behind true charity...the type of charity that, indeed, can move mountains, even when obstacles seem to block the path to success.
Enjoy.
Starting a 501(c)(3) non-profit (and volunteer run) charity was not easy. I fell into it by accident and, strictly by stubborness, I saw it through. As a professional adjunct professor at several colleges near my hometown of Morristown, NJ, I knew this could be a wonderful way to provide my students with an amazing, hand-on and real world experience. My circle of "favorite" students quickly agreed and the then-chair of the Business Department gave me the thumbs up to incorporate service learning into my marketing and management classes.
As I continue my blog, I will share some of the experiences I have encountered with creating, organizing, implementing, running and funding a volunteer-run charity. There have been high-points such as the days when volunteers distributed 600 coats to the needy at the St. John's Soup Kitchen in Newark, NJ or when we distributed thousands of gifts to the new generation Americans at the Market Street Mission during the past holiday season. I hold dear the moment when a larger and older woman, a bit sweaty from trying to weed through tables and tables of gifts and new clothing to find the perfect gifts for her four children, came up to me. She grabbed me by both shoulders and gave me a kiss on both cheeks then clutched me to her chest. In broken English, she said "Thank you, thank you. God bless you." Nor will I forget the moment when I stopped my white mini-van on the streets of town in front of the day laborers. I pulled over and they stared at me, wondering why the young white woman was getting out of her van and flipping open her trunk. My son leaned over the back of the seat and helped hand me grocery bags filled with food as I shouted, "Comida! Libre comida para tu!" in my broken Spanish. The men converged on me, grabbing at the bags, laughing at their good luck of finally being in the right place at the right time. As I drove away, one of the men shouted out, "You are an angel! God bless you!"
These are the moments I hold dear. These are the moments I remember when times are tough, when volunteers let me down, when those people closest to me disappoint me, and when opportunities slam the door shut in my face. By sharing these moments and these stories, I believe the world can understand the motivation behind true charity...the type of charity that, indeed, can move mountains, even when obstacles seem to block the path to success.
Enjoy.
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