05/18/07: The Road Trip (Part I)

Well, we are officially underway. Leanne hosted a kick-off gathering for collecting goods, packing the car, and sharing our story. So many friends have contributed to this mission. If I wasn't so tired, I'd write some more. But, I'm exhausted and we're pulling out at 5am so, the stories will have to wait.

I love this picture of the men trying to pack the car. :)

A special thanks to all who have given us support for this trip.

05/17: Thelma and Louise

I noticed my sister's comment to the Road Trip posting. I deserve the noodle lashing for having forgotten to post that, indeed, I am not traveling alone. After I posted that message on 5/10, my sister agreed to go. For a while, we thought my friend Leanne would accompany us but she is going to be our home base support team(i.e. keep the kids and men in line) while we trek out to Myra, KY.

It's interesting to, once again, see who rises to the occasion of supporting our goodwill mission. Stacey's neighbors and friends from Assumption School have been fantastic. Anne Marie has been wonderful, arranging an announcement via email to her friend and through Assumption Church (once again, thanks to Fr. Martin!) for food donations so that we do not arrive empty-handed. Leanne has been the final piece of the triangle of strength, emailing her list of buddies and arranging to be the Friday evening drop-off point (complete with refreshments!).

I've also been very surprised the monetary donations which are greatly appreciated. Several folks from the kids' schools, a friend from Springbrook, my aunt in Florida, and my father's company, Panurgy, contributed toward gas money and expenses.

It's exciting to begin this adventure and to have the support and encouragement of my sister. So, in 36 hours begins a different type of Thelma and Louise style...only this one will be Stacey and Shelly style.

05/09/07: Road Trip

Well, it's official. After speaking with Lois today and hearing how she is such a nervous wreck about the upcoming trip from the Colorado team, I knew the time had truly come:

...Road Trip.

The husband agreed I can go and, as I already posted, work gave me leave. Now, I have no choice but to pack up the truck and head out to KY. I hate leaving the kids for that long and I dread the thought of 10+ hours in a car each way but...Lois needs me and those Colorado kids are traveling to Myra to build chicken coops, create gardens, and repair houses because of my vision. If they believe in me, I can sacrifice five days without my babies and 20 hours in the car to be there for them. And for Lois...

Kentucky, here I come!

05/09/07: Boxes and Call

Received a call from Lois in KY that she received the computer and it is working. They should have Internet by the end of today. She was also a little jumpy, nervous about the upcoming visit from the Colorado team. I think she may have been crying. Anyway, I am biting the bullet and driving out there to help her through the visit. My dean gave me a leave from a conference and from work. Now, if only my husband will not get upset...

Six boxes of clothing, school supplies, and seeds mailed today. Ordered gardening tools, too.

04/30/07: Birthday Seeds

Catherine celebrated her birthday at the Stables with a pony party. Instead of gifts, she asked for vegetable seeds to send to KY.

An interesting response from the parents (including my own) who felt "sorry" for Catherine for not getting gifts. The bigger picture is that she gets a gift that you cannot see or touch or unwrap but it's a better gift: the gift of caring for humantity.

The following weekend, she attended another birthday and several moms asked if Catherine noticed that this child received so many gifts while Catherine only received a basketload of seeds (although a few people did bring her a wrapped My Lil Pony or figurine so she wasn't completely "giftless").

It's so interesting to see the perpetuation of focus on monetary gains while the more important gains...caring for each other...are ignored. No, Catherine didn't notice the difference and, if she had, I would have told her the truth. The gifts that Catherine received will help an entire town eat for a winter! How can you not think that is the most wonderful gift of all?

04/23/07: CollegeDonation

A great day for Focus America as I returned to the very place and to the very people for whom I founded the charity. Yes, I was invited back to the College of St. E's where the students presented Focus America with a donation. We are going to use this donation to help with the summer chicks that we are sending out. A donor in Maryland presented us with a donation, too, so now we can order 250 chicks (with shots) and good chick feed to get the peeps started.

It was interesting to return to St. E's. When I used to teach there, I loved those students so much and really wanted to help them change their lives by impacting others around them. Many of those students are first generation Americans and, even more so, the first females' in their family to go to college. Some of them come from similar backgrounds as the people we help. So, to have these students work so hard to help us is a blessing...under the guidance of their enthusiastic professor, Anne Marie Jarka.

It really gets me excited again about all of this work when I see the glow in students' eyes. I wish that I could still work with some of these college students the college administration wasn't as supportive of my efforts as I would have liked. I suppose they couldn't believe that someone would truly do this for the solitary selfish reason of simply helping others. Or perhaps their own community service director was upset because we offered the students a chance to really do something tangible and important that was all their own vs. simply volunteering to file papers or answer phones at some non-profit.

I suppose that sounds bitter. It is. I made a difference in those students' lives that resulted in great change for people in need. The ironic thing is that we have come full circle and returned there by invitation and, once again, impacted these students who now know that they can do anything that they put their minds to and make a difference in this world. The butterfly effect in action...

04/15/07: Computer!

An almost-brand new computer was donated to us by a local family. It had all the current software, printer, and even a scanner. Panurgy, a local technology company, was kind enough to donate the packaging and shipping of the items to Myra, KY! It's a wonderful feeling when the pieces of the puzzle fit together!

12/18/06: Mailings and Reality

Just a quick posting that we have mailed almost 1000 lbs. of clothing, coats, and toys to Kentucky and South Dakota. We had wonderful donations from the Morris School District as well as a church in Flanders who donated over 150 coats in exceptional shape! Normally we receive dirty, torn, or worn items that have to be filtered out from the good quality. This church really did a fantastic job of collecting and sorting items.

A sad commentary that I was hit with reality again when a person close to me called me on the phone and was reading an email from a "friend" about a poor family who attended a church service. At the end of the phone conversation, this person was crying about this poor family and what could we do to help them?

At first, I was really angry because these types of families are who we deal with on a daily basis and the very reason why I created Focus America. Then, I felt sorry for the person who called me because this individual doesn't "get" what I do or why I do it. At no time during this holiday season did this person...or any of my other close friends/family (save two special people)...offer to donate, collect, or even assist in the efforts. All of my help came from strangers and children. Isn't that a sad reality?

A long time ago, the founder of Christmas is for Children, a life-long friend, gave me wonderful advice. She told me that not everyone would buy into my desire to help the poor. It's a behind the scenes charity, not one that makes Oprah or the front-page of the New York Times. We roll up our sleeves and do the hard work with little to no glory. No one says to me, "What a great job you do, Shelly!" or sends me thank you notes, for the most part. But I still continue to spend my weekends boxing up 200+ coats, weighing them, labeling them, paying for shipping. No, I don't walk up to the Father at the front of the church in front of the congregation with my shoebox of goodies for the Angel Tree receipient for all of the congregation to comment on what a good Catholic (or Christian) I am. There is no public honor for what we do...except for the knowledge that we are not holiday Christians. We carry forth the good-will and do-good attitude all year long and truly make a difference in people's lives for the right reasons.

A sad ranting but one that is needed from time-to-time...

12/05/06: Manna from Heaven Shipment

Almost 250 lbs. of clothing, hats/gloves, toys, books, sweaters, and other gifts for the holidays are shipping out tomorrow. Wonderful gifts from Woodland and Thomas Jefferson School in Morristown as well as continued support from friends, family, and corporations such as Sankyo Pharma and BASF. A church in Flanders is dropping off 150 coats on Saturday and more items are still coming in from various individuals.

Big problem now: With 25 boxes shipping today and another 25 or more pending, the cost of shipping these items is going to hurt us financially. Some donors are coming to the rescue but we are depleting our budget for shipping for 2007 so...we may have to reach out for more fund raising options...

11/26/06: Manna from Heaven Shipment

97.5 lbs. of clothing, food, and toys...preparing for Christmas. Gifts starting to come in from all over the place.

10/04/06: 130 lbs. of Clothing and Supplies

Seven boxes containing over 130 lbs. of clothing, shoes, school supplies, and candy for Halloween were shipped to Virgie, KY today. Thank you to the Riley family for providing clothing for the two young girls that were recently relocated from their family to live with their grandparents. The girls arrived with the clothing on their backs...literally, that was it. The family thanks you for your kindness.

09/13: More Chicks for KY

Thanks to the Madison Baptist Church for providing us the funds for purchasing another 250 chicks to send to Virgie, KY. The pastor's wife told me that the first batch started laying their "witch eggs" which are the first eggs and tend to be small. That means that this chickens are now feeding the community. :)

09/07/06: School Supplies for the Needy

Project Pencils 2006 is still in progress. One of our corporate sponsor who has asked to remain anonymous dropped of supplies for Coordinated Family Care in NJ. Assumption Church is in the midst of their donation drive for the children involved with the Department of Youth and Family Services of Northern NJ who still needs 60 backpacks filled with supplies. Dollar Dave's store in Boonton, NJ, offered to donate backpacks and supplies, too, which will complete the DYFS order and help with our KY children who needs everything from pens, pencils, notebooks, and backpacks.

Yes, it was a little more scaled down than last year but, for each child that we have (and continue to) help, it is just as important! Thank you to all of our donors.

08/15/06: Chickens for KY

The children of the Madison Baptist Church have raised enough money through their Vacation Bible School so that we could order another 200+ chicks to be shipped to Virgie, KY. Focus America is matching this order with another 200+ chicks but they will not be shipped until next spring when the weather is warmer and they have a better chance of survival.

Pastor Ralph's wife, Lois, told me that they had the arrival of the first egg from their first batch of chicks! That's right, the March baby chicks are now laying eggs!

Thank you to the Madison Baptist Church and the children who made this possible.

03/31/06: Give a Fish vs. Teach to Fish

I had a wonderful phone conversation with Manna from Heaven today. It was a true epiphany. I was checking in regarding the Girl Scout Gold Award Doll Project from Hannah in CT. During the conversation, Lois from Manna from Heaven mentioned the Heifer Project. They want to receive livestock to raise their own food since it's so hard to buy. Over the holidays, we had some amazingly generous donors. I had mentioned to my husband that a $250 donation from one of our friends would feed a family for a year and he scoffed at me. "How is that possible?!" I was figuring that the donation would cover shipping for donated food for the entire year. Well, today I purchased over 200 chickens that are being delivered to Myra, KY next week. The families will raise half for food and half for eggs.

In addition, we are going to do a Seed Campaign in the hopes that people will ship out vegetable seeds to Manna from Heaven so that people can grow and can their own food. Lois was thrilled with this idea and we are going to start this new campaign immediately.

Anyone who wants to help should send any type of vegetable seeds to:

Focus America Project
c/o Manna from Heaven
PO Box 43
Myra, KY 41549

I love exciting days and, today, we truly fed a village! Or at least took the first steps to providing them the tools to feed themselves.

P.S. If you want to donate more chickens, please email me at szimmerman@focusamerica.org. $50 buys 100 fryer chickens and $150 sends 100 egg layers (plus shipping and vaccination which Focus America will cover).

03/27/06: Letter from Girl Scout Donor

Hi,

My name is Hannah and I am earning my Girl Scout Gold Award. The Gold Award is the highest award in Girl Scouts. I made 115 dolls for my gold award project. These dolls are named D.O.L.L. ( Design of Love and Laugther). They are child safe stuffed dolls made to make a child happier. These dolls are for a child who just lost there home or other disaster. I have donated these dolls to four organizations including Focus America.

My Gold Award committee suggested Focus America. I checked out the web site and instantly decided that this was a perfect organization to donated too. The other organizations I donated to are; The Salvation Army, Maines Children's Home for Little Wanderers, and the Red Cross.

Thank you for posting this on your web site. I have also attached some pictures. One of me on the phone with you and the other with the dolls I sent you.

Thank you,

Hannah G.

03/11/06: Kentucky Shipment

I'm getting ready to ship out 50 lbs. of clothing and food to the family I adopted in KY. I have received some nice letters from the mother who is 23 with two children. Her husband is older and disabled. It's a great feeling to help the family by providing these little items. I wish I could do more and I really wish I had more help. As it stands right now, we've had wonderful help from people over the holidays. BASF was fantastic and donated a lot of gifts and some financial assistance for shippping. That is always greatly appreciated. Now that the holidays are a distant memory, I have have 10 families, only three of which have been adopted. I adopted one and the children from Assumption Catholic school picked up two others. I'm meeting with a church group tomorrow to talk to them. Perhaps they will pick up another family.

It's always interesting to me how so many people make promised to help but their own situations seem to get in the way of following through. I suppose it's so surreal to us to think of families in our country who cannot find work and cannot put food on the table. So, when we are faced with huge holiday bills or bills for vacations, we forget about the Americans who struggle with the things we take for granted...such as daily survival.

01/02/06: Facing 2006...

The holidays are past and we look forward to the upcoming New Year. We really achieved quite a lot over the past few weeks, even though we scaled back. If only I had more time to devote to working this cause on a more regular basis. It is a wish that I think about quite often. However, I know that our limited effort helped hundreds of people this holiday season:

• One Cub Scout troop shipped over 100 pairs of mittens and hats to our Appalachian community
  
• A school in Mountain Lakes for physically disabled children collected and shipped over 100 pairs of mittens/gloves and hat to the children in our adopted Appalachian community
  
• Premier Medical Center in Morristown collected dozens of gifts for the children
  
• Sankyo Pharma collected dozens of gifts for the children
  
• BASF NTT Division collected hundreds of gifts, almost 50 winter coats, and provided funding for shipping items to the communities we support
  
• Cafe Beethoven in Chatham helped collect hats/gloves for the children we support
  
• One individual in Rockaway organized a collection of holiday gifts for the FACT NJ children
  
• Several individuals sponsored families in NJ and NY once again for the holidays

We have also started working with individuals and schools to sponsor families in our Appalachian community. One woman has been mailing care packages to "her family" on a regular basis. The 5th Grade class at Assumption is adopting two additional families. we have at least 10 more families that need sponsors so, perhaps for the upcoming year, we will be able to achieve that modest goal. If only we could help more families...but that would take time and money which we do not currently have. But we are helping these families and our efforts are making a huge difference. Children will be warm this winter, families will be fed, and hope restored to a very oppressed region of our country...one that has been oppressed for generations, not due to recent natural disasters. While the eyes of America are turned to the Gulf Region, we have to remember that these other communities need our support in order to survive, too.

Here's to 2006 and all that it brings.

10/17/05: Project Holiday Cheer 2005

Donor fatigue. Yesterday, I read an article in the newspaper about the local food pantry and the lack of donations due to donor fatigue. I can understand their plight. Not only do we have donor fatigue, we have volunteer fatigue.

In the past, we have pushed ourselves so hard and tried to help so many people that we are cutting back this year. Donations are down and our energy needs revitalization. It hurts to have to turn away people who need help. I've been sending people to churches since we are focusing on a smaller group for the holidays. I hope those churches can help them.

This year, we are helping several of NJ social service agencies to help the foster kids again. One donor just contacted me with an overwhelming offer to spend $500 on gifts for children. What an amazing relief it is to have FACT NJ's children taken care of! In addition, BASF is doing a donation drive and invited us to speak at a luncheon in December where we will speak about the communities and people that we help. Finally, Cafe Beethoven in Chatham will be doing a donation drive, too.

Of course, we are working closely with our Virgie, KY community and, in the spring, I will be taking a road trip out to meet with the community and experience first-hand the conditions in which they live. Unlike Pembroke and their community advocates, the Virgie people have responded to my requests for information, photos, and videos. They are so much more receptive to and appreciative of the help given to the people. After the miserable experience dealing with that slick Pembroke pastor, it's refreshing to be supporting a community that actually thanks us!

I cannot thank these individuals and corporations enough for offering to help out. So, even though we have scaled back, we will be able to help the people we've committed to without the stress of past years.

Happy Holidays to all!

10/13/2005: Oprah and Pembroke

I have heard from many people regarding Pembroke regarding Oprah's show that aired yesterday and highlighted Pembroke, IL. While I did not watch this segment on Oprah yesterday, I must speak to what was certainly aired.

Pembroke has become the poster child for poor communities in the past four years. I can assure everyone that this community has plenty of help, regardless of the ridiculous comment that one caller shared with me that, since Pembroke does not have a zip code, they cannot get government assistance. My hometown does not have a zip code and we still receive plenty of government assistance as needed.

In fact, Focus America no longer supports Pembroke simply because so many people are helping them. Frankly, and only based upon my personal opinion, I'm not a big fan of Rev. Dyson. This happened after my volunteers sent school uniforms, food, and hundreds of Christmas gifts for the children and, according to what I was told, Dyson distributed the items under the auspice of "Look what I collected for you." Granted, this came to me second-hand so I cannot guarantee the accuracy of that statement but the very fact that this MIGHT have occurred did not make my volunteers feel good about the hours spent collecting gifts and money spent in shipping the items to Pembroke, IL.

About 12-18 months ago, someone who told me that they were from the Governor's office contacted me and discussed how the Governor's office was putting together a task force to focus on developing Pembroke: pave the roads, install water, etc.

So, anyone who wants to help a poor community, I encourage you to consider another community that does not have a PR machine with a questionable agenda. We have communities that live in conditions just as bad as Pembroke was...possibly worse.

Unlike the children from Pembroke who, when asked what they needed/wanted for Christmas, said GameCubes, Nintendo, and CD Walkmans, the children from our Virgie community ask for food and coats while their parents ask for jobs to earn money to support their families. This one community wants work. I find that most admirable. We are arranging a program to provide mail order commerce to help these people earn money. We are trying to organize a Christmas drive as well as collecting gently used coats for Thanksgiving.

I could use a great deal of help or arrange for you to adopt one of these families. In my opinion, they could use it much more than the people of Pembroke...