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...

09/22/2005: Hurricane Katrina: Part II

Sometimes the little things mean the most simply because those little things are the most that the people can give. I just reeived a phone call from the parent in charge of a gynmastic association. They collected almost $500 in donation toward Hurricane Katrina and decided to donate it to Focus America for our cause. This is such wonderful news. We have already donated several hundred dollars to the Hurricane Katrina cause and now, 100% of that new donation will go toward the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast.

As always, I remind people to monitor where they donate money.

We are 100% volunteer and, thanks to our big Santa Claus anonymous donor, we don't have to worry about our day-to-day operations for the next few years. That means that all donations are sent 100% to the cause it was intended. HOW MANY CHARITIES CAN SAY AND PROVE THAT??? I personally work to fund our efforts and our anonymous donor helped cement our future outside of my personal funding.

So thank you Rettigs Gym and thank you parents. You have donated money to truly and really help the rebuilding of Lousiana and Mississippi. Not only will we help rebuild it but we will help provide WORK for these people to make a new life. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

09/01/2005: Hurricane Katrina

I have received several calls about what, if anything, Focus America is doing for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. After much thought, the decision has been made to research the best reflief effort agency and donate money to them in order to give them the financial resources to assist the people in need. We will find the relief agency who guarantees that 100% of the money donated will be used to help the victims (and not pay overhead).

Anyone who wishes to donate money may send it to Victims of Hurricane Katrica c/o Focus America (PO Box 267 Convent Station, NJ 07961). All money will be forwarded to the relief agency with a modest matching dollar amount from Focus America on your behalf. While we do not have the financial resources to match 100% of the money donated, we will do our best to insure that every donation has some additional contribution.

08/31/2005: Project Pencils III

We did it. Once more, we managed to help several hundred children return to school with brand new school supplies. With the help of several churches and local corporations (as well as individual donors), we donated over 250 backpacks with additional boxes of supplies to children working with social services agencies in northern New Jersey as well as shipped numerous boxes to Virgie, Kentucky (along with toys, clothing, and household goods). It's always rewarding when these collections are over. The relief on the faces of the social services workers as well as the children who receive the goods is worth the time and energy collecting the items.

Of course, I always reflect back on the project when it is completed and wish we could have helped more people and more agencies. But I'm very grateful for the children we did managed to help.

As always, a special thank you to Assumption Church for their continued dedication and support.

August 2005: Donors Keep Coming...

Just when I think I am down and out, donors surprise the life out of me. One donor contacted me and she personally collect over 100 notebooks, dozens of pens, crayons, etc. Assumption Church is collecting goods again as in Sankyo Pharma. It's a good feeling to know that so many people out there care. It's refreshing to know that my efforts have the support of people in the community.

This year was hard because I scaled back, partially due to a lack of volunteers to help me manage, partially due to my burnout from overextending myself during the past holiday season, and partially due to extensive construction at our house which severely decreased any sort of storage space. But the donors are coming through with notebooks and backpacks for these children. Thank you, thank you. The children will be so happy...

July 2005: Kentucky Passed the Test

Just a quick note…I received a thank you call from the Pastor in Kentucky. He just passed my test. I had shipped out a few boxes of goods…nothing major. The fact that he called to thank me just elevated him and his community in my book. I had that gut instinct about him. Now I feel much more comfortable in spending the hard earned money that my donors have entrusted to my organization in order to ship goods out to those children living in the coal mining region of Virgie, Kentucky.

July 2005: First School Supply Collections!

It always amazes me how people find us. The Essex Baptist Church in Livingston reached out to us. They had several large boxes of backpacks for us. I am very grateful for their donation since this kicked off our first official donation for Project Pencils 2005.

I have to admit that I’m disappointed in having to scale back our donations but, I faced the fact that I am a one-woman show at this point. Since I am no longer with the College of St. Elizabeth, my pool of eager college students to run the projects are gone. So much for service learning…Oh well.

The good news is that the programs are still running and helping hundreds of children. I find it amazing how much one person can do. If only we had an army of people helping us. If each person could do what I am doing, no child would return to school without notebooks and pens/pencils…the basic tools to succeed. But at least my wonderful donors are helping those children that I can reach. Yes, it isn’t 1300 children but the 250-300 children we can help will be grateful.

I also have to admit that I made a decision not to assist the day laborer community this year. I know that many of these people need a helping hand. However, I also have to admit that I saw a lot of greed and uncharitable behavior from this particular group. Men sent children into our donation centers for multiple items so that they could sell the items to their friends or send back to their home countries. People lied about how many children they had during our holiday giveaways. When Anne Marie ran her garage sale to raise money, the day laborer women paid her with crisp 100 dollar bills. It made me think that, in scaling back, I need to help the people who do not have money or resources…the children directly.
This required a lot of soul searching on my part. At one point in time, my ancestors were immigrants and struggled in this country. Perhaps that is what more people need…a bit of a struggle to realize that life is not a hand-out. Frankly, a bit of gratitude goes a long way in motivating me to help people so when I don’t get the gratitude or don’t recognize the look of appreciation, my own motivation decreases. I’ve been burned throughout the years and it has been a learning experience. From helping young women try to develop business acumen who later turned on me to recipients of goods who never say Thank You. It’s a tough pill to swallow.

This has truly been the year of assessing where I want to be and where I want to take Focus America.

June 2005: Project Pencils 2005

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.