William Penn Life, 2004 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2004-06-01 / 6. szám
Charitable Ideas Model Citizens Model Cities projects highlight successful Join Hands Day NAPERVILLE, IN -- Seven fraternal benefit societies developed five "Model Cities" projects to connect youth and adult groups through Join Hands Day volunteering on May 1. The Model Cities projects were among the more than 1,200 projects that were conducted on Join Hands Day this year in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Hungary, Canada, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Join Hands Day established a Model Cities program in its first year to ensure a variety of excellent projects in cities where fraternal benefit societies are headquartered. On Join Hands Day, young people and adults build relationships, while they do something good to improve their own communities. Different generations work together, on an equal basis, to plan, organize and implement the day's activities. Join Hands Day is held annually on the first Saturday in May. The 2004 Model Cities projects: Washington, D.C. The Hungarian Reformed Federation of America worked with the Chesapeake Fraternal Congress, Service for Peace and the American Red Cross Youth Task Force to launch four projects on Join Hands Day. Volunteers chose from working on a Glories Happy Hats assembly line, landscaping and painting a community room inside the Capitol View Library, planting a community vegetable garden or cleaning and landscaping a small city park and bus stop. Glories Happy Hats are jester-like fun hats made by volunteers to give to seriously ill children and adults. Using the Near Peace Lutheran Church as headquarters for the day, the volunteers assembled there for a continental breakfast before going to their selected project locations. At noon, they returned for lunch and a short program. After lunch, they Join Hands Day volunteers do some painting in Milwaukee, Wise. celebrated with deejay music, dancing, games and May Day crafts. Appleton, Wise. Thrivent Financial Corporate Center employees coordinated a project whereby volunteers collected items in advance of Join Hands Day to use in gift baskets and kits to present to Hmong immigrant families who are coming to the Appleton area from Thailand refugee camps. On Join Hands Day, participants assembled kits for school backpacks, personal hygiene items, household cleaning products (with buckets to create kits) and laundry items. They made welcome cards and tied fleece blankets for each family. Madison, Wise. Led by National Mutual Benefit, volunteers adopted Quaker House, a low-income senior apartment complex. Participants planted flower beds next to the apartment building and did a comprehensive yard cleanup. They made and served lunch to residents, played bingo and sang for them. A pizza party for the youth and adult participants at the Boys and Girls Club next door provided an end-of-the-day celebration of their accomplishments. Milwaukee, Wise. Catholic Family Life Insurance and Catholic Knights worked with the Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee to draw more than 600 volunteers to the Italian Community Center. Here they decorated and stuffed 1,000 "Family Learning is Fun" canvas bags with free and inexpensive summer activity ideas, booklets, stuffed animals and short notes of encouragement. Kohl's Department Stores, headquartered in nearby Menomonee Falls, provided 200 volunteers through employees and the stores' ongoing partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters. Kohl's provided lunch for the entire group as well as company trucks to transport products for the bags and deliver the completed bags. Newly-elected Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett participated in the bag stuffing, along with his two young daughters. San Antonio, Texas. Volunteers at the San Antonio project, postponed to June 19 due to severe weather on May 1, will paint a fence and level the ground at a city cemetery. Each of the Model Cities projects will be considered for one of the 20 Join Hands Day Excellence Awards. These annual awards are given to top-quality projects that meet the Join Hands Day criteria to build youth/ adult partnerships, as determined by an independent panel of judges. Deadline for registering projects for consideration is June 15, 2004. Recipients, to be announced on Sept. 25 this year, will receive $1,000. IffpU Charity Links For more information on this year’s Join Hands Day or to learn how you can become involved in next year’s event, log onto: O www.joinhandsday.org William Pen Lite, June 2004 3
