A Perfect Springtime Gift

Spring doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, but, with the weather being the way it has been, it feels as though spring has been in full swing for some time now. We recently received a wonderful donation to spread the spring spirit to the needy children in our Children’s Birthday Project. Longtime friend of Humanitarian Service Project, Pam Anderson, brought in 46 Easter baskets last week for the needy children we serve. These wonderful baskets each contain a beanie baby and lots of yummy candy. We’ve had a number of children who’ve come to our center in Carol Stream with their families to pick up birthday boxes recently, and their faces lit up when they received these beautiful baskets. We want to thank Pam, and those who helped her with the baskets, for such a thoughtful gift to the needy children served by HSP.

These marvelous Easter baskets have helped us bring smiles to the children in our Children’s Birthday Project. The children and senior citizens that we serve through our programs at HSP, all come from very needy economic situations, and don’t have the resources to afford necessities or other items to make life easier. Thankfully, we’ve had many heartfelt donations from our wonderful supporters like Pam, who have helped us reach out and fulfill the needs of the needy people we serve. If you have an item, or an idea for a donation, to help make life easier or more enjoyable for the children or seniors served by our programs, please call us at 630-221-8340.

Happy St. Larry’s Day

We at the Humanitarian Service Project had a wonderful start to the weekend when we were able to celebrate a much loved volunteer’s birthday. Larry Erven’s birthday is on St. Patrick’s Day and here at HSP he is one of the saints in our family of volunteers. Larry and his wife Evelyn have been volunteering at HSP for 5 years and are very committed to the project, donating tremendous energy and time helping others. Larry and Evelyn’s main focus is in the library room, sorting books by age and gender and ensuring that the 900 children enrolled in the Children’s Birthday Project receive 5-7 books picked especially for them. They also organize all of the Christmas themed books through the year enabling all of the children in the Christmas Project to receive books with their Christmas presents.

Larry is in the center, his wife Evelyn is on the left and the HSP staff

Larry is huge supporter of Feed the Kids, working on the dock through the hot weather, greeting families and loading cars with a month’s supply of food. He also makes special deliveries for us and drives to make pickups when HSP has special needs.

Larry is always ready to help when we need the support and we are truly grateful for all that he and Evelyn do. We also enjoy seeing the beautiful photos of their trips and hearing of their far off adventures. We could not service the children and families without his generous support and we look forward to many more years of enjoying the time we get to spend together working to better the lives of other people.

Birthday Girl Shares Birthday Joy

One thing we’ve learned at the Humanitarian Service Project is that there is no minimum age for thoughtfulness and generosity. The desire to reach out and help those in need can inspire people in any stage or walk of life. That is certainly the case for Addison White, a special guest we had at HSP yesterday afternoon, who can count her age on one hand. For her 5^th birthday party recently, Addison and her mother Jill White, asked guests not to bring gifts for her, but to instead bring art and craft supplies for the needy children served by HSP’s Children’s Birthday Project. Addison is clearly a very popular girl, because the donated items from her friends and family filled 10 bags and a large box full of wonderful items such as, paint, coloring books, clay, and craft kits. Thanks to Addison’s generosity, a number of needy children will surely get extra smiles on their birthdays! (Above: Addison with the art supplies her and her party guests donated to HSP.)

We at HSP believe every child deserves to have a special birthday. However, birthdays can be very expensive for needy families with their income going to necessities like food and rent. We want to thank Addison, her mother Jill, and everyone who contributed at Addison’s birthday party, for helping us spread birthday joy to the needy children we serve. If you too, would like to help HSP reach out to these children, please see our website for more information: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/whatwedo/bdayproject.html.

Lake Park Elementary Excitedly Receives Birthday Boxes

Today was an exciting day at the Humanitarian Service Project, as another load of birthday boxes (full of toys, books, school supplies, and party supplies) for the needy children at Lake Park Elementary in Addison was delivered from our center in Carol Stream to the school. As many of you may know, HSP was able to provide Christmas gifts for every child at Lake Park Elementary during our Christmas Offering last December. We recently enrolled 329 needy students from the school into our Children’s Birthday Project. We are very happy to be able to reach out to the children at Lake Park Elementary, because there is so much need there. 88% percent of the students at the school are from families with low enough income that they receive subsidized school lunch. (above: Our volunteer driver Rich Patera with the van load of gifts for the students at Lake Park Elementary.)

Rich Patera, our volunteer van driver who picked up and delivered the boxes to Lake Park today, said he received a very warm welcome at the school. He says Deb Martello, the principal of Lake Park Elementary, was ecstatic to see the birthday boxes prepared for the students with late March and early April birthdays. We are thrilled to be able to provide these boxes to make birthdays special for these needy children. There have been a lot of people involved in making this a reality. We want to thank Rich for delivering the boxes, all of our volunteer wrappers who have really mobilized to make the addition of the Lake Park Elementary students into our project go smoothly, and of course all the other sponsors and supporters of HSP who make our Children’s Birthday Project a success. If you would be interested in supporting this project, a sponsorship of $54 provides a needy child with a 20 pound box full of toys, activities, books, and more, for their birthday. Please call us at 630-221-8340 for more information.

New Additions!

In an effort to gear up for summer, we are pleased to announce that we have acquired seven new interns to help with our various projects. Interns are a vital part of the HSP team as they work hard in all areas of the organization. Our summer interns will be providing support in marketing, public relations, grant writing, and other general duties including working in the Meal of the Month program.

This summer we would like to welcome Sarah Olson and Samantha Isdale who will be working on public relations and concentrating on marketing will be Jennifer Leverenz. Accounting, which is vital to sustaining our charity, will be handled by Brian Jensen and our Meal of the Month program will be supported by Kate Borromeo. Vernie Wong and Morgan Smith will be working on other general and administrative duties throughout the summer. We here at HSP would like to extend a warm welcome to all our new interns!

If you or someone you know would be interested in interning at HSP please contact us at (630) 221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org.

Thank You Naperville Covenant Church!

Humanitarian Service Project would like to extend our deepest thanks to the youth at Naperville Covenant Church for wrapping a whopping ten bags full of gifts for the needy children in our children’s birthday project. The group wrapped the gifts as a service project while they were participating in a “30 hour famine,” a program designed to spread awareness about hunger, in which these youth fasted for 30 hours. While they were fasting on Friday into Saturday, the youth at Naperville Covenant wrapped the gifts and learned about HSP’s programs to combat hunger and poverty from our speaker team member Christine Potthoff.

Diane Shiflett, the Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Naperville Covenant Church, said she was happy to get the youth group involved with HSP in order to teach them about the importance of service. We likewise, are delighted to have their assistance in helping reach out to those affected by poverty and hunger in our community. We want to thank them for their hard work and their thoughtfulness.

Mac 'n Cheese with a Musical Twist!

Today HSP received a very entertaining donation from Congregation Etz Chaim. A thriving center of Reform Judaism, they play an active role in the community and have had a successful relationship with HSP for almost ten years now. They recently held a service Wednesday March 7th with a musical twist in which they used macaroni and cheese boxes as noisemakers. After the service was over, the organization donated five large garbage bags full of boxed macaroni and cheese to the HSP food drive. This donation along with other food donations will be used in the Feed The Kids Project this summer. All of us here at HSP would like to thank members of the Congregation Etz Chaim for their kind and generous donation!

If you or someone you know is looking to get involved with your community, then contact us! We are currently looking for food donations for our Feed the Kids Project that serves over 300 children in 100 families in Kane and Dupage counties. If interested please contact us at (630) 221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org.