A Stellar Backpack Donation

Yesterday, HSP received a wonderful donation of 29 backpacks full of school supplies from a drive organized by a special donor, Ian Netter. Ian, an 18 year old resident of Buffalo Grove, was born in Paraguay and was adopted by a family in Illinois. His experience visiting Paraguay several years ago inspired him to spear head a project to collect and donate school supplies to needy children there. He has been donating school supplies to Paraguay ever since, and this year he managed to run such a successful drive that he felt compelled to reach out to local children in need, as well.

We wish to thank Ian, and his mother Robin who dropped the donation off, for these 29 excellent backpacks filled with supplies such as folders, notebooks, crayons, colored pencils, erasers, and pens. We also wish to thank everyone else who made our school supply drive so successful this summer. We had three vans filled to the brim with school supplies that went to the DuPage County Fairgrounds School Supply event on August 8^th, and have numerous other supplies that have gone, and will continue to go, straight to schools and children in need. 

Loads of Entertainment for only Thirty Dollars

They’re back! 2012-2013 Entertainment Books are here at HSP. These books have $20,100 worth of savings in coupons for only $30. These coupons can save you money on dine-in restaurants, fast food eateries, sport events, theater shows, concerts, exercise classes, skydiving, vacations, shopping and so much more! If all of these incentives weren’t enough then how about knowing that all of the proceeds from the books we sell go to help our Senior Citizen Project.

Chalk full of savings

This year there’s a new way to enjoy your Entertainment Book coupons. Inside each book is a savings card that allows you to find updated coupons throughout the year. Also if you have a smart phone you can download the app and use coupons directly you’re your phone, no need to print. The coupons are valid from when you buy the book today until November 2013, that’s over a year’s worth of entertainment!

As we mentioned before the proceeds from these Entertainment Books goes to our Senior Citizen Project. The Senior Citizen Project provides senior citizens on a monthly basis with 90 pounds of fruits and vegetables, non-perishables, frozen meat, bread, personal care items, and a special pal gift. Help our needy seniors by purchasing an Entertainment Book today!

Our intern Rachel W. showing off the new books

Giving Back Again and Again

HSP would like to send another big thank you to our friends at Kohl’s in Wheaton for coming out to help us finish organizing our warehouse shelves. Yesterday from 9am-12pm the Kohl’s Cares volunteers were here helping us clean and reorganize our pantry and warehouse. Last week, Kohl’s Cares came to help us start reorganizing our pantry. Kohl’s Cares is a charitable program run by Kohl’s that helps local organizations with volunteers and support donations. We were happy to see some familiar faces with three returning volunteers from the earlier group. We were also excited to see two new faces joining the team. Our Senior Citizen Project Coordinator, Tierney, noted the Kohl’s Care volunteers were, “very helpful. We would not have been able to get this project done so quickly without their stupendous support.” 

 Thanks to these two groups from Kohl’s our pantry space is more efficiently organized to store food for our Senior Citizen Project. Also we’re able to quickly and more easily serve our seniors. Kohl’s has been a great supporter of HSP and we enjoy seeing them time and time again. Thank you again Kohl’s and Kohl’s Cares volunteers for helping us out and coming in with a wonderful attitude to brighten our day!

Community-minded Birthday Girl Brings Joy to the Needy

Last week, HSP was delighted to receive both a visit and donation from local twelve-year-old Emily Giovingo. For her recent birthday, Emily asked her guests, not for a gift for herself, but for gifts to go to the needy children in our Children’s Birthday Project. Emily sure must be popular, because the donations from her party filled 4 boxes and 1 very large bag of new gifts including games, activity sets, and books. We want to thank Emily and her friends for these gifts, which will become part of the 20-25 lb “birthday box” each of the 888 needy children in our project receive. These boxes contain 4 to 8 new toys, 5-7 new books, school supplies, numerous smaller gifts, and a “party in a bag” which contains all the necessary supplies for a memorable birthday party.

Emily is part of “The Community Girlz,” a local, charitable club she has formed with seven of her friends. According to Emily’s mother Sharon Giovingo, these eight seventh graders run the organization almost completely independent of parental help. On top of donations like this one Emily organized for her 12^th birthday, The Community Girlz biggest event is an annual fundraising fair. For this fair, the girls host activities, and sell crafts and baked goods to raise money for local charities. In the past three years that the girls have run the fair, they have raised over $2500 for the charities they support!

The Community Girls: Emily, Donna, Tam, Lydia, Jessica, Abigail, Kelly and Sharielle

Here at HSP, we think it’s fantastic to see young people so engaged in helping the needy of the community. We, again, want to thank Emily and her friends for donating greatly needed toys for the sake of the impoverished children served by our Children’s Birthday Project, and we wish her and the Community Girlz continued success in their efforts to support local charities.

New Addition to the Intern Team

Today at HSP we were excited to welcome a new general intern to our team, Margaret Zieke. Margaret is a senior at Elmhurst College working towards a degree in History.  After she has finished her degree she’s looking into possibly going on to study law and ultimately finding her career. Margaret comes to us from a small town in Minnesota called Caledonia. After branching out away from her hometown, Margaret was exposed to a whole new environment and found a passion for learning and exploring. In the past, Margaret has worked with HSP before as a volunteer. For a project in her Intercultural Seminar class she volunteered here with her classmates. Her most recent volunteer experience was when she worked at the La Crosse Historical Society in La Crosse, Wisconsin. At the La Crosse Historical Society she worked as a collections intern cataloging artifacts.

In her free time she loves to read, she especially likes historical non-fiction. Her favorite writers include David McCullough and David Sedaris. Some hobbies Margaret enjoys are being a Trivial Pursuit guru and playing the bagpipes. During her time here at HSP, Margaret hopes to find out more about the inner workings of a non-profit and gain business experience. With her upbeat attitude and eagerness to learn new things, we know she will fit in perfectly here at HSP. Help us in welcoming our new intern Margaret Zieke. 

Clear Your Clutter for a Good Cause

It’s not too late to donate your gently used items to Allured Business Media’s Charity Garage Sale. All of your donations support HSP because Allured Business Media has pledged to match every dollar up to $7,500. Allured’s goal is to raise $15,000 in order to add another impoverished senior into our Senior Citizen Project, in perpetuity. So, if you’ve got clutter in your closet or basement, consider donating it to the sale and help feed a needy senior.

Examples of items they are looking for items are: furniture, children and baby toys and furniture, lamps, sporting goods, kitchen electronics, household items like glass ware & dishes, tools, exercise equipment, clothing accessories such as belts, purses and scarves, travel luggage etc. However, they will not accept any clothing, or any stained or nonfunctional items.

If you are interested in donating, you can still drop off donations today at Allured Business Media’s office located at 336 Gunderson Dr. Suite A, Carol Stream, IL 60188. They will be accepting donations until 6pm today and 8am-12pm tomorrow. If you wish to attend the garage sale, it starts on September 7^th and goes till September 8^th from 9am-4pm both days.

Kohl’s Lends a Helping Hand

Today at HSP we were happy to welcome a spectacular group of five volunteers from Kohl’s. Kohl’s has its own charity organization called Kohl’s Cares and they donate three hours of volunteer time for each event along with money to community organizations like HSP. They were here with us today to help reorganize and redesign our pantry. In our warehouse we have shelves full of non-perishables, ready to eat meals, pasta, coffee, cookies, crackers, soups, and more! These wonderful volunteers spent their time today helping us streamline our warehouse’s food shelves, so we can serve our seniors more efficiently. Every month 120 seniors in our Senior Citizen Program receive 90 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen meat, bread, non-perishables, personal care items, and paper products.

We are very thankful for the continued support and dedicated service of Kohl’s and Kohl’s Cares volunteers. We want to especially thank Patty Capela for organizing her team to come out and volunteer today. Kohl’s has been a big supporter of HSP and our mission to alleviate the pain and suffering in the lives of impoverished children, seniors, and families in DuPage and Kane Counties. It is thanks to the generous support of companies and organizations like Kohl’s we are able to continue to serve the needs of those less fortunate then ourselves. 

A Birthday Wish for School Supplies

Most children ask for dolls, toy cars, stuffed animals, or other toys and games for their birthday. However, Alyssa Mantia had something else in mind for her birthday wish list. She asked her friends and family for her 12^th birthday to donate new school supplies instead of buying her gifts. Alyssa and her mother Sheri Mantia, a long time supporter and friend of HSP, collected 10 bags of new school supplies and some cute backpacks.

Alyssa with her bounty of donated school supplies!

Alyssa and her family have been asking for donations during family birthdays for the past few years now. This year at Alyssa’s birthday party, she had 18 friends and family members donate school supplies. We are inspired by Alyssa and her enthusiasm to help others in need on her special day of celebration. We want to send a big thank you to Alyssa, the Mantia Family and friends for their generous donation helping deserving children this school year. 

This year HSP is collecting school supplies and sending them out to schools with a high percentage of needy children. We are loading up our vans and in the next few weeks we will be delivering the school supplies to 5 or more schools in DuPage and Kane County. We are still accepting donations throughout the year so you can donate anytime. If you would like to donate, or would like to know how you can help those in your community by doing a food or paper donation drive, call us at (630) 221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianserviceproject.org.

Your Vote can Help HSP Raise $20,000 for the Needy

HSP is calling on all of its friends and supporters to vote for us in the 2012 Chase Community Giving program. As one of 196 nominated local charities, HSP is eligible to receive grant funding of up to $20,000 based on the amount of votes we receive. Voting starts in less than two weeks, September 6^th, and goes until September 19^th. This money would mean big things for the needy senior citizens and families served by HSP’s projects, so we hope that all of our supporters will participate and spread the word to their friends as well!

There are two ways to vote. The first way is for Chase customers only, and is as simple as going to www.chasegiving.com and following the instructions to cast your votes.

The second way to vote is open to anybody with a Facebook account. Facebook users will get two votes to use by using the Chase Community Giving App found at http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving. Of these two votes, you can only use one to vote for HSP, but you can earn bonus votes that you can use to vote for HSP again by sharing content from the Chase Community Giving App on your Facebook, or by getting your friends to link back to the Chase Community Giving App and casting their own vote.

Receiving a grant through this program will allow HSP to continue to alleviate the pain and suffering poverty brings to the 120 needy seniors and 888 children and their families served by our programs, so please take a few seconds from September 9^th and September 16^th to spread the word and vote.

Surprise Donation

Today at HSP we were overjoyed to receive a community donation from Brookstone Subdivision here in Carol Stream. Carla Crosby and her daughters, Bethany and Sienna, came to HSP this morning and dropped off around 400lbs of food.

The elder brother in the Crosby family started and organized an annual food drive for HSP in years past, but now he has given the project over to his younger sisters. 90 homes participated in this food drive. The Crosby’s car was filled to the brim with food!

We want to thank them for their dedication in hosting a local food drive and donating to HSP. Every month 120 seniors receive 90 pounds of fresh groceries, fruits and vegetables, non-perishables, frozen meat, bread, paper products. Each month we supply the seniors with 5400lbs of non-perishable groceries. Today’s generous donation form the Crosby families community will truly make a huge difference to all the needy seniors we serve. If you are interested din hosting a food or paper drive, please call us at 630-221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org  

HSP Gears up for Another Senior Delivery Day

Today is a very busy day at the Humanitarian Service Project as we are prepare for our monthly senior food delivery day! The 120 needy seniors in our Senior Citizen Project receive monthly boxes of food including ripe fruits, crisp vegetables, non-perishables, bread, paper products, and a special gift from their secret pal. Our produce items were purchased from Caputo’s and arrived this morning fresh for our seniors.

The group from UPS.

Today our volunteers are sorting out the produce as a team. We’re grateful to have so many volunteers helping us with food sorting and organizing. We want to send a special thank you to the volunteer group of 7 volunteers from UPS Supply Chain Solutions. We greatly appreciated all of your hard work! We would especially like to thank Mark Hirsh with UPS for being a stellar organizer and bringing us so many volunteers time and time again.

We also would like to thank Shaun Hurdelbrink and Greg Ross, two National Honors Society students at Willowbrook High School. Shaun and Greg have been coming in for much of the summer helping us with food sorting, and came in today to help us get everything squared away for tomorrow.

Greg (left) and Shaun(right) had to don some clothes you wouldn't normally see in August while working in our freezer.

Angie dropping off the cakes from Birthday Cakes 4 Free

We also want to acknowledge our beloved long time friends of HSP, Steve Stasiak and Mike Riech, helped us out today by picking up bread for the delivery boxes! In addition to the produce and bread, the seniors with birthdays this month are receiving a personalized birthday cake donated to us by the DuPage County chapter of Birthday Cakes4Free! Angie, the daughter of the Chapter founder Rose Garcia, dropped of the six beautifully decorated cakes from Whole Foods. We are overjoyed that Birthday Cakes4Free is providing a birthday cake for all 120 needy seniors in our project this year.

Thank you again to all of the volunteers who have equipped us to, once again, reach the 120 seniors in our project with the groceries they so desperately need.

HSP Connects United Stationers with Lake Park Elementary

This past week, United Stationers of Carol Stream extended a helping hand to Lake Park Elementary School in Addison. United Stationers, a distributor of office supplies, has donated 350 backpacks filled with school supplies, which were distributed Tuesday and Wednesday. Humanitarian Service Project is overjoyed to have connected the two, but the generosity of United Stationers comes to no surprise, since they are long time supporters of HSP. 

HSP adopted Lake Park Elementary into our Children’s Birthday Project due to their strong need for a helping hand. 88% of the students at Lake Park qualify for subsidized lunches, a figure that depicts the level of poverty these students face. When United Stationers contacted us with their gracious donation, Lake Park Elementary was the obvious choice. The donated school supplies present a substantial relief to parents and teachers alike.

Philanthropy is deeply important to United Stationers, who HSP has grown to rely on for school supplies each year. However, they reached a new level of generosity this year when they expressed a desire to distribute the school supplies directly to Lake Park Elementary. Their strong community outreach is a constant inspiration to HSP and we look forward to our continued friendship with them. 

HSP Seeks Volunteers for Speaking Team!

If you enjoy public speaking, then this is the blog for you to read. Currently, HSP is seeking volunteers interested in representing HSP as a member of our speaker team. Members of the HSP speaker team volunteer for speaking engagements with local clubs or organizations to keep them notified of all the happenings here at HSP and educate them about how poverty affects local seniors and children and how our programs help.

A member of the speaker team educates members of a local group all about what HSP does. 

Joining our speaker team is a perfect opportunity for those interested in actively using their talents to help HSP continue to grow our projects focused on serving the needy in our community. Speaking engagements are flexible to your schedule and you can sign up for as many or as few speaking engagements as you would like. Speakers also receive an orientation and training before they complete their first speaking engagement. So, if you like public speaking, want to foster relationships in your community, make new friends, and help give back, our speaker team is definitely for you. To get involved with our speaker team, please contact us at (630) 221-8340 or email us at HSP@humanitarianservice.org.

HSP Supported through Allured’s Charity Garage Sale

Humanitarian Service Project is excited to be the beneficiary of Allured Business Media’s 1^st Charity Garage Sale. Allured has pledged to match every dollar donated up to $7,500, with the goal being to a $15,000 endowment to add a new needy senior to our Senior Citizen Project in perpetuity!

The event will take place on September 7^th and 8^th at Allured Business Media’s office in Carol Steam.  Community members interested in the event are encouraged to attend or donate items for the event. Allured Business Media is looking for unbroken and unstained items including: furniture, children and baby toys and furniture, lamps, sporting goods, kitchen electronics, household items like glass ware & dishes, tools, exercise equipment, clothing accessories such as belts, purses and scarves, travel luggage etc.

No clothing will be accepted. Donation drop off dates, times and location are: Fridays August 17^th and 24^th form 1pm-6pm and Saturdays August 18th and 25^th from 8am-12pm at the Allured Business Media office--336 Gunderson Dr., Suite A, Carol Stream. The garage sale will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 7^th and 8^th from 9am-4pm at the Allured Business Media office--336 Gunderson Dr., Suite A, Carol Stream. 

11 Year Old Boy Helps Make Magical Birthdays Possible

Probably one of the most exciting parts of having a birthday party is getting to open presents all for yourself. However, at his 11^th birthday party, Jack Paras decided to share this joyous moment with the needy children served in the Children’s Birthday Project. Instead of asking for gifts, Jack asked for donations of toys and games for his birthday. Jack had his entire hockey team and other friends at his party, which amounted to around 15 guests, all of whom brought a donation to the party. In the end, the donation amounted to two very large boxes of board games and Legos, which were then brought to HSP for our Children’s Birthday Project.

Jack, (left) and his two brothers Noah (center, age 13) and Joey (right, age 6) with

 their donation of much-needed games and Legos for children in the Children’s Birthday Project.

We at HSP would like to thank Jack and all of his birthday party guests for helping make this donation possible. The needy children in the Children’s Birthday Project will receive these games and toys on their birthday. Games and toys such as the ones that Jack donated are always greatly needed for the children we serve and are especially in demand for the older children in our program. In addition to items such as board games and toys, children served in the Children’s Birthday Project also receive new books, school supplies, stuffed animals, and several smaller toys and gifts as well as items needed to throw a birthday party such as cake mix and frosting, party hats, streamers, plates and napkins and party favors in their birthday box, which is about 20 pounds. If you would like to donate items for the Children’s Birthday Project or get involved in any other way, please contact us at (630) 221-8340 or email us at HSP@humanitarianservice.org. 

HSP Bids Farewell to Summer Interns

The past two weeks have been bittersweet at the Humanitarian Service Project. Our summer interns are concluding their work here at HSP, and though we are sad to say goodbye, we are excited to watch them embark on their promising futures. Today we parted with our Public Relations intern Sam Isdale and Project Management intern Kate Borromeo. Earlier this week we also said goodbye to Accounting intern Brian Jensen. Last week we parted ways with Public Relations intern Sarah Olson, Marketing interns Stacey Tokuda and Jen Leverenz and Grant Writing interns Lianne Dottin and Eric Domingo. We are happy to still have General Intern Morgan Smith with us, but we will have to bid farewell to her next week as well.

From left: Eric Domingo, Sarah Olson, Stacey Tokuda, Kate Borromeo, Brian Jensen (in back) , Samantha Isdale

As they were leaving, we were happy to hear many of them talking about the strong friendships they forged at HSP. All of our summer interns immensely contributed to their departments with enthusiasm and strong work ethics. We will greatly miss all of these interns and look forward to hearing about their success in the future! If we are lucky they will spend part of their Christmas break working on the Christmas offering with us. 

Thank You Wheaton Rotary!

Yesterday, HSP was ecstatic to receive a gracious donation of 840 backpacks from the Wheaton Rotary Club.  The 21 cases of backpacks were dropped off by Roger Tully, a respected member of the Wheaton Rotary Club.  We would like to thank the Rotary Club for such a generous donation that will enable us to fulfill the needs of many impoverished children in the area.  The Wheaton Rotary donation (and other recent school supply donations) will be sent directly to local schools with the greatest need. The Rotary Club collected the backpacks as part of their annual drive, spearheaded by club member, Dr. Lori Belha. This year was the club's most successful drive to date with over 1500 backpacks donated in total!

Yesterday was also the Dupage County Back to School Fair for which we dropped off three vans filled to the brim with school supplies for needy children, and schools!  Thanks to all the participants of the drive, you are greatly appreciated.  We are accepting school supply donations through October, so help us give kids the supplies they need for a meaningful school year.  To learn more, visit www.humanitarianservice.org.

Thank You to our Feed the Kids Volunteers

Today, at the last Feed the Kids of the summer, everyone is rallying to help us go out with a bang!  We have twenty-four volunteers here to help with everything needed to be done.  The HSP would like to give a BIG thank you to all the volunteers who are here today, including everyone from United Stationers and LaGasse, and everyone who has been here over the past three months to help such a monumental project go smoothly.  We would like to give an extra special shout-out to Steve Stasiak who was here for every “Feed the Kids” this summer, and assisted us as a driver, and Karen and John Cummings who helped out in the warehouse.  Here at the HSP, our volunteers mean the world to us, and we can’t thank them enough.

This summer we have assisted 100 families get the nutrition they need with boxes and boxes of produce, cereals, and canned goods each month!  The HSP is providing families with the food they need to get through the summer months.  So thank you for our wonderful donations, and our awesome volunteers.  We couldn’t have done it without you!!

Thank You Kohl’s and Allstate!

The Humanitarian Service Project is extremely grateful to have two wonderful groups serving with us today!

The group from Kohl's

This morning five volunteers from Kohl’s in Wheaton were a great help sorting produce in our warehouse!  These kind volunteers are serving for the “Kohl’s Cares” program through which Kohl’s and their employees work together in order to make a difference in the community!  They sorted nine different fresh fruits and nine different vegetables that were delivered by Caputo’s today and will be distributed to the 100 families participating in our Feed the Kids Program, each of which will receive over 75 lbs. of non perishables, several frozen meats, Pepperidge Farm bread, and a number of extras this month, including Jewel Osco gift cards!  We again wish to thank these five wonderful volunteers, and specifically wish to recognize Patty Capela, from Kohl’s, for organizing this event.

The Allstate group

The other volunteer group we were delighted to host today was from Allstate Insurance in Northbrook, who have been helping with our Children’s Birthday Project this afternoon!  Seven volunteers have graciously brought their own wrapping paper and ribbons to wrap gifts that children in our Children’s Birthday Project will receive in their 20-25 lb. birthday box, which is filled with a vast array of presents, books, cake mix, streamers, and other birthday party essentials!  Thank you Allstate for help making these children’s birthdays even more special!  We would like to especially thank Sue Hall for making this event possible!

If you would like more information on our current projects or would like to volunteer with HSP, feel free to call us at (630)-221-8340 or visit our website at www.humanitarianservice.org.

Joy Comes to HSP

On another exciting Monday, HSP has the pleasure of welcoming another new intern, Joy Davis. Our summer interns are slowly leaving the nest here at HSP and we are happy to have another cheerful member on the team. Joy will be a PR intern, taking over different jobs and projects to help keep the community abreast of all the goings on here at HSP.

Joy is a recent graduate from the College of DuPage (C.O.D.) with an associate degree in Political Science and Journalism. In the future Joy would love to work as a political journalist, possibly doing hard hitting stories on current events. Joy is also no stranger to HSP. She’s helped organize toy and food drives for HSP from her job working at the Naperville Public Library. At the library Joy works at the circulation desk, helping clients and keeping the books and other materials organized. In her spare time Joy likes to read, write, and create artful collages with mixed media photography and paint.

Throughout her life Joy has been a prolific reader, writer, and an active listener. She’ll have no problem fitting in here at HSP with that skill set. During her time here at HSP Joy wants to explore the inner workings of a non-profit and fulfill her passion for helping others. Her mom, the strongest person she knows, taught her that giving back is one of the most rewarding acts you can do. We look forward to what joyfulness Joy can bring to HSP! Please help us in welcoming our new smiling intern Joy Davis!

McGladrey Assurance, Tax and Consulting Donates and Wraps for the Children’s Birthday Project!

Earlier this week, HSP’s Assistant Director, Kristin Maxwell, attended the Q Center, of Saint Charles, to meet with and speak to representatives and employees of the McGladrey Assurance, Tax and Consulting firm. This outing was the firm’s monthly Charity Event for July. Kristin was asked to give a presentation on HSP’s behalf, on July 30^th, due to the success of the previous charity event Kristin attended in June.

This is the second consecutive month that HSP has been blessed to be the recipient of McGladrey’s monthly charity events. In June, we received many beautifully wrapped toys that have been placed into, large, individual “Birthday Boxes” for HSP’s Children’s Birthday Project. We would like to thank McGladrey for donating such lovely gifts, as well as allowing HSP to take part in the charity events two months in a row. McGladrey’s generosity from July will allow 40 underprivileged and impoverished children the chance to have a brand new toy.

Kristin said she had a wonderful evening with the McGladrey group. She enjoyed socializing, laughing and even more importantly receiving another opportunity to help serve the children of the Humanitarian Service Project.

The Humanitarian Service Project wants to give a big thank you to McGladrey Assurance, Tax and Consulting! We are so happy to have these wonderful gifts and we know the children of HSP will be even more excited!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Here at HSP, birthdays are considered a big deal, as you can probably tell by our Children’s Birthday Project. However, it is not only the birthdays of the children we serve that we love to celebrate, but also the birthdays of our staff, interns, and volunteers. Celebrating someone’s birthday gives an opportunity to show just how special that person really is and how valued they are.

Today, HSP wants to wish a very happy birthday to our awesome database administrator Alex Gordy. In his role as database administrator, Alex wears many hats by assisting with all of our projects, which include the Senior Citizen Project, Children’s Birthday Project, Feed the Kids, and the Christmas Offering. This is Alex’s second birthday that he has celebrated at HSP in the almost 2 years he has been part of the team.  Alex has been a key member in our HSP team as our database administrator by making sure that our office database is working right and has all the information we need about those we serve as well as our donors, sponsors, and volunteers. Alex has also gotten to know many of HSP’s supporters as well as those we serve. Alex is very happy that he has such a great group of people to work with and share his birthday. Please join us in wishing Alex a happy birthday! 

The HSP team celebrates with Alex as he blows out the candles on his birthday cake. 

School Supplies at the DuPage County Fairgrounds

Alex Gordy and Brian Jensen ready to deliver

It’s almost back to school time for kids in DuPage County and the Humanitarian Service Project (HSP) is ready to help those families in need with boxes of school supplies. There are many families in DuPage who are living on low incomes and struggling to provide their children with school supplies. Today HSP rallied to the rescue with two vans full of school supply donations to the DuPage Back to School Fair. Our CFO, Floyd Kettering, along with HSP staff member Alex Gordy, HSP intern Brian Jensen, and HSP volunteer Kip Hogan dropped off two vans full of supplies to the DuPage County Back to School Fair. Dr. Joseph Gust, the Assistant Regional Superintendent, and everyone else at the DuPage regional office of education, were ecstatic to see the vans full of supplies. We want to thank all of the people whose donations made today’s delivery such a success.

Joseph Gust and Steve Garlington of the DuPage Regional Office of Education with the donated items

The Back to School Fair helps families living on low incomes provide school supplies for their children. This fair not only provides school supplies to the families but also provides health services, educational material, games and entertainment, and other township services. The Back to School Fair will be held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton on August 8^th. The school supplies were donated to HSP by numerous friends of the agency and because there’s always a need for school supplies we are accepting donations before August 8^th and after. If you would like to donate after August 8^th we will be giving those donations directly to needy children at deserving schools. Feel free to give us a call at 630-221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org about donating or for further information about the DuPage Back to School Fair.

Thank You Midwestern University!

The Humanitarian Service Project would like to thank the volunteers from the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University for helping sort toys for the Children’s Birthday Project today!  These twenty, bright volunteers spent three hours today sorting toys in our warehouse for the needy children served by our Children’s Birthday Project. We are so grateful that these busy, young medical students took the time to help HSP make birthdays special for the needy children in our project.


 The toys sorted by these Midwestern Students will become part of the 20-25 lb birthday box received by the 888 needy children in the project. These children not only receive toys, but also books, schools supplies, and all the party supplies necessary to throw a memorable birthday party.  Again, we wish to thank these 20 volunteers for giving their time and energy to help us reach needy children! If you too are interested in volunteering for the Children’s Birthday Project, please call us at (630) 221-8340 or visit us online at www.humanitarianservice.org.