CHARITY NIGHT TO BENEFIT NEEDY CHILDREN

Last night, HSP’s Assistant Director, Kristin Maxwell, attended the McGladrey Charity night for their Accounting Senior Associates and Supervisors.  McGladrey is the fifth largest U.S. provider of assurance, tax and consulting services, had 200 people come to donate and wrap gifts for the needy children served by our Christmas Offering.  The group all had fun together wrapping their gifts for the needy children; they even competed to see who could wrap the best!  Overall, 82 gifts and 52 rolls of wrapping paper were donated. This is the fourth time in the past few months that McGladrey has hosted this type of event to benefit HSP.  Kristin attended this type of event most recently in September, as well as in June and July.  We would like to thank McGladrey for all that they have done to support HSP, as well as, specifically recognize Donie McDermott for organizing this event.  HSP would not be able to achieve all the success in helping the needy children that we do without help from groups like this one.

HSP is currently committed to serving, at least, 1200 needy children through our Christmas Offering, and has 321 needy children on our waiting list. This being the case, every gift that we receive goes miles in giving a child in need a Merry Christmas. The Christmas Offering also provides, at least, three weeks of groceries to 150 of the needy families served by the Offering. These families will receive 15 varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables, 7 frozen meats, a turkey with a complete holiday meal, 4 loaves of Pepperidge Farm bread, and five boxes of non-perishables (weighing 25 pounds each.)  If you are interested in making a difference in the lives of the needy children that we serve, check out our website for more information:

www.humanitarianservice.org or call us at (630) 221-8340

All Hands on Deck!

        With the days winding toward our Senior D-days and the Christmas Offering, HSP is thankful to have support from our volunteers.  In the past couple of days two devoted groups helped to better organize our projects.  Yesterday 15 volunteers from Prologis helped in two shifts spanning the day. The volunteers from Prologis helped in numerous tasks.  They helped sort 1168 wooden toys made and donated by the DuPage Wood Workers Club.  They helped sort new winter clothes donations and giving tree gifts.  Prologis also helped organize our walk-in freezer to make space for 150 turkeys for Christmas families.  Lastly, they organized and wrapped new books donated by Barnes & Noble for the needy children we serve.  We thank Prologis for their time and we especially wish to recognize Kathleen Brandenburg, who organized the event, and devoted her entire day to volunteering.

            Today, Lexis Nexis brought a strong group to help facilitate our projects. Lexis Nexis encourages their employees help their communities, providing them with two days of paid time to volunteer.  The group from Lexis Nexis enjoys HSP because they appreciate HSP’s clean and organized warehouse; furthermore, we are flexible with time and always have plenty for them to do.  Also, the volunteers receive satisfaction after a day’s work feeling they influenced the community.  The team helped with senior gift-wrapping, bagged up and stored the 150 turkeys for Christmas families, and organized the freezer after the turkeys were stored.  They also inventoried giving tree gifts and made personal care kits for seniors.  Archana Rao has lead the team effort from Nexis Lexis at HSP since 2006 and she says, “Volunteering time at HSP; I have had the opportunity to see the happiness on the recipients faces from seeing their gifts and groceries. I feel after a hard day of work at HSP we have made and impact on the community.” Archana also gives on her own time, by sponsoring a senior and two children year round, donating school supplies, and contributing giving trees for four children and two seniors. We want to Thank Lexis Nexis for giving their time to help us serve those in need, and Archana Rao for heading the group from Lexis Nexis today. 

            The time given by both Prologis and Lexis Nexis highlights what is important during this holiday season.  During this holiday season, remember that spending time is most important; whether it be in volunteering, with loved ones, or distant from family and friends take time to help and enjoy the company you keep.  Once again, we are thankful to the volunteers from Prologis and Lexis Nexis and encourage our supporters and readers to continue to reach out this holiday season and throughout the New Year. If you like to volunteer here at HSP please check out our web site http://humanitarianservice.org/ or give us a call at 630-221-8340

DUPAGE WOODWORKERS MAKE TOYS FOR NEEDY CHILDREN

Dale Gustafson (left) and Rick Ogren (right) of the DuPage
Woodworkers Club

        We at the Humanitarian Service Project were ecstatic Friday to receive a truckload of wooden toys from the DuPage Woodworkers Club.  HSP provides birthday and Christmas presents to those children living in poverty. Currently, we serve 900 children with a 20-25 lb. “birthday box” each year, and will serve at least, 1,200 children with Christmas gifts this year. We would like to sincerely thank Rick Ogren and Dale Gustafson who dropped off the 1168 toys to our site in Carol Stream, and the rest of the club for helping us serve these needy children.

            Club members Rick Ogren and Stan Anderson are the volunteer organizers of this year- long toy project.  They have been doing this project for six years.  Rick recalled that the first year they ran the project they had 76 toys and this year they have made over 4,000. In addition to HSP, the club supports five other charities through this drive. The other charities that will be receiving toys from this club are Mutual Ground in Aurora, Downers Grove Family Shelter, The Darien Lions Club, Saint James the Apostle Church, and Midlothian School District 143 special needs program. The club handcrafts each toy, either as an individual or through three yearly group events where they make the toys in an assembly line. Dale, the club president, says, “Everybody has a great time making the toys each year and they are genuinely proud of their handiwork.” The club is always in the need of monetary donations as well as material donations to help them to continue their efforts.

            We would like to thank again this dedicated group for helping us make a difference in these needy children’s lives.

For more information on The DuPage Woodworkers Club, visit their website. http://www.dupagewoodworkers.org

THANK YOU TO OUR C.O.D. SERVICE LEARNERS

Kailey, one of our College of DuPage Service Learning volunteers, hard at work.

            Over the past several months, Humanitarian Service Project has been blessed to have many students from College of DuPage volunteer their time with us through the “Service Learning” program, in which HSP is an official service learning site. The Service Learning Program combines community service with academic instruction. Through this program, students have a requirement to volunteer 20 hours of their time helping local non-profit organizations. In service learning courses, students are involved in organized service projects that address the needs of community organizations. We have had many students stay over their 20 hours and we are very thankful to them for taking extra time out of their busy schedules to help us.  This method of instruction is a “win-win” because the students are able to develop their academic skills while they learn a sense of civic responsibility and help us make a difference in our community as well.

            These students have significantly contributed to our success the past several months and have helped us with many of our projects here including community outreach for our Christmas Offering, supervising volunteer groups, organizing donated food and toys in our warehouse, and helping with many other projects as needed.  

            We would like to take the time to thank these volunteers for helping us make a difference in the community.

Rolling up their Sleeves

Resurrection Lutheran

At HSP we are blessed to have quality volunteers who are friendly, enthusiastic, and focus on the excellence of the service they give. This week, three groups who have a volunteering relationship with HSP, devoted time to help us prepare for our up-coming holiday projects. Yesterday, a group from Resurrection Lutheran Middle School sorted bread for families enrolled in the Christmas Offering.  This group was the second group from Resurrection Lutheran that has come in the last two weeks.  The items sorted this week was, a mixture of white and wheat breads, bagels, hamburger and hot dog bun, and Cinnamon swirl Bread.

           

Lexis Nexis

     Also yesterday, Lexis Nexis of Lombard brought six wholehearted volunteers that put together bags of non- perishable food for our seniors and helped organize our pantry shelves.  Lexis Nexis helps throughout the year.  Most recently in late September, they came to help wrap gifts for the Children’s Birthday Project. We were happy to see familiar faces as a number of volunteers yesterday, volunteered in September and in previous events. They help often; especially during busy times, giving a hand to enable us to best serve the needy families and seniors in our projects.

Willowbrook High School

            Today, a spirited group form Willowbrook High School helped make the bread packages for the families in the Christmas Offering.  Peggy, A teacher at Willowbrook High, mentioned this is the fifth year that her class has helped here at HSP; and, it brings the best out of her students.  Peggy’s students learn how do take instruction, to persevere, problem solving skills, and time management skills as a part of their transitional curriculum. These students from Willowbrook High School are aware of what goes on in the community and being active with HSP is a positive way to influence the place they call home.  “It does not take much to help,” Peggy adds, “You don’t have to have ‘Everything’ in the world to give.”   Indeed the students at Willowbrook High School have embraced being active in the community which we appreciate here at HSP.

            Again, we want to thank all of our volunteers for the quality service they give here at HSP. We also want to recognize all of our volunteers that help this time of the year.  Moreover, if you want to help please check out our web site http://humanitarianservice.org/ or give us a call at 630-221-8340.

THANK YOU BARNES AND NOBLE!!

HSP volunteer Jeff Marker with the donated books.

Humanitarian Service Project is very grateful for the 1,766 books we received from Barnes and Noble of Oak Brook yesterday. These books were donated through Barnes and Noble’s annual Holiday Book Drive.  Barnes and Noble have been supporting HSP through this drive since 2009.  Barnes and Noble offers books that can be purchased by their customers at a reduced price to be donated to needy children.  These books will go to the needy children that HSP serves in our Children Birthday Project.  HSP supports 900 children a year through CBP, ages 3-11, with 6 to 10 new toys, 6 new books, school supplies, numerous smaller “filler gifts,” and party supplies (cake mix, streamers, party hats, plates, etc.), to provide them with a memorable birthday.  The families in this project lack the financial ability to be able to otherwise purchase these much needed books that are important to the educational growth of these children in this stage of life.

We again want to thank Barnes and Noble and their customers for this amazing donation.  In this time of year it is great to see so many people in the spirit of giving.  If you too are looking for a way to give this season contact HSP 630-221-8340 or hsp@humanitarianservice.org

You can visit our website at www.humanitarianservice.org for more information.

Making Room for the Cheerful Giving

     Visitors to HSP may notice an addition to our facility, and wonder why or how it got there.  Each year at Christmas time, the capacity needed for our Christmas Offering, and other projects, exceeds the storage capacity of our center.  Yesterday, National Van Lines kindly delivered a trailer to HSP to alleviate that problem.  The trailer was delivered by Michael Graham, a National Van Lines driver from California, who happened to be in town. The trailer will be parked next to our dock until after Christmas, where it will serve as temporary storage for the gifts given to the needy children served by our Christmas Offering. We are grateful to have the trailer measuring an additional 2500 cubic feet in storage capacity; and it has been given to HSP free of cost over the holiday season. We thank Maureen Beal President of National Van Lines for helping provide a convenient solution to our limited space in the holiday season. 

            The space added by the trailer is used to house our gifts for the Christmas Offering. The Christmas Offering provides gifts to children in the area for the holidays.  In the Christmas Offering, each child receives at least three gifts; and, with large amounts of committed donors, we maximize our outreach to local youths.  The trailer that has been provided gives us the ability to harbor more gifts to serve more families, and help add cheer to more homes this holiday season.