HAPPY Birthday

Today, HSP is celebrating the birthday of a special man. He is a great leader, a loyal co-founder, a loving husband, a caring father, a wonderful grandfather, and a dear friend. Mr. Floyd Kettering, the co-founder of HSP, has recently retired from the Theosophical Society. Greatly respected there, he and the society commemorated his dedication over 37 years to make his retirement a successful and a touching event. And today, we are commemorating and celebrating a different event – his 70th birthday.

Floyd Kettering, with his wife Karole, built the Humanitarian Service Project from the ground up. Over the past 32 years, HSP has grown to serve 120 low-income seniors who receive fresh produce every month and over 700 children born into poverty in the DuPage County. Just as these 700 children feel special on their birthdays due to HSP’s commitment to bring an unforgettable birthday to them, we want to make Floyd’s birthday as special and unforgettable.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Floyd. From all of us at HSP, we wish you a very happy birthday, good health, happiness, love, joy, money, and a special wish coming true for every candle in your birthday cake.

Buy a BRICK from HSP!!

The Humanitarian Service is tremendously grateful for the vast amount of donations that are generously given to our not for profit charity. It is with a hopeful and thankful heart that we ask for support with our Buy a Brick program. The donation will become a permanent fixture within the front entrance sidewalk of HSP. Not only will this brick serve as a stepping stone, this donation would work ideally as memorial or as a gift in recognition of a loved one. Your brick can be engraved with a name, business, special date, or a message. Your brick may have up to 2 lines containing 20 characters, .4” height.

Yes, I’ll buy a Brick!

If you would like to make an influential impression on our organization and help our Building fund, donating $500 for the purchase of a Brick would be significant. This $500 tax-deductible donation can be submitted in one sum; or with a deposit of $50, we will send you a payment book for 18 monthly payments of $25 each.

Kiwanis Club of Villa Park

Yesterday we introduced you to Paul Yambrovich, our new Community Outreach Coordinator. Well Paul is jumping right into his new position and, along with our CFO and Co-Founder, Floyd Kettering, took an early morning trip to talk to the members of the Kiwanis Club of Villa Park at their monthly meeting. The main purpose of the trip was to thank the Kiwanis Club of Villa Park for their continued sponsorship, but while at the meeting, Floyd was presented with a check by Vice President, Dan Krause, and Treasurer, Irene Shaffer. The Kiwanis Club of Villa Park donated $800.00 for the co-sponsorship of 2 seniors in the Senior Citizen Project and $104.00 for the sponsorship of 2 children in the Children’s Birthday Project.

The Kiwanis Club of Villa Park has been generously helping HSP for over 10 years. In order to be able to support HSP and the various other organizations they support, the Kiwanis Club of Villa Park holds several fundraising events each year. This year they will be holding a bowling fundraiser, a golf outing, a battle of the bands, and the Kiwanis Peanut Day, among other events.

We want the Kiwanis Club of Villa Park to know how very grateful we are for their continued support, so from everyone here to everyone there, THANK YOU!

Why We Love Judi and Cindy

If it seems like we’re doing a lot of writing about our volunteers it’s because we are – we just have so many wonderful people giving us their time and talents, and they often go unrecognized. We want to make sure you know that we couldn’t do all we do without them!

This morning we want to tell you about two of our Wednesday volunteers, Judi Simon and Cindy Fabbri. Judi and Cindy come in each week to do whatever kind of sorting is needed to prepare for the monthly holiday delivery for seniors. Today they’re back in the Secret Pal room inventorying all the extra gifts so that when it’s time to see which seniors didn’t get a Secret Pal gift it will be easier to find something suitable for them. Next week they’ll probably be pulling those gifts for the January 22 delivery. Other weeks you’ll find them sorting food for the seniors.

Judi has been volunteering regularly for almost 7 years, and has been a senior sponsor for over 15 years! She started out volunteering around the holidays after reading a newspaper article about HSP but wanted to do more once she stopped working. She’s always had an interest in helping seniors and enjoys doing a variety of things for HSP. Sometimes she helps sort toys and even brings home bags of them to wrap.

Cindy has been giving us her time for over a year now. She was looking for a volunteer opportunity and found us on the website for “Giving DuPage.” She started coming around the holidays and really enjoyed being a part of the Christmas Offering. She came back to help with the Christmas gift sorting and delivery again this year. Cindy also sponsors 4 children through the Children’s Birthday Project. When asked what she likes most about coming Cindy stated, “Christmas is a lot of fun, but so is the senior gift and food sorting. Plus I get to share recipes with Judi every week!” Sounds good to us! We’re so glad they keep coming back.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to Judi and Cindy for their hard work and dedication to HSP! We appreciate all you do!

Happy Birthday, Paul!

As the Children’s Birthday Project may have led you to believe, we love birthdays! So when one of us here at HSP has a birthday, we celebrate! Today we are celebrating the birthday of one of our newest staff members, Paul Yambrovich. Paul was recently hired as our Community Outreach Coordinator, but he isn’t new to HSP. Paul has been volunteering for the past 25 years, helping out when needed, but primarily around the holidays. Paul’s experience is in marketing and sales, and we’re so excited to have his expertise. We look forward to all the great connections Paul will be making and maintaining for us.

To celebrate Paul’s birthday, the entire staff along with two of our volunteers ate a delicious lunch from Jimmy John’s. As with any good party, we had party hats and balloons, and finished the meal with cake, ice-cream, and a chorus of “Happy Birthday.” Happy Birthday, Paul, and welcome to the HSP team! We’re so glad to have you!

Thanks to Ginna Ericksen

Yesterday we told you about our need for Secret Pals. Today we’re going to introduce to you a dedicated volunteer behind the scenes, Ginna Ericksen. Ginna is our primary coordinator for the Secret Pals program.

Ginna began working with HSP as a Girl Scout Leader. Years earlier she had read a newspaper article about HSP and its founder, Karole Kettering, and when she was looking for organizations for her Troop to work with she remembered HSP and contacted Karole. The rest is history!

Ginna’s Girl Scout Troop did a lot of work with HSP so in 2007 when her son, Nick, needed to do an internship she naturally thought of HSP. While Nick was interning he had to make phone calls to find volunteer drivers for the monthly senior delivery, and he called his mom. She agreed, and during the delivery she learned about the Secret Pals program. Ginna, along with her daughter Emily, who was 11 at the time, decided to become Secret Pals and have been enjoying their duties together ever since.

After becoming a Secret Pal Ginna decided to do a little more by coming in and helping to sort and ready the gifts for delivery. Last spring she became the primary coordinator for the Secret Pal program. You can often find her in the little glass Secret Pal room, either sorting gifts or plugging away with wishlists and requests.

If you’re wondering what it takes to coordinate the Secret Pals program, it all starts when someone asks to become a Secret Pal. Ginna matches Secret Pals with the seniors who don’t already have one. She maintains wishlists for the seniors and gives each Secret Pal either a wishlist from the senior, or a list of general ideas. Each month when the gifts come in, Ginna organizes them on the shelves in the Secret Pal room and gets them ready for delivery day. If a senior doesn’t have a Secret Pal or a Secret Pal misses a month, Ginna makes every effort to ensure each senior gets something from the stockpile of small gifts or toiletries that HSP keeps.

In addition to involving Nick and Emily, Ginna’s daughter, Melissa, also did an internship with HSP last summer. Volunteering with HSP has really become a family activity for Ginna and her children! For all that Ginna, Nick, Melissa, and Emily do, we show our gratitude with a great big THANK YOU!!!

15 Secret Pals Needed!

Do you know about our Secret Pals program for seniors?

Each month, when we deliver food to our needy seniors, we also deliver gifts from their “Secret Pals.” We match seniors up with Secret Pals and give each Secret Pal a wishlist from the senior along with a profile of that senior. The wishlist is a list of items that the senior would like, but can’t afford to buy. We ask that Secret Pals to purchase monthly items between $5 and $25 in value and either deliver or mail the gifts to us at HSP. When we package up the food for the senior delivery day each month we include any Secret Pal gifts. This gift not only gives the seniors a fun surprise, but also lets them know that someone cares for them and is thinking of them.

In order to become a Secret Pal we ask that you commit to bringing or mailing in a small gift once a month, before delivery day. If you’re worried that getting here once a month might become too hectic, you also have the option of bringing in several months’ worth of gifts at once, and we will be sure to distribute the gifts for the appropriate months. Another option is to send in a gift card as your gift for the month.

If you’re looking for examples of the types of items that may be on wishlists, they include: towels, washcloths, picture frames, sponges, cleaning supplies, slippers, sunglasses, hats, socks, moisturizing lotion, sunscreen, stationary, crafts, and puzzles.

We currently need 15 people to sponsor our seniors as Secret Pals in order to have a Secret Pal for each one of our seniors. If you are interested in becoming a Secret Pal or would like more information, please call Sarah Grindstaff, our Senior Citizen Project Coordinator at 630-221-8340, or email her at scp@humanitarianservice.org. The Secret Pal program is very rewarding. Your senior will feel good, and so will you!