Meet Laura

 

We at HSP are so glad to have a new intern join our team. Laura is a student at Elmhurst College, majoring in English and writing. On her first day, she has already been a tremendous help to our entire staff. Interviewing each of the 120 seniors enrolled in the Senior Citizen Project requires dedication and great communication skills, and Laura has jumped in to help tackle this yearly milestone. Laura’s knowledge of the Serbian language makes a big impact on the way we communicate with the few seniors in our program who are of Serbian heritage.

We would like to officially welcome Laura to our team and to wish her success here, at school, and in the future.

Holiday Meals Needed for St. Patrick’s Day!

Are you looking for a way to make a positive impact in the lives of others? You might want to consider to becoming a holiday meal volunteer.

We are currently looking for volunteers to deliver St. Patrick’s Day meals to seniors in the following towns:

• Aurora (1 Senior)
• Bensenville (4 Seniors
• Carol Stream (2 Seniors)
• Downers Grove (6 Seniors)
• Glen Ellyn (2 Seniors)
• Glendale Heights (2 Seniors)
• Naperville (1 Senior)
• Villa Park (1 Senior)
• Warrenville (1 Senior)
• Westmont (2 Seniors)
• Wheaton (7 Seniors)
• Woodridge (1 Senior)

We recommend volunteers give seniors 2-3 different meal options. The meal does not need to be delivered on the specific Holiday. Volunteers communicate with the seniors in order to coordinate a time that works for both!

If you are interested in serving any of the seniors listed above, give us a call at 630-221-8340 or send us an email at scp@humanitarianservice.org

HSP is taking The Feinstein Foundation Challenge

Humanitarian Service Project is taking the Feinstein Challenge!

For the 14^th year in a row The Feinstein Foundation is giving away 1 million dollars to agencies across the country to end hunger. Feinstein matches all donations of monetary donations that go towards the purchase of food as well as all food items donated between March 1^st and April 30^th.

If you are interested in participating with HSP in the Feinstein Challenge simply donate nonperishable food items, or make a monetary contribution designated towards the purchase of food. All proceeds generated will go towards serving Seniors in our Senior Citizen Project, and families that will be served through our 2011 Feed the Kids project. To learn more about The Feinstein Challenge visit http://www.feinsteinfoundation.org/ .

Teamwork!

The Humanitarian Service Project and Head Start of DuPage County are teaming up! HSP has been fortunate to have received an excess of toys for children ages 3-5, and instead of storing them, we’ve decided to give them to children who could use them. Head Start is a national program that helps prepare children of low-income families for school.

With the help of Joy Aaronson, the Lead Family & Community Specialist for Head Start, we will be providing Head Start with enough gifts so that 583 children between the ages of 3 and 5 will receive gifts. Joy will work with the various DuPage County Head Start Programs to coordinate the delivery of the toys. We have enough extra toys so that 271 boys and 312 girls will each receive 3 gifts.

With so many toys to sort, we knew we would need some extra help, so Megan Birkey, our Children’s Birthday Project Coordinator, contacted our friends at LexisNexis. LexisNexis sends employees over to help throughout the year, so Megan figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask, and it didn’t! They were happy to help, and we kicked off our toy sorting today with the help of one of their employees, Karen Enright! Karen, along with the help of Jan Thompson, our Toy Room Manager, Kristin Schnell and Shelly Hodges, two of our regular volunteers, and Eunnice Deiparine, an intern from COD, started the process of pulling toys out of bags and boxes to sort into groups of three, based on age and gender. Many thanks to Karen and LexisNexis, Jan, Kristin, Shelly, and Eunnice for stepping up to the job!


~A life not lived for others is not a life.~ -Mother Teresa

Our Resident Geese

Here at HSP we don’t just feed seniors and children; we also feed our feathered friends! Karole and Floyd Kettering, HSP founders, really enjoy birds, and like seeing which ones come back from day to day. We have a bird bath in the front, and Karole is sure to keep the water fresh and unfrozen. She also keeps the birds well fed by filling up both bird feeders when they get low.

In addition to the birds who visit, we also have two geese living near our building. We often see them wandering around the side yard, but sometimes they come to the front yard, presumably for food. Sharon Fritz, our Administrative Assistant, spotted them looking for food Monday morning and went out with some old bread and crackers. They didn’t want Sharon getting too close to them, but they sure did like what she left for them!

~If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.~ – Mother Teresa

Senior Delivery Day - February

Senior Delivery Day – February

Thanks to all of our wonderful doners, we were able to get many large items to our Seniors on February’s delivery day! These larger items are from our Senior’s Wish List and we are so happy to be able to provide these items to our Seniors! Some of the items that went out on delivery day were a walker, 2 vacuum cleaners, 2 food processors, a microwave, a television set and a shower bench. These might seem like small items to us, but to our Senior’s they are much needed and it must have seemed like Christmas all over again for them. We are so proud to be able to enrich their delivery day with these additional gifts. Our Seniors look so forward to their grocery delivery and their secret pal gifts, so these extras are above and beyond and they co uld only happen because of our doners!!! Thank you.

Tracy Anderson a special volunteer!

Tracy Anderson!

Tracy is a volunteer that started volunteering at HSP during the Christmas Holidays of 2010. Tracy recently moved to Illinois from Pennsylvania. While looking for a job Tracy decided to volunteer, her time and she chose HSP. Tracy worked for the US Marine Corps for over 5 years in Pennsylvania and for the Family Readiness Program in California. Tracy volunteers 2 full days a week in the HSP offices. Tracy has been such an asset and a delight to work with that when she does secure full time employment, she will leave a large gap in the spirit in our offices. We wish her well in her search for employment; however will be saddened when she leaves us. Tracy has been a gift to HSP!!