Thank You Gregory Middle School!

Humanitarian Service Project would like to extend our deepest thanks to the student council of Gregory Middle School in Naperville for donating 100 toys to our Children’s Birthday Project. The students brought in the toys as part of an “It’s not your birthday” party. The party was just like any other birthday party; the kids played games, and ate cake. However, since it was an “It’s not your birthday” party, all of the gifts brought were donated to us to get out to needy children. Laurie Zalanik, the student council advisor, said “we like doing projects for the HSP since the students can have fun socializing and do great things for the needy.” We at HSP love doing projects with Gregory Middle School too, and want to give them our deepest thanks. It’s great to see young people engaged in reaching out to those in need.

The toys donated will go straight to the needy kids in our Children’s Birthday Project. As part of the program, the children in the Children’s Birthday Project get a 25 pound box full of toys and other goodies on their birthday, as well as, gifts at Christmas. This generous donation comes in at a great time, as we are just starting to get ready for Christmas. If you would be interested in conducting a toy drive, like the great kids in the student council of Gregory Middle School, you can learn more at our website: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/getinvolved/toydrive.html.

Volunteer Spotlight: Sue

Ladies and gentlemen, it is your lucky day, because today we have a second serving of our Volunteer Spotlight. Today we wanted to recognize a wonderful volunteer, Sue Keenan, who has been helping out at HSP for over a decade now. Sue began helping out here around the office about ten years ago, and after starting her own business, she began helping us in a different way, by picking up gifts for our Children’s Birthday Project and wrapping them for us. For years Sue has been providing expertly wrapped gifts for the children in our project. We at HSP would like to thank Sue for all the heartfelt work she does for us.

Sue is a woman of many talents. She is the founder of the Village Theater Guild in Glen Ellyn, which is going on its 50^th year. Through the guild she directs and acts. Professionally, Sue is a personal concierge. You can learn more about her business at http://www.run-around-sue.com/.

Sue enjoys volunteering as a wrapper because it is a volunteer opportunity she can do in the comfort of her home. Sue claims she was drawn to HSP because she “likes helping people, and has a soft spot in her heart for children.” Sue has turned this soft spot into a labor of love lasting over 10 years. If you would be interested in donating your time to pick up and wrap some gifts for us, like Sue, you can learn more under the “Wrap Gifts for Children” heading here: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/getinvolved/volunteers.html, or call us at 630-221-8340.

Volunteer Spotlight: Drivers

At Humanitarian Service Project we have been blessed with many wonderful volunteers who put their time and energy into helping everything run smoothly around here. For this week’s volunteer spotlight (or should I say headlight) we at HSP wanted to recognize a specific type of volunteer around here, our volunteer drivers. At HSP we have a people volunteering to drive to help us in a number of different ways. First there are the many drivers who come to our center and pick up groceries to deliver to our needy seniors every month for delivery day. There are a number of other drivers who come and help us by driving in other days, by doing such tasks as taking our vans out to food banks to pick up food for our seniors. We wanted to extend our deepest thanks to all of our drivers who really keep things moving around here. May all of your lights be green and all of engines run smooth.

There are many people who donated their time and energy to help HSP in our mission to alleviate the pain poverty brings to the needy in DuPage and Kane County. We want to thank, not only our great drivers, but also everyone else who makes everything HSP does possible. If you are interested in a volunteer opportunity, you can learn more at this link: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/getinvolved/index.html.

Riding the Road of Generosity

Humanitarian Service Project would like to issue a huge thank you to the Oakbrook division of the international company LexisNexis for the donation of 10 brand new bikes for the children in our Children’s Birthday Project. The bikes, which were dropped off at our center in Carol Stream by Bart, Raffi, and Scott from LexisNexis, were brought in fully assembled and complete with helmets for the children. The bikes were purchased, assembled, and delivered by LexisNexis as part of one of their “RE cares days” (the RE comes from Reed Elsevier, the owner of LexisNexis.) Again, we want to extend our thanks to LexisNexis.

The bikes will get out to needy children through our Children’s Birthday Project. Through the project, the children are granted toys, books, and party supplies on their birthday, as well as gifts at Christmastime. We are always looking for more great donations from our generous donors like LexisNexis, especially for older children’s gifts (ages 8-11.) If you are interested in the Children’s Birthday Project you can learn more by looking at our website: http://humanitarianservice.org/whatwedo/bdayproject.html.

Happy Birthday Karole!

If our Children’s Birthday Project didn't clue you in, we here at Humanitarian Service Project are fans of birthday parties. That’s why yesterday we were happy to celebrate a very special Birthday here at HSP, that of our Co-Founder and Executive Director Karole. Karole began the Humanitarian Service Project out of her spare bedroom in 1979, and has been expanding the project ever since. We hope all of our supporters will join us in wishing Karole a happy (albeit, by now, somewhat belated) birthday.

Our party yesterday included not only HSP staff, but also interns and volunteers and as well. Karole commented how nice it was to have to have volunteers at the birthday party, because they do so much great work to help out around HSP, and deserved to be around for our celebrations. Again we want to say happy birthday to Karole, but we also want to wish all of supporters who have helped Karole run the project over the years a deep thank you, and a happy birthday (whenever they may be.)

Keeping us Cut Clean

Those of you who have seen the film Forrest Gump may recall a scene in which Forrest makes a great deal of money by investing in Apple Computers. When his friend Lt. Dan tells him he won’t have to worry about money anymore, Forrest says “well that’s nice! You know, one less thing.” Considering we’re in the non-profit world, Humanitarian Service Project won’t ever be at the point where we won’t have to consider money anymore, but thanks to the generosity of one of our supporters we do have “one less thing” to worry about around here, our lawn. For this reason we at HSP would like to thank Chuck Strayve of Chuck Strayve Landscaping for his continued donation of his time and talent, to keep our lawn looking beautiful. Chuck’s crew was out here just this morning, and the lawn looks great!

Chuck has been donating his services to HSP for roughly a decade and we are thrilled to have his services. If our lawn could talk, we’re sure it would tell you the same thing. Chuck owns his own landscaping company out of West Chicago, which serves Chicagoland. You can check out the company’s website at http://www.chuckstrayvelandscaping.com. We would again like to thank Chuck for his continued support, as well as, all of the other volunteers and donors that use their talents to help HSP in many diverse and wonderful ways!

The Drive to Provide

Humanitarian Service Project is excited to announce that a very large food drive has come in sponsored by the Rotary Club of Carol Stream. The food drive was a community-wide drive, in which hundreds of people participated. The drive was conducted this Saturday, and it benefitted two other local charities (Interfaith Food Pantry and Feeding Northwest Dupage) as well as HSP. Luanne Triolo Newman of the Rotary Club, who was responsible for organizing the event, said everything collected fully covered 12 “double cafeteria tables both on top and underneath.” We at HSP unloaded the two vans crammed full of non-perishable food items, paper products, and some personal care items earlier this morning, and we were delighted with how much the food drive provided to us. Our rough estimate is that HSP received somewhere between 3500-4000 pounds of items through the drive.

All of the items received through the drive will be used by HSP to provide for the needy seniors in our Senior Citizen Program. Every month, the seniors in our program receive 90 pounds of groceries through our program. On top of non-perishables, paper products and personal care items provided through this drive, they also receive fresh fruits and vegetables, several kinds of meats, and bread. We would like to thank everyone involved in the food drive, and all the other supporters of our Senior Citizen project. Without all of your generous help, we at HSP would not be able to reach out to those who are in need. If you want to learn more about our Senior Citizen Project, you can do so by following this link: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/whatwedo/seniorproject.html.