HSP Says Farewell to Three Interns

There have been many bittersweet moments this past week at HSP as we bid farewell to three of our wonderful spring interns. These interns have been working with HSP for the past couple months and have greatly contributed to the success of many of HSP’s programs.

Emma is front row, third from left

Emma Ewing was an accounting intern while at HSP, and a majority of her work was done with Floyd Kettering, the CFO and co-founder of HSP. On her last day, Floyd mentioned that Emma’s assistance was incredibly helpful and that she was very professional. Emma will be starting another internship in order to receive enough hours to take her CPA exam.

David is front row, fourth from right

David Patterson worked with the senior updates while he was interning with HSP. The senior updates are given to the supporters of our Senior Citizen Project, and it gives a brief update on how the individual senior’s lives have been changed with the help and support of our donors. David will be graduating from Elmhurst College and will be entering a program to become a paralegal.

Karima is front row, sitting

Karima Daboub was working on a project with the HSP team in order to complete her Master of Public Health degree at Benedictine University. With her degree, Karima plans to return to Libya and help provide nutrition to those in need. Today was Karima’s last day, so she provided authentic Libyan food for lunch so that HSP could experience a small part of Libya’s culture.  

It is very hard to say goodbye to these hardworking interns, but HSP in excited to see how they succeed in their next stage of life and hope the very best for them. 

Thank you Sabre Holdings and Kohl’s (Wheaton) volunteers!

Every month the Humanitarian Service Project distributes over six tons of groceries to 121 needy seniors enrolled in the Senior Citizen Project. Each senior is provided with over 100 lbs of groceries. Seniors are given an assortment of food including a variety of frozen meats, vegetables, fresh fruits, paper products, and items for personal care. On May 17^th, 2013 volunteers from Kohl’s (Wheaton) and Sabre Holdings came to help sort bread, produce, and canned goods to help the Humanitarian Service Project sort the large amount of food provided by the National Association of Letter Carriers annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.

The Chicago employees of Sabre Holdings provided ten volunteers for the morning shift and eight volunteers for the afternoon hours. Sabre holdings is a global technology company that provides services for people all around the world to plan, book and get to their destination for an appropriate price and time. The volunteers from Sabre Holdings came prepared to work diligently. The employees of the Humanitarian Service Project had the chance to work with the volunteers from Sabre Holdings. We noticed that they were kind, fun individuals looking to give back to the community.

The other group of volunteers came from Kohl’s department store in Wheaton, Illinois. Kohl’s of Wheaton regularly sends volunteers to help us here at the Humanitarian Service Project. As always the volunteers from Kohl’s worked hard and brought good attitudes to the Humanitarian Service Project. The five volunteers helped sort produce for our delivery day tomorrow for the seniors of DuPage County.

The Humanitarian Service Project wants to thank the volunteers of both Kohl’s and Sabre Holdings for their hard work so that we may provide much needed groceries to the impoverished seniors in our Senior Citizen Project.  If you are interested in donating or volunteering your time with the Humanitarian Service Project, call us at 630-221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org.

FT Really Cares By Donating 50 “Party In a Bag” Kits for CBP!

Yesterday a very generous donation came through the doors of HSP’s office. FT Cares donated 50 “party in a bag” kits which are distributed through HSP’s Children’s Birthday Project.  FT Cares the charitable branch of First Trust, a financial services firm in Wheaton, a neighboring town of Carol Stream. 

The kits were dropped off by Lisa Weier, an associate of First Trust, and representative of the foundation.  FT Cares has recently gained 501(c) 3 charitable status, which means they are a viable charitable organization. Not only does FT Cares donate goods to non-profits around the area, they also have employees who volunteer their time to helping those in need. 

Lisa Weier with the 50 donated bags. 

When all of the boxes were gathered and put away, the bags filled our upstairs staging room. The bags were a wide assortment of colors, featuring themes that would be flashy and attractive to the children we serve.  Some of the deigns on the bags include: lions, parrots, sea creatures such as octopi, and sharks.  Other bags had fireworks with the words “happy birthday”.  Along with the 50 pre-packaged bags, Weier also dropped off two bags of extra birthday things that can be used for bags that may not have enough goodies.  All of the bags are made up for appropriate age or gender.

HSP would like to thank Lisa and everybody who donated to FT Cares for the CBP donation.  Your donations are what keep HSP up and running smoothly on a daily basis.  Without your generosity, HSP wouldn’t be able to provide the services to the neediest people in our area. 

Aside from donations HSP also appreciates volunteers who can spend their time in our warehouse in Carol Stream helping to sort food, or do other similar tasks as we get ready for our summer program, Feed the Kids.  If you are interested in donating or volunteering your time with HSP, call us at 630-221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org

Giant Steps help HSP take a Giant Leap

Yesterday, the Humanitarian Service Project (HSP) was very thankful to receive help from children of the school Giant Steps. Giant Steps is a school that is located in Lisle. Their goals are to provide educational and therapeutic programs for individuals and groups that are affected by autism. Their programs are designed to help children, ranging in age from elementary to high school, develop/improve their communication, academic, and daily living skills.

HSP was happy to help them continue their development as we had 16 hardworking volunteers from Giant Steps that came to our warehouse yesterday. They split up into two separate groups, morning and afternoon, where they volunteered their time to helping sort and organize non-perishables that were collected from the Stamp out Hunger event that occurred this past Saturday. All of the food that was collected from this event will be used for our Senior Citizen Project and Feed the Kids program. These kids did a fantastic job of remaining positive and working diligently to help us sort through food for our disadvantaged seniors and families.

All of Giant Steps volunteering yesterday will help HSP make a giant leap in improving the lives of our very needy seniors and families. We are always looking for more enthusiastic and hardworking volunteers so if you or your organization is interested in volunteering for HSP give us a call at 630-221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org for more information.

HSP Welcomes Two New Interns!

This past week, Humanitarian Service Project happily added two new interns to their summer intern team. HSP would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the two interns, Lindsey Conger and Ashley Bondarowicz. We here at HSP are excited for them to join our intern team.

Our first intern is Lindsey Conger, a student who attends Indiana University. Lindsey is a journalism major with a specialization in public relations.  She’ll fit in perfectly with our PR team, whose work includes getting the public informed about HSP.  Lindsey will be helping HSP get the word out about all the opportunities we provide to serve the needy seniors, children and families in our programs. Lindsey hopes to have a career in non-profit work, which is what led her to join our internship team. The PR for HSP includes writing for newspapers for both print and online publications, and writing this very blog.  Lindsey hopes to join a non-profit in North Carolina when she graduates.  She will graduate at the end of the fall 2013 semester. 

Lindsey has expressed that she wants to feel like her work makes a difference, and strayed away from corporate PR and stuck to non-profit PR. Besides non-profit work, Lindsey likes to go biking in her free time

Lindsey has a history of volunteerism and internships with non-profits.  She has spent time in an internship with Middle Way House, in Bloomington, Indiana.  Middle Way helps out with domestic abuse against women.  Middle Way “really opened” Lindsey up to the possibility of great work that can be done through non-profit organizations.

HSP would also like to give a warm welcome to our second intern joining the team this week, Ashley Bondarowicz.  She is also a part of HSP’s summer intern team.  Ashley attends St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, where she is a double major studying towards a communication and graphic design degree. After graduation, Ashley hopes to work in PR, marketing or advertising. 

Ashley has expressed that service and volunteerism are both important parts of her life, which really coaxed her to the internship with HSP.  In her time here, Ashley will be working with our PR team to get the word out to the public about HSP. 

Ashley has spent time volunteering and raising funds for the Special Olympics, and for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. In her time here, Ashley hopes to learn more about the working environment. Some of Ashley’s favorite activities to do in her free time include running and doing crafts.

Again, HSP gives a warm welcome to both Lindsey and Ashley as they join our summer intern team.  Both women are excited for the opportunities that interning with HSP has to offer.  We here at HSP are grateful for the young women joining us for the summer. Help us welcome both women to our team

Three Volunteer Groups at HSP Today!

Today was a very busy day at the Humanitarian Service Project. Volunteers from three different groups came in and generously donated their time to assist us in our warehouse. Volunteers from Insight Inc., Girl Scout Troop 1072, and Cantigny assisted us with sorting and packaging non-perishable food items. The food items that were being packaged were collected from the Stamp out Hunger event that occurred this past Saturday. It’s perceived approximately 18,040 pounds of food for the needy seniors and families we sponsor came in from this event.

Insight Inc. has become a fast friend of HSP. Just this past month they held a food collection drive for our needy seniors.  Their company allows every employee to have sixteen paid volunteer hours every year. Today two of their employees contributed part of their volunteer hours to helping us sort through and package some of the food items collected.

The girls of Girl Scout Troop 1072 from Fry Elementary School in Naperville also joined us as they came in to donate a few hours on their day off of school. This troop has volunteered for us in the past with present wrapping and enjoyed the experience so much that they wanted to come back. Eight 5th grade girls and their two troop leaders assisted us in our warehouse with sorting and organizing through some of the non-perishable food items.

We also were lucky to have Cantigny with us today with seven volunteers at our center. Cantigny allows its employees to partake in four community service days per year and these seven chose to spend today with us. The volunteers spent the day sorting and boxing non-perishable food items and creating bags of meat for our needy seniors.

Thank you to all of our volunteers today. If you or your organization is interested in volunteering for HSP give us a Call at 630-221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org for more information. 

A Van Full of Bread for Lake Park Elementary!

Yesterday, the Humanitarian Service Project was happy to donate a “van filled to the brim” with loaves of bread to the needy children and families at Lake Park Elementary School (LPE) in Addison. Liz Southwell, a school administrator, said, “We couldn’t believe how generous of a donation it was! Each child received two-three loaves of bread.” HSP was extremely happy to be able to help these impoverished children!

At LPE almost 90% of the 400+ students are receiving subsidized lunches. Because of such high levels of poverty in the area, whenever it’s possible HSP brings any bread that we have available in order to help these children get the nutrients that they need.  In addition to food donations, 216 impoverished students at the school are also involved in our Children Birthday Project. During the month of their birthday, each child in this program receives a 20-25 pound Birthday Box full of new, age appropriate toys, books, and party supplies to make their birthday unforgettable!

 HSP volunteer Jeff Marker with the donated bread.

Because of the distance of the school from our office, the bread was brought to LPE by our amazing volunteers Jeff Marker and Pete Laabs. HSP is very grateful for their continued willingness to help in any way possible!