Local Schools End Year in Right Way

Many athletes subscribe to the idea that it is always important to “finish strong.” While “finishing strong” may mean different things to different people, a generally accepted definition is that it important to give a task 100% of your effort all the way through to the end, no matter what. With most local schools at the end, or very near the end, of the school year, we at Humanitarian Service Project would like to recognize a few schools that certainly finished the year strong, by taking the time to reach out to those in need. We specifically want to recognize groups from Downers Grove South High School, Lindop Middle School in Broadview, and Our Savior Lutheran Preschool in Carol Stream for finishing the school year strong by collecting donations for the needy seniors citizens and families we serve.

First up we would like to thank students from Downers Grove South High School for collecting food for our summer Feed the Kids Project. Responding to our call for peanut butter and tuna fish for the 100 needy families in the program, three classes at the High School held a competition to see who could collect the most non-perishable food. In the end 500 cans/ jars of tuna, peanut butter, jelly, and soup were collected by these three classes for the sake of the needy families.

Jay Baum, a teacher at Downers Grove South, drops off the donation from the school.

With these high school students finishing strong, a number of younger students have followed their lead so to speak, and also done some wonderful year end drives. One group we’d like to thank is a group of students from Lindop Middle School in Broadview, who donated six large boxes stuffed full of party supplies and books for the children in our Children’s Birthday Project. Yesterday, three students from the school even made the trek from Broadview to Carol Stream with their Assistant Principal, Sonya Spaulding, to see their generous donation through to the end. 

The students from Lindop dropping off their donation.

Last, but not least, we would like to recognize Our Savior Lutheran Preschool in Carol Stream for creating and donating seventeen “party in a bag kits,” also for the needy children served by HSP. These bags contained all the supplies necessary to through a fun birthday party. We wish to thank these three groups for making time in the end of their school years to help us provide for those affected by poverty and hunger in the community. They have truly epitomized what it means to finish strong. 

The "Party in a Bag kits" from Our Savior Lutheran preschool.

HSP Picks “Golden Ticket Winners” during Visit to Lake Park Elementary

Yesterday HSP’s Assistant Director, Kristin Maxwell, and two former interns, Tawney and Regina Pauling, represented HSP at the year end “Awards Assembly” at Lake Park Elementary School in Addison. The school, whose needy students were all adopted into our Children’s Birthday Project earlier this year, invited HSP to the event to draw the winners of 10 bikes HSP donated to the school. The students became eligible for the drawing by earning a “golden ticket” by displaying school spirit, having perfect attendance, or being nominated by a teacher. Kristin, Tawney, and Regina were asked to draw the names of the lucky kids who would be awarded the bikes.

HSP has been very excited with our partnership with Lake Park Elementary because we know there is so much need for service there. Around 88% of the students at the school are from families with such low incomes that they receive subsidized lunch. Since our partnership with Lake Park Elementary began, we have been happy to assist Principal Deb Martello, and the rest of the faculty at the school, fulfill the needs of these children whose families are under incredible financial strain. We want to thank all of our supporters for helping us at HSP make a difference in the lives of these needy children. It is only because of you that HSP has been able to reach Lake Park Elementary with, not only these wonderful bikes, but to provide 20 pound birthday boxes full of gifts, books, school supplies, and party supplies for every needy child at the school.

Thank You Pleasantdale Middle School!

The boxes sorted by Pleasantdale Middle School

At this time of year, with the weather warming up and the end of school so near, school children across the country are starting to get a little antsy. With the promise of summer vacation on the horizon, many students are brimming with energy and yearning to get out of the classroom. HSP would like to recognize one such group of Middle School students who opted to use this energy in a positive way. We would like to thank a group of 10 students from Pleasantdale Middle School in Burr Ridge, for spending three hours in our warehouse volunteering their time sorting food for needy families served by our Feed the Kids Project.

Our Senior Citizen Project Coordinator, Tierney Hogan, said the group from Pleasantdale Middle School took to the task of food sorting with enthusiasm, and did the work assigned to them with both care and “extreme efficiency.” These students built 100 boxes full of non-perishable foods such as canned vegetables, soup, pasta, cereal, and main meal staples with such speed, that they also assisted us by categorizing some unsorted food in our warehouse as well.

All the food sorted by Pleasantdale Middle School will go to the needy families in our annual Feed the Kids Project this summer. Through this project, 100 needy families will receive much needed food during the summer months when the absence of school lunch programs increases the already intense financial strain they are under. The project is designed to provide these families (especially the children of these families) the necessary nutrition they need in this time of food insecurity. We wish to extend our deep appreciation to this group from Pleasantdale Middle School for donating their time and energy to make this difference in the lives of these needy families. If you too would like to participate in the program, please call us at 630-221-8340, to find out how you can help. 

School’s Out for the Summer: Not for These Kids

     As the spring semester ends for many college campuses around the area, a herd of freshly awakened students rush to the beaches and local pools to soak in the beaming summer sun after days of sulking over notes and textbooks trying to study for finals. However, this isn’t the case for a handful of the new interns starting up their first days at HSP this month. Referring to the previous posts, we welcomed Jen, Brian, Eric, Sam, Sarah, Stacey and Lianne into our family with open arms. Nervous stares and wandering eyes were just few of the indications that this will be the first internships for all of the newcomers, yet we have no worries that this bunch will have no problem fitting in.
     Our interns are divided into teams based on their projected assignments throughout their internships. One of our Public Relations intern, Sam, is extremely glad to be able to land an internship falling under her major. “I’m thankfully for this opportunity to be exposed to an office environment and get a head start on something I want to do after I graduate. I hope that during my time here at HSP I will be able to improve my writing and get a general sense of what the non-profit business is like.” Our interns will be working on the Senior Citizens Project, Feed the Kids and many more behind-the-scenes projects.
     We will be welcoming two more interns the beginning of June, Morgan and Kate. We are looking forward to working with these new interns and what the summer has in store for us.

Grant interns, Lianne and Eric, organizing grant files.

Tales from the Dock: United Stationers Wraps Gifts for Needy Children

At Humanitarian Service Project, we have a dock from which things can easily go in or out of our warehouse. While we have a few regular shipments, most of what comes to the dock are great surprises from our wonderful supporters donating items to the needy senior citizens and families we serve. Such was the case today when the dock doorbell rang, and we had no indication of who it was. Let us tell you, it sure was an exciting surprise when it turned out to be a truck full of gifts our friends at United Stationers wrapped for the needy children in our Children’s Birthday Project. United Stationers dropped off gifts they wrapped for 26 of the needy children in the project, and they even have more coming in soon.

It may look unassuming, but our dock has stories to tell.

To give you any indication of why the driver from United Stationers was right to use the dock instead of our front door, each bag of gifts contains 4-8 toys, 5-7 books, a stuffed animal and numerous smaller (or “filler)” toys. This means United Stationers graciously wrapped between 104 to 208 large gifts, 130 to 182 books, and countless smaller gift. We want to thank United Stationers for donating the time to help HSP reach out to needy children on their birthdays. If you would be interested in following United Stationers’ example by wrapping gifts, or making some other kind of donation, please check out our website at: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/ to learn more about what we do, and ways you can help. Who knows? The next happy tale from the dock could be about you.

School of Expressive Arts and Learning Students Express Themselves through Service

“Actions speak louder than words” is such a common phrase that it has become a cliché. However, it has become clichéd because the sentiment behind it rings so true; if a person wishes to express themselves, an action is always the strongest way to do so. For this reason, Humanitarian Service Project wishes to thank two groups of high school students from The School of Expressive Arts and Learning in Lombard for showing their commitment to helping the needy through their actions the past couple of days. Yesterday and today, these thirteen students (divided into two groups) helped sort and create the first two sets of boxes of non-perishable food that will be going to the feed the 100 needy families in our Feed the Kids Project. These students helped us fill these 200 boxes with items such as canned fruits and vegetables, soup, pasta, granola bars, and main meal dishes.

Only a fraction of the boxes the students from the School of Expressive Arts and Learning helped sort for the sake of the needy families we serve.

The Feed the Kids Project was created to provide needy families with the nutritious food they need in the summer months of June, July, and August when subsidized meal programs that they rely on through the schools are not active. We want to thank the students from the School of Expressive Arts and Learning for volunteering their time to help us reach the 100 needy families who will have their needs met through Feed the Kids this summer. If you, like these students, would like to help HSP feed these families, call us at 630-221-8340 for more info.

Thanks for a Great Delivery Day!

Last Saturday HSP held our monthly delivery day to the needy senior citizens served by our project. With 90 pounds of groceries; including fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, frozen meats, non-perishable food, paper products, and a gift from a “secret pal” going to each of the 120 seniors in the project, you can imagine that a lot of work goes into making each delivery day successful. On top of the volunteer produce sorters from Kindercare, who we discussed in our blog last week, our delivery this month relied on groups of volunteers such as our volunteer drivers, volunteer loaders to load up the cars of said drivers, our Monday Food Sorting Team and other food sorters to prepare the food, and the volunteer coordinator of our Secret Pal program. Everyone involved in these groups played a pivotal role in allowing us to reach the very needy seniors in our project with supplies they so desperately needed this past delivery day. We want to thank them for volunteering their time and energy for the sake of these needy seniors.

In addition to these regular supporters, we would also like to recognize two new groups who have partnered with HSP to make our senior delivery days even better. One of the groups, we have discussed before on this blog, is the DuPage Chapter of Birthday Cakes 4 Free, who for the past few months have been providing birthday cakes for the seniors on the month of their birthdays. Rose Garcia, leader of the chapter, dropped off 11 lovely cakes for the seniors, which were donated, this month, by Whole Foods. Rose is looking for people willing to volunteer and help the chapter grow, so check them out on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/Birthdaycakes4freeforDupageandKanecounties if you are interested in what they do.

The second group we wish to recognize is the Fox Valley Animal Welfare League, who donated food to feed the pets of thirteen of the seniors in the project this month. The pets of our seniors provide them with much needy companionship, and we are very thankful that the League has decided to partner with us to help keep them healthy and cared for. This donation was the League’s first time working with us for delivery day, but it certainly will not be the last. Like Birthday Cakes 4 Free, the League’s generous donations will become a regular part of our delivery days. We wish to thank these two groups, and everyone else who participated in making our delivery day last week spectacular. It is only with your support that HSP is able to provide much needed relief to the needy seniors in our project.