Posts by category: Volunteers
April 14th, 2010 | Birthdays, Children, Kids, Volunteers
3rd, 4th and 5th graders at St. John the Baptist School in Savage, Minnesota took time on their spring break to learn about Cheerful Givers and to fill some birthday bags. In reflecting on their activity, they each wrote about one thing they learned. Anna, age 11, said “I learned there are 140,000 kids that don’t get birthday presents in Minnesota” and Emma, age 9, commented “That not everybody gets presents but everybody deserves one.”
After competing in a team-building activity called Birthday Bag Bingo, the kids demonstrated their artistic ability in a smiling coloring contest.
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April 4th, 2010 | Volunteers
By James Kwee
Every week, Nirmala Iyer dedicates 20 hours of her time to volunteer for Cheerful Givers. As the Volunteer Manager, her objectives include a variety of tasks. She exchanges about a “zillion” emails with Karen Kitchel (President of Cheerful Givers) as well as both regular and potential volunteers. She also gathers, maintains, and updates information on our volunteers. The information she collects makes its way into the monthly newsletter and annual report.
Nirmala also maintains the Cheerful Givers opportunities section of the Volunteer Match website and provides additional information to all inquiries . “We had nearly 200 volunteers who expressed an interest in Birthday Bag Blitzes in the months of January and February 2010,” says Nirmala. Continue reading »
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March 3rd, 2010 | Birthdays, Family, Volunteers
The Steele family recently enjoyed filling birthday bags and Sonja Steele had this to say about their experience – “My family had a good time shopping for children’s gift items and putting the birthday bags together. I have sent information to all my friends and posted our Birthday Bag event on Facebook in order to help you serve more children in need. We enjoyed participating in your program and would like to do it again in the future.” Thank you Steele family!
We’re looking for more groups (corporate, civic, school or church) as well as families to join our “Dedicated Volunteers” who want to fill birthday bags on a monthly or quarterly basis. Contact karen@cheerfulgivers.org for more information.
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March 1st, 2010 | Giving, Volunteers
by Marilee Tuite
Minnesota has been an important pioneer in establishing women’s shelters as well as helping families celebrate children’s birthdays. With March as women’s history month, Cheerful Givers recognizes some of the local women’s shelters that have participated in the birthday gift bag program.
In 1974 the nation’s first shelter to open was Women’s Advocates in St. Paul. Since then, the shelter has assisted more than 30,000 women and children, for a yearly average of 1,000. The 15-bedroom facility now serves as average of 45 women and children daily.
In 1979 the B. Robert Lewis House opened in Eagan. It was named after Senator Lewis who made many efforts to help women experiencing domestic violence, such as funding for a statewide program. In 1990 the Lewis House expanded by opening a second house. Now located in Hastings, the second Lewis House reaches families in rural communities. The shelters serve approximately 500 women and children each year with an average stay of 14 days. Women can stay as long as necessary to be safe and access the support and resources they need to get into a safe living situation.
“The birthday bags are a great resource for children and those in the community who would otherwise not have access to the supplies to celebrate their special day,” said Jennifer Lind, marketing strategy specialist for Lewis House.
More information about donating birthday bags to these shelters.
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March 1st, 2010 | Volunteers
By James Kwee
Mykl Roventine is currently getting something to eat at Holy Land Deli. How do I know this? I read it on Twitter where he has just checked in via Foursquare. If none of that makes any sense to you, then you’re probably not current with social media (and Mykl Roventine is pretty current with social media); if it did, then you’re probably fairly tech savvy.
But for those of you that don’t understand, I’ll break it down briefly: Twitter is a website that allows users to post short, frequent messages, called “Tweets,” and Foursquare is a website that allows users to post their current locations on Twitter, among other things. I’ve heard Foursquare described before as a way for people to flaunt their nightlife scene (i.e. “checking into” hot clubs and bars), but I mostly see Mykl checking into coffee shops such as Caribou Coffee. I also see him tweet about coffee, a lot.
The fact that Mykl Roventine is such an avid connoisseur of social media (and coffee?) most likely derives from his work as a web designer. In addition to web design, he also works as a freelance designer and is adept in online communication, such as blogs, podcasts, email, et cetera. Mykl channels his tech skills to help Cheerful Givers; he is responsible for our website design and layout, as well as keeping our Twitter account updated (follow Cheerful Givers on Twitter).
Mykl first heard about Cheerful Givers five years ago when he was doing an earlier design for the Cheerful Givers’ website through a company doing pro bono work. It was through this that he met Karen Kitchel, the president of Cheerful Givers. After learning more about the organization and communicating with Karen, Mykl joined the board of Cheerful Givers. Around this time, Mykl and his wife were beginning to have children (they have two daughters), something he credits to his sympathy for the cause. “The mission’s pretty unique. It never really occurred to me that there were kids out there not able to celebrate birthdays,” said Mykl.
Another one of Mykl’s contributions to Cheerful Givers is social media fundraisers, something that’s taken off in the past six to eight months. These are fundraisers that are done entirely online and rely on word-of-mouth through social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and email. “[It’s] been successful for us, and it’s a fun area to get into… I think it’s a perfect opportunity for us [to reach new donors] and just share our story.”
To check out Mykl’s website and blog, go to www.myklroventine.com.
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February 9th, 2010 | News, Volunteers
Students at the Vocational Evaluation & Training School in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota are featured on the District 287 website for the wonderful work they do for Cheerful Givers. Watch this two-minute video to see these great students in action!
