We had a lively meeting at Teresa Royer’s lovely home last
Thursday evening with 20 TWC volunteers in attendance. As usual, the food and
company were fantastic. If you’ve never been able to make a TWC evening
potluck, please try and join us in the future. It’s a nice way to spend a
couple of hours and helps you understand just what it is that we’ve been up to
between meetings.
Nancy Hanson kindly took notes so I’d like to share them
with you so you’ll all be up to date with TWC happenings. Any omissions are
mine.
It’s Been a Busy
Year!
Firstly, we’ve been busy. At the meeting we mentioned that
we’ve had 41 set-ups since January.
Well, this week has been busy and we’re now (as of Friday) up to 45. And
that, as you all know, takes some organizing and a fair amount of money. While
we’re happy that so many families are being moved along into permanent housing,
we also know we can’t let up for a minute on our fundraising efforts.
2019 Challenge Grant
Campaign
To that end, Debra Silbar and Karla Morrison have been hard
at work on our 2019 Challenge Grant Campaign. Debra, working hard with Network
for Good, has put together a great, easy-to-navigate fundraising page. Karla
has secured $10,000 in matching funds so we need to raise that amount to ensure
we get it all! We have sent all volunteers the information on how you can set
up your own fundraising page and Debra is happy to answer any questions you
might have. Remember, you can change the wording, personalize it with photos of
you on a set-up or if you need photos drop me an email and I’ll help find
photos for you. Then, scoot your personalized page to Deb for approval and then
you’re up and running! Our goal is to raise enough money to furnish 40
apartments. Hopefully you can get your friends and family to support you in
this endeavor.
Let’s make this year super successful, as next year, with
the upcoming election, might be a slow year for garnering donations.
Synergy
This is something that TWC has in abundance! It’s amazing
how things just seem to come together, though not without a lot of behind the
scenes activity. Teresa and Emma spend a lot of time shopping and pulling for
the set-ups, taking inventory at the Bin and making sure we never completely
run out of things. It’s a fine-tuned dance and they do a great job. Teresa shared a story of how she was at Wal-Mart
t’other week and one of the employees, who had served her before, was looking
for an open register so he could pay for his soda (he was on his break). Teresa
told him she’d get it for him so he swiped his employee card and thanked her
profusely. What she didn’t realize was that card swipe gave her the employee
discount and she got $54 off her total order!
Patty Colvig is our non-perishable gal and when supplies are
running low, Teresa scoots her a shopping list and off she goes. She’s got a
good eye for bargains and is a familiar face at Smart and Final where she does
most of her shopping!
Lorna and Nancy are constantly making new cards and ensuring
that we have fresh images. The ‘Inspire’ series, Patty Colvig’s inspiration,
has been a best seller, as well as the all the other cards we stock.
Noelle Berman is an angel for doing ALL the printing of the
vellum inserts for all our cards. She’s been doing this for us for years and we
are beyond appreciative.
Nancy and her merry team of Bin Goddesses never fail to show
up for their Saturday morning duties (9 to 10:30 unless it’s a holiday weekend
or raining or just too hot). They keep the bin tidy and organized and are the
beautiful public face of TWC. Stop on by and say hi if you see them.
Years ago, Sue Forbes went to her dentist and asked for some
toothbrushes. He gave her a few, but she kept her hand out until he’d given her
dozens…along with floss and toothpaste. Consider asking your dentist if he
could help out in this way.
For the past few years Jill Palethorpe has been putting
together our interactive holiday gift list so I’ll be asking her soon if she’s
willing to help us again this year.
I know I’m forgetting to thank some of you, so please
forgive me. Any omissions are my own.
Topanga Elementary
School
We’d like to have another school-wide food drive, perhaps
near the Thanksgiving holiday. Patty Colvig, who has organized a number of food
drives at the school and in her neighborhood in past years, is going to
approach the school, but if we have any TWC volunteers who have children at the
school, perhaps you’d like to help coordinate this.
Upcoming Project
It’s been over 10 years since we last painted our bin so
that’s something we will be organizing in the near future. We’ll keep the river
rock wall that Liz Dupuy painted and keep the color scheme much like it is, but
we’ll also be organizing new signage.
Messenger Article/Ad
We have a wonderful community newspaper that is offering us
special rates for advertising and is happy to print articles we might submit.
Let’s make our community profile more visible. This organization is open to
all!
Welcome to new volunteer, Jax Tatro. We’re happy to have you
on board!
Two important dates
to add to your calendar:
November 23:
Holiday and All Occasion Cards for Sale at Lin’s House. I’ll send out a
reminder closer to the date with some of the gorgeous images we’re using this
year.
December 14:
Holiday Wrapping at Lin’s house. Each year we get a wish list from the children
(with help from parents) at Venice Community Housing’s Transitional Living
Center. This includes things the children really want and things they really
need.
