Helen's Letter
March 2025
Dear Families and Friends of Respite Volunteers,
There are multiple ways that you can help sustain our program so that we may continue to serve persons and caregiving families asking for our help. Can you also arrange to display our info at your church, business, or place of employment?
Please get in touch with our office if you are considering the possibility of volunteering with Respite Volunteers. We are hoping for persons to consider being matched with someone and visiting & helping weekly, or perhaps you would like to try out being a substitute volunteer first. Other volunteer opportunities are helping in the office, helping post flyers on bulletin boards & at stores, and helping at information booths throughout the year. So, for example, we have a Craft booth at the Durand Depot on Sun, March 2nd, and could use help setting up and some time slots during the time: 12 noon-1pm & 1-2 pm, and with take down & load vehicles at 3 pm especially. Let us know if you could help, or we also need some Spring Craft donations toward this fundraiser.
Please come gift shop at our office any time of year, we have lots of unique gifts; many are handmade by both our volunteers and even from the families that we are serving.
We are planning for our Thurs., Aug. 14th 2025 Volunteer Celebration at Fortitude Farms & Events. Tickets will be on sale later this year. We are hoping that with the level of Sponsorship provided, our volunteers will be able to attend for free again. Thank you to our $1000 Sponsorships for our event in 2025 so far: Jackie Hurd and Horizon Bank. $500 and $350 level sponsorships are also available. Persons and Businesses donating will be featured on the front page of our Spring Newsletter which hopefully be mailed in March.
We are looking forward to our Spring Purse Party Bingo on Thursday, May 8th, at the Owosso Knights of Columbus. Tickets are available now at the office. Our office hours are usually M-F 9-3. We also seek donations of Brand NEW purses, especially in bright, pretty colors. Purses above $45 are especially appreciated. Doors open at 5:30 pm & the games start at 6 pm. It is an Adults Only event, and the Lic # is V10956. Persons can bring their own snacks and possibly order food from K of C, and K of C sells drinks.
We will be planning our Rock-a-thon for Respite, which is usually held in July. We had so much fun last year. We are seeking more participants this year. Call us if you would like more info or are willing to make this commitment to participate or help with the lunch for the participants. Who would like to help us set up or prepare for the event here at the office the week before?
In-kind donations: We are very grateful to the Jeremy Bond family, who donated the Myrtle Beach 1-week stay in their condo last summer for our Silent Auction. We are very grateful to Marcia Bird, who donated unique stamps & stationery in memory of her mother, Doris Coy, & her aunt & godmother, Barbara Hullinger. Maybe there is a way you could honor a loved one, a dear friend, or a Respite Volunteer and help Respite Volunteers at the same time. Michelle Howe-Geitzen often donates in a unique way. Ask our staff if you would like to direct your donation in a special way. We also are the beneficiaries of walkers & canes to loan out to anyone who needs them- a frequent donor toward this outreach is Legacy Estate Sales.
Gently loved purses and wallets that are donated are sold at New and Old Unique Treasures on M-21, west of Delany Rd, for Respite Volunteers all year long. They post their hours on their facebook.
Donations can be made to our program at any time, and we hope that persons and families receiving our services will consider giving back in some way in the future. Since we have been providing services for 32 years now, we are often pleasantly surprised that a young person, young family, new volunteer, or business owner has decided to help by either volunteering with Respite Volunteers, donating, or already had a connection to our program. This might have been that a grandmother was our volunteer, or their family was blessed with a wonderful Respite Volunteer at a critical point in caring for a loved one. Please call our office if you would like to learn about all the different volunteer opportunities we can provide.
We are asking for help clearing our walkways, deck, and handicapped-accessible parking space on snowy days. We always need help clearing the roof valleys, gutters, and downspouts in warm weather. We thank Memorial Healthcare for often clearing our ramp & entrance to the door and the parking lot and Heather Brooks for her donation of many perennials last fall. We thank Kathleen Haak, Amy Flum-Street, Steve Street, Cheryl Korf, Julie Petty & Denise & Tracy Temple for all their work on our office, lawn and garden this last summer & fall. Also, a big thank you to DayStarr Communications for choosing to help Respite Volunteers on their DayStarr Give Back day!
The Kroger Community Rewards program continues, and signing up needs to be done online. Call our office if you would like more info. If you are not yet receiving our newsletter and would like to, please give our office a call.
Thank you so much for helping our program continue to serve others.
Helen Howard RN, Executive Director
WISH LIST
Brand new purse valued at $45 or more for Purse Party Bingo
(We prefer price tags to be kept on purses.)
50 ft. or longer garden hose
Sponsor a Respite Volunteer Family $550
Annual membership
Help Clean our Office
Mailing labels 30 on a page, #8160, Avery if possible
Postage stamps
Canopy/Awning for Outdoor Events
Persons to apply for the Kroger Customer Rewards for Respite Volunteers
#10 Plain White Envelopes
Paper Products for Kitchen & Bathroom
Retail Gift Cards to Purchase Office Supplies and Building Maintenance Supplies;
Gift Cards or Gift Certificates from Gilbert’s, Meijer, Thompson’s Floors
for office supplies