Helen's Letter
December 2024
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 employer?
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, & 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 at information booths (we have several coming up), helping with fundraisers (Craft Booth at Emerson Elementary Sat. Dec. 7th & Craft Booth at Memorial Healthcare Auditorium Fri. Dec. 13th )……
Please come Christmas shopping at our office, we have lots of unique gifts, many are handmade by both our volunteers, and even from the families that we are serving too.
Persons could choose to give a Giving Tuesday donation to Respite Volunteers, or an end-of-the-year donation to Respite Volunteers.
We thank everyone who sponsored our Volunteer Celebration in Aug. at Fortitude Farms & Events. Thank you to our $1000 Sponsorships: Diz & Muriel Clark Family, in memory of Diz & Muriel Clark, Jackie Hurd, Horizon Bank, Carol Nama, & Hemenway Business Services Inc., H & R Block, $200 sponsors Hugh & Mary Parker & Richard J. Selleck & Sons Agency-Mike Selleck. See our facebook & website for our amazing Award Recipients. We are planning for our Aug. 2025 Volunteer Celebration at Fortitude Farms & Events again.
We are looking forward to our Spring Purse Party Bingo on Thursday—May 8th at the Owosso Knights of Columbus. Tickets are likely to be available in March. We are also seeking donations of Brand NEW purses, especially in bright pretty colors. Purses above $45 are especially appreciated.
We also thank everyone who participated in and donated to our Rock-a-thon for Respite held at the end of July, at St. Paul Catholic School. You should see the photos from this event! We had a lot of fun. We are seeking more participants next year. If you are on facebook, please consider sharing, commenting on, liking, or adding an emoji to our posts. Yes, this does help us reach more people. At the time of this writing, we are just over $14,000 in donations received! We are also looking forward to our Rock-a-thon in Aug. of 2025. Call us if you would like more info, or are willing to make this commitment.
In-kind donations: We are very grateful to the Jeremy Bond family who donated the Myrtle Beach 1-week stay in their condo. We are very grateful to Marcia Bird who donated unique stamps & stationery in memory of her mother Doris Coy, & her aunt & godmother Barbara Hullinger. Marcia’s granddaughter helped pick these out. 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. Another unique gift was from Michelle Howe-Geitzen - a gift certificate for Harris Electric so that we could have electrical work done at our office. We also are the beneficiaries of walkers & canes to loan out to anyone who needs them- from Legacy Estate Sales.
Donations can be made to our program at any time, and we hope that persons and families receiving our services, please consider giving back in some way in the future. Since we have been providing services for 31 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, or donating already had a connection to our program, which might be 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 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 & 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.
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Helen Howard RN, BSN
Executive Director