An Interview with Karen Kitchel from Cheerful Givers! Plus, a Giveaway for Compass House!

This week I interviewed Karen Kitchel from Cheerful Givers. I got lucky because Ms. Kitchel answered each question with so much detail. Please read below to learn more about Cheerful Givers! I am creating gift bags this month to donate to Compass House on behalf of Cheerful Givers!

1.     What is Cheerful Givers all about?
The mission of Cheerful Givers is to provide toy-filled birthday gift bags to food shelves and shelters so that parents living in poverty can give their child a birthday gift. We believe this simple gesture boosts self-esteem, enhances self-worth, and strengthens bonds in families.
 
I think what’s important about Cheerful Givers is that we provide a way for less fortunate parents to recognize their child’s birthday and Cheerful Givers remains invisible to the child. Also important are the Givers.  We are able to give many people the opportunity to experience the joy of giving to others.
 
We focus only on birthdays because there isn’t another organization that is addressing this unmet need.  

2. Are there a certain number of gift bags you like to see donated each month? What was the most ever donated?
Our goal for 2008 is to provide more than 44,000 children with gift bags, so we would like to see at least 3,666 gift bags each month.  The most ever donated was last year when a group of volunteers from a company called BI (where I worked for 30 years) filled 3,765 birthday bags in less than two hours.  At the same time they held a silent auction and sold box lunches for us.

3.     What part to do you play in Cheerful Givers?
I’m the one (and only) full-time staff.  So I need to recruit and manage volunteers (last year we had 3,878 of them).  Here’s my job description:
·  Managing the day to day operations of Cheerful Givers (e.g. program services, financial and human resource management, publicity, grant management and reporting),
·  Serving as a liaison between the organization and the community,
·  Providing technical assistance to corporations, community groups and sponsored organizations,
·  Increasing the visibility of Cheerful Givers within the community, which includes implementing Cheerful Givers business, public relations and fundraising plans and serving as the Web site liaison,
· Reporting to the Board of Directors on Cheerful Givers’ activities, financial status, needs, new activities, etc.,
· Working with the Board of Directors to identify new opportunities to ensure the fulfillment of Cheerful Givers mission, as well as long term growth of the organization,
· Assisting in the development of the Board of Directors to ensure access to an array of talents and resources needed by Cheerful Givers to fulfill its mission,
· Assisting in the orientation of new board members, and
· Overseeing evaluation of organizational activities. 
 4.     When did you begin working for Cheerful Givers?In 1996 I met Robin Maynard, the founder of Cheerful Givers who quickly became a good friend. When I learned what Cheerful Givers was all about, I immediately felt that it was an organization I wanted to support.  Robin asked me to join her board of directors and I began introducing Cheerful Giver at BI where I worked. Employees got together once each month at lunch time to fill gift bags with toys they donated.  I thought that other companies could do what we were doing and started spreading the word.  In 2003, I did a lot of soul searching and decided to leave my 30-year career at BI to work full-time for Cheerful Givers. That was also the time when the board of directors had realized if the organization were to grow that we needed someone devoted full-time.  

5. What can people do to help Cheerful Givers beyond donating gift bags?
We need funds so that we can continue to sponsor the teens with disabilities and the elderly group and to cover general operating costs.  Aside from that, people can help spread the word about us and encourage others to visit our website.

6. What can kids do to help?
 Kids can do a lot of things – fill gift bags with toys and take them to a shelter or food shelf, they can conduct a fundraiser for us or just help spread the word. ===============================================================

Just a reminder: We have a gift basket to giveaway this month!

What to do to enter?

Make a donation that’s more than $5.00 to Compass House and you will be entered to win an April Showers gift basket with all of this stuff in it! The drawing will be on March 25th, so if you donated, please let me know!

THANKS!!!!

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Using MySpace in Good Ways! Visit the Compass House MySpace Page!

As we all know, sometimes kids and adults don’t use MySpace in good ways but the people at Compass House do! The people at Compass House set up a MySpace page so that they can also spread awareness there too! I think that they are very smart for doing this!

First, I want to thank everyone for wishing me a happy birthday! I had a really nice one and everyone helped to make my birthday special! Thank you so much for your comments. They were a great surprise!

I would really like to thank Coco for

1. Leaving me a funny comment

2. Writing about me on her blog

and 3.  DONATING $25.00 TO CHEERFUL GIVERS!

I also want to remind everyone that I have a giveaway this month for COMPASS HOUSE!!!! It is a gift basket for everyone in the family!! If you make a tiny five dollar donation, you will be entered to win! I’m also going to give you another way to be entered to win! If you work in a SCHOOL in Western New York and you are willing to hang a Compass House poster in your CLASSROOM or in the hall, please let me know! I will make sure we get the poster to you and enter you to win my contest! If you work in any other place where young people are, and you would like a poster, just let me know. I also have fliers and wrist bracelets for anyone who might like to give them to kids and teenagers! If you leave me a comment or send me an email, I will get them right to you.

The more awareness we can spread of the good that Compass House does, the better.

An April Showers Giveaway!

This month I will be doing an April Showers Prize Bag Giveaway to support Compass House. I have a whole bunch of brand new items to give away that will help you and your family enjoy spring even more. I am planning to give them away by having a drawing on March 25th!

All that you have to do is make a five dollar donation to Compass House right here! If you donate more, your name will be entered once for every five dollars you donate.

Inside the canvas shopping bag (which is good for the environment) there is a kite, a Cirque Du Soliel golf umbrella donated by Sylvia Nadler from Compass House, a bag of 12 hyacinth bulbs, a bag of 36 daffodil bulbs, 8 designer greeting cards, spring colored cooking utensils, spring cookie cutters, a garden stone-making kit, a whole bunch of different flower seeds, and two great books. One is Bloomability by Sharon Creech and the other is Sleeping With a Sunflower: A Treasury of Old Time Gardening Lore by Louise Riotte. To enter, please make a five dollar (or more) donation to Compass House right here. Please forward a copy of your email receipt to me at twentyfivedays(at)gmail(dot)com.  You can also call or mail a donation. Please let them know that I sent you, and then email me or leave a comment too. Thanks! Everyone who donates will be entered to win. The drawing is on March 25th!

I’m also hoping people will support Compass House this month by doing any of these things. The people who make the most difference for Compass House this month by doing any of the things below will win a $20 donation to the charities they choose. One individual and one group will be selected.

• Raising awareness of Compass House by putting posters up in places where young people will see them. I also have a whole bunch of rubber wrist bracelets to give away too. If you would like a poster or some bracelets, please email me! This would be great!
• Raising funds for Compass House by doing a penny drive, a bake sale, or any other type of fundraising.
• Blogging about Compass House or your local safe place.
• Inviting someone from Compass House to speak where you work or where you teach.
• Donating clothing, food, or other needed things to Compass House
• Helping me support Cheerful Givers and Compass House by creating birthday gift bags. I would like to donate gift bags to Compass House so that the kids that come there and the young moms and dads who come there have birthday gifts that they couldn’t afford on their own. I will be writing more about this tomorrow and in the next week too. I have some ideas to help them.

If you do any of these things or have other ideas for helping, you will be entered to win my charitable donation this month. Please let me know what you are doing to help so that I know you are interested in winning!

Announcing the Winners of the February 25 Day Challenge

This month, I helped the Pajama Project and Project Linus! There were a lot of surprises during this month’s challenge, but one of the nicest surprises was hearing from Erin from West Seneca! Erin is a teacher, and she collected some pajamas with her students! I just found out about this last week, and it made me really happy.

Erin is the individual winner of this month’s challenge! She will be able to pick any charity or cause, and we will be making a twenty dollar donation to it! Just let us know where you would like your donation to go, Erin.

Lindbergh Elementary School won the group prize for this month. I am going to talk with my principal, Mrs. Parsons, about where this twenty dollar donation can be sent. I want to say thank you to all of my friends and the teachers at school for helping with this. I also want to thank Mrs. Parsons, too. It was fun doing a pajama drive!

My mom has spoken with Mrs. Cardena from the Pajama Program about collecting the pjs and books. And I actually got to meet and work with Christene Lewandowski from Project Linus. What was REALLY cool was visiting Compass House this month and SEEING all of the blankets there that Project Linus has donated in the past! That was really neat.

In March, I am going to be supporting Compass House and Cheerful Givers. I am really excited about doing all of this. I have some ideas for new contests too and some neat prizes this month, so please keep reading. A new month is starting!

Getting Ready to Help Compass House and National Safe Places

A few days ago I went to Compass House to learn more about it before I support it next month. There I talked to Sylvia Nadler, Ellie Bocchino, Michelle Moore, and many other nice people! Compass House is a shelter for homeless kids or kids in crisis. Compass House believes that every kid deserves to have people in their lives who love, care and support them.

When a troubled kid goes to Compass house, they are assigned a case manager who handles their case without judging anything about what happened in the past. They are focused on their futures. The goal with Compass House is to make sure that every kid is safe at home and provide them with a Safe Place to stay when they need it. Compass House has an Emengency Shelter that is open 24/7. The Emergency Shelter is like a house and the average stay is 3-9 days. Compass House also has a Recource Center and that offers a lot of help to those who are ages 16-20. There is an emergency food pantry there and they keep all of the donations they get there too. Young people who are on their own can get food, furniture, clothes, and household items there.

If you are a young person and having trouble at home, are in danger, or are homeless, you can go to Compass House! The people there are all really nice. It is easy to get a ride there too. Just go to any TOPS or MARTINS market and tell someone you need a safe place. They will get you there safely. See the yellow sign at the top of this post? That is the symbol for National Safe Places! When you see it, you know you can go there for help.

You can also get on any Metro bus in our area and tell them you need a safe place. They will take you to Compass House too.

The most important thing to remember is that Compass House works with families to keep kids safe. Parents are always informed when their child shows up at Compass House and help is provided to make sure the child can return to a safe home. Children who are abused DO NOT have to return to homes that are not safe, though. Compass House does not tell any kid what to do. The kind people there help them make good choices that will keep them safe and help them live happier lives.

Thank you Sylvia, Ellie, Michelle, Scott, and everyone else who I met there last week. I had a great visit, and I am excited about helping you throughout March and the rest of the year too.