So Much to Be Thankful For...

Here's an idea! When you are celebrating Thanksgiving with your family & friends, ask everyone to bring an item for the Food Pantry! You don't even have to be the host to organize this - just ask whoever is!

You can either drop your donation off for the Omaha Food Bank at the Bates' (13020 Old Cherry Road) by Monday, December 1st or you can donate it to the bank of your choice. (My family's donation went to the Syracuse & Burr Food Banks last year.)

We collected over 250 lbs of food for the Omaha Food Bank last year!

I hear those J-I-N-G-L-E Bells!

We will be Bell Ringing for the Salvation Army on Saturday, November 29th between 11am & 5pm at the Bag 'N' Save at 114th & Dodge. The Red Kettle Christmas Campaign is the Salvation Army's most prominent fundraiser & helps them to provide food, toys, and clothing to over 6 million people during the holiday season.

Check out the picture of Emily & Me doing our Bell Ringing last year...after hours of entertaining ourselves singing songs & with dance off's, I might have done a too complicated move & fell into the doors. Don't worry - it got bigger donations from the people that saw!

Race for the Cure Pictures!

Race for the Cure

September's event will be to help the Susan G. Komen foundation to get ready for their big event - the Race for the Cure! We'll be meeting to help them in putting together packets for the participants.

• When: Tuesday, September 16th
• Time: 6pm - 9pm
• Where: Mayflower Moving, 8006 J Street (near 84th & L Street)

Susan G. Komen for the Cure raises funds to support the Komen Promise to save lives and end breast cancer by empowering people, ensuring quality for all & energizing science to find the cures.

To learn more about, go to http://www.komennebraska.org/

The Summer in Review...

Unfortunately, the rain kept us away for our day with Habitat for Humanity. We hope to schedule again though, so be ready! Team Kamp Kim was hard at work though - they starting their fundraising with a very successful plant sale in Syracuse.

Relay for Life was a HUGE success! We had around 50 walking with Team Kamp Kim and raised over $5,000!!! We're looking forward to participating again next year & continuing to grow our team AND our fundraising efforts!

June was also the month for the Nebraska Children's Home Society's largest fundraiser - Sand in the City. There were 2 teams from PayPal participating (and I must brag that my team won People's Choice for the 2nd year in a row!)

July got a few of us back to Habitat for Humanity. A group of 15 were able to frame an entire house in ONE DAY! I'm all for girl power, but it sure helps having those guys around!

The August Open Door Mission Back to School Bash had quite a few of our members helping to supply backpacks to over 2000 children in the Omaha area. Way to go guys!

And now on to the fall!

HABITAT Cancelled

Due to Rain, May's Giving Back project was cancelled. We will try to schedule another day with Habitat for Humanity soon.

Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back.

There are not many people who haven't been touched by cancer. It really is everywhere - family members, friends, co-workers. Since there really isn't a way to escape it, we've chosen to FIGHT IT!

My family first became involved with Relay for Life last year after my Aunt Kim was diagnosed. As she continues her fight, we have pulled together to support her & others in the battle of their lives!

We will again be walking in the Otoe County Relay for Life walk on Friday, June 13th in Nebraska City. For those of you coming from Omaha, we invite you to join us in the caravan down. There are also Relay for Life events in Omaha, however in an effort to support our Giving Back member Kim, our main focus will be her local chapter.

Along the way we are working to raise money for the American Cancer Society through a plant sale in Syracuse, NE May 8-10th. We'll be selling raffle tickets for a Hog (donated by the Kirchhoff family), selling luminaries & also taking cash donations.

• What? American Cancer Society's Relay for Life
• When? Friday, June 13th
• Where? Nebraska City, Nebraska
• Time? Survivors Lap starts at 6pm

If I Had a Hammer...

Habitat for Humanity International seeks to eliminate poverty housing & homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.

Join us May 10th as we go to work! We'll be meeting at 7:30am at McDonald's off the 84th Street exit of I-80 to carpool (how green!) If you need to drive yourself, you can meet us at the Habitat office at 22nd & Ames (please be there by 8:10am.) We will be working from 8am - 12pm.

Bring a hammer (or any of the essentials like tape measurers, tool belt, etc.) if you've got one & be ready to get dirty!

Visit http://www.habitat.org/ to learn more about Habitat!

Like Kermit the Frog

It is GO GREEN month for Giving Back! Here are a few things to help you live a little "Greener" this month. They include things like how to save on gas, where to shop, etc. This activity is 3 parts:

• Get Started! Look over the included list & see what you can start today!
• Add Ideas! Research other things to help us all Go Green. Bring them to share with the group.
• Share & Celebrate! Join us on Tuesday, April 22nd at 6pm at Panera Oakview. We would like to know how you are doing, what works well & combine the ideas of everyone into a plan to Go Green. There will be prizes for the Greenest!

Snail Mail Recap

The project for March's Giving Back was letter writing - the Snail Mail way! Katie Keber got the idea from her husband Dave, who has been a great pen pal to Rose for many years.

We all brought stationary to share & got busy writing leters to the person of our choice. Some wrote to an old friend they hadn't talked to in awhile, others wrote a grandparent and another still wrote a nephew in the military. The reason each person were chosen were all different, but the most important part was the outcome of the letters - make someone else feel good & let them know you care!

We wrote one letter & took the rest of our stationary home to continue our writing campaign in the months to come.

If you couldn't join us, remember you can still do your letter writing from home (many of you have already told me you have!)

Snail Mail

I bet everyone has a friend or relative that would love to get a handwritten letter showing that someone is thinking of them. For our March Giving Back project, you will need to bring a stationary set (paper & envelopes) that you can share with the other members of Giving Back and the name and address of your friend that would appreciate a note in the mail (this could be ANYONE you think would enjoy getting a letter.) We will spend the time swapping stationary, writing the first letter, and addressing the remaining envelopes to make future letter writing quick & easy (just to continue on your letter writing!)

We are also going to order some pizza ($5 a person should cover it!) sol let us know if you'll be joining in that as well!

When: Wednesday, March 26th at 6:30pm
Where: EnSite offices (13750 Millard Avenue)

The prizes were never ending, the game faces varied from staunch to sweet, the ladies loved the BINGO caller, EVERYONE had fun! A few pictures from our evening at Brookside...

B-I-N-G-O!

For February's event, we will be playing BINGO with the residents of Brookstone Meadows Rehabilitation Center. This is a facility mainly for short term care - with residents staying for as little as a week or as long as 6 months.

They will supply the game pieces & we get to supply the fun, energy & PRIZES! We ask that everyone bring a little something to give away for a winner - some examples of items would be refridgerator magnets, frames, writing pads or something homemade!

Children are MORE THAN welcome!

When: February 21st at 6:30pm
Where: The facility is located on 204th Street (Hwy 31) between Pacific & Dodge Streets on the East Side. You will see a large Clock Tower which is in front of the entrance we will use.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

January's event was a lot of fun - some read to a special friend at the Nursing Home, others introduced their grandchildren to the library, supplied their churches with requested books and over $200 was collected for the Rockwell Elementary School Library.

I went to Bella's school, so that we could present the check and got to have lunch with her as well as go to recess!

Welcome to 2009!

Happy New Years Everyone!

As we enter 2009, please think about what you would like to do with Giving Back this year. Are there any organizations you would like to support? Would you be willing to step up to organize one of the months? You don't have to do it alone - there are a number of people who would help you - sometimes you just have to ask!

Please think about how you can help & let me know if there is a month you can take!

Looking forward to a great year of Giving Back!

Book It!

January will be a month of reading. It is a proven fact that we can all benefit from the knowledge that comes from reading. Your assignment this month is to promote reading. If reading to someone is something you already do on a regular basis, then your challenge is to find a way to shake it up a little - you decide - what is important is that we are promoting literacy & spending time with someone we care about. If you don't have a person you can read to, then you might chose to promote reading by buying or donating from your person library a book for a child, shut-in, local library, nursing home or shelter.

There will also be a group of us adopting a library - Rockwell Elementary School is where kindergartener Bella Snyder (daughter of Gabe & Janelle Snyder) spends her time reading & we are collecting donations for a general fund to purchase books for their library.

We are meeting at Panera at Oakview Mall on Wednesday, January 30th at 6pm. Even if you have your own project, we'd love to have you join us & let us know how it went!

We are also looking for volunteers to take a month & organize an activity or outing where our group will have the opportunity to "give back" to others. Please contact Karla if you are willing to take a month. Natalie Mason will be in charge of the month of February.