December Blood Drive

Giving Blood is possibly the best gift you can give this holiday season... Therefore, Giving Back is holding a drive on Wednesday, December 30th - everyone has their reasons for giving, what's yours? Sign up today! http://tinyurl.com/yhsdubo

Also... don't forget to visit us at the following spots for monthly volunteer opportunities!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=229239065505

Twitter: http://twitter.com/givingbackomaha


Happy Holidays from the Giving Back Crew!

Salvation Army Toyland

The Salvation Army is gearing up to host its annual Christmas Toy Wonderland Assistance Program to help provide toys and gifts for families in need.

... but they need our help...

From December 19th thru 23rd the Salvation Army is calling on volunteers to be Personal Shoppers!

Families go through a registration process before coming to the Christmas Toy Wonderland, where they are paired with a volunteer and taken around the gym to find gifts for their children.

If you are interested in warming your heart by becoming a Personal Shopper, please visit Salvation Army's Volunteer webiste at http://tinyurl.com/yhb83oc to sign up!

Should you have any questions please comment on the blog, or email me at emily.andres@gmail.com!

Thanksgiving is a time to....

Be thankful, be with family & friends, watch some football, and EAT!

We have 2 projects for the month of November. The first one is something that everyone can participate in - we'll be collecting food for area food banks.

We're asking that everyone extend this to their family & friends for your holiday celebrations. When your group is discussing what to bring for your holiday gathering, ask that everyone also bring a donation for your local food bank. You don't even have to be hosting, just ask your host to participate!

To make things even easier, we have created a sign to hang up at work/church/groups (or where ever you might set up a donation box) listing all of the possible donations the Food Bank accepts. This might help give people ideas of what they can clean out of the cupboards and closets! If you would like a sign, please email emily.andres@gmail.com.

In the past 2 years, Giving Back has collected over 500 pounds of food!

We will also be serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House on Wednesday, November 25th (the day before Thanksgiving.) If you are interested, please comment here or email karla_bates@hotmail.com & let me know what you'd like to help with (preparing dinner, serving, or donating $ to buy some groceries.)

We will be bringing the pop tabs at this time, so let me know if you have some to send along!

Early Mornings & Lots of Fun!

Andy, who is probably one of the best Giving Back supporters EVER (always encouraging me & giving me new ideas on how to make us better) made this awesome video...he's pretty amazing!

A few pictures of our sweet volunteers (who were there BEFORE 6am!!!)

Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure

The Nebraska Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure raises funds to support the Komen Promise to save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to find the cures. The majority of the funds raised are from the Komen Nebraska Race for the Cure®, held annually in October.

This year the Komen Nebraska Race for the Cure is on Sunday, October 4th and we are hoping several Giving Back'ers are willing to lend us a hand! Here is where we need help:

Volunteer Escorts (3 people): Once volunteers check in, you would escort them to get their T-Shirts and show them the volunteer hospitality room.

Volunteer Hospitality Room (5 people): You would help set up/refresh snacks and drinks for volunteers.

Campus Classics Merchandise (6 people): Campus Classics will be selling Komen merchandise, and needs help folding/selling/restocking their merchandise.

Please comment on this blog or contact Adrianne and Emily at volunteer@komennebraska.org if you are interested in volunteering!

Or... if you would rather participate in the Race by walking/running, visit http://www.komennebraska.org/ to sign up today!

Habitat for Humanity Micro Brew Ha-Ha

For the past 25 years, Habitat for Humanity of Omaha has been an organization committed to "building homes and building lives through the partnership of our community's spiritual and material resources." Through the development of safe, affordable housing based on a no-interest, no-profit mortgage model, Habitat seeks to eliminate poverty housing and provide opportunities for median-income families to achieve the dream of homeownership.

During the month of September, Giving Back would like to support Habitat for Humanity & their Third Annual Micro Brew Ha-Ha on Thursday, September 17th.

This outdoor event on the Lewis & Clark Landing will offer delicious food and beer tasting from local microbreweries and restaurants in a casual and festive atmosphere. Relax with friends and enjoy some of the best food and beer the area has to offer! A silent auction will feature work from local artists and proceeds from the entire evening will benefit Habitat for Humanity of Omaha.

Emily had so much fun volunteering for the event last year, that this year she signed up for a committee... she is on the Food Donations Committee & has been hard at work to make this years event a success! Here is how you can help... click on this --> volunteer link and sign up for a "duty" and time that works best for you! (The nice thing is that you can see the names of who else has already signed up & you can chose what interests you most!)

If you are unable to volunteer, or just need a night off to enjoy music, food and a drink or two... click here for the Micro Brew Ha Ha website and buy your tickets today!

Ronald McDonald House

August's project will be all about supporting the Ronald McDonald House Charities!

First, start collecting those Pop Tabs!

Your Aluminum can tabs go a long way with Ronald McDonald House Charities in Omaha. Those tabs, when recycled, help defray the operational costs. The seemingly insignificant tab you use to open your soft drink is important to Ronald McDonald House. Last year, they recycled an estimated 35 million pop tabs. These tabs came from school children, businesses, community organizations & people just like you!

If you already have pop tabs to donate, Giving Back will be bringing a donation on August 19th...which brings us to the 2nd part! Serving Dinner!

Second, we will be serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House on Wednesday, August 19th at 6pm.

They only allow 8 volunteers to come in at a time (there are already 20-30 people there, so we don't want to overwhelm them) but there are many ways to help...We need people to: purchase groceries, prepare the meal & then serve the food.

Please email me at karla_bates@hotmail.com or comment on this blog if you can help!

Here are some FUN FACTS about Pop Tabs:

• One pound of tabs is about 1,500 tabs
• Each tab measures about 1 inch, so when placed end to end, there are 12 tabs in a foot & 40 in a meter
• To reach a mile, when placing tabs end to end, it would take 63,360
• 1 million tabs end to end would stretch 16.75 miles

Remember, start saving those pop tabs! Giving Back will be going back to serve dinner again in November & we will take another donation then!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!

The Blood Drive could NOT have gone any better! We want to thank everyone for their volunteer work, donating & to thank you to EnSite for hosting & accommodating the chaos! We had 47 people showing to donate, which resulted in 38 pints. Most amazing is that we had 19 first-time donors!


The Red Cross was grateful & impressed with how smooth everything went - from recruiting, to set-up, to all the donors being on time & ready to donate. They called the morning of to ask for any advice on how to get donors (we filled our spots in less than 3 weeks - they couldn't believe it!) And they called afterwards to ask if Giving Back would be willing to do this twice a year!


So again, thank you! The inspiration for this was my amazing aunt Kim & the battle she had fought for the last 3 years with that ugly disease cancer. It was an amazing show of support for her & all our other family & friends that rely on these donations.

More pictures to come...

Ve Vant Your Blood!

No, it isn't Halloween yet! This months Giving Back activity is unlike any we've ever done. We've given our time, our hearts, our money, but this month, we're asking you to give your BLOOD!

We will be hosting a Blood Drive on Friday, July 31st from 2-6pm at the EnSite Offices in Millard. If you are unable to give, please recruit at least 1 other person in your place. Our goal is to collect 30 unites through the blood drive.

To sign up, go to www.givebloodgivelife.org and click "Donate Blood" in the top right hand corner. Search for Sponsor Code 2356 or enter area code 68137. Please do not delay in signing up - we can only host this if we have enough donors!

Why Give? A few responses:

• It's a way I can help others.
• My mother received over 83 units through 6 months of treatment & I want the same for others.
• I may need it someday & I hope others will do the same.
• Its the right thing to do.

On average, every cancer patient received 50 units of blood. (This will be 3 times more for a leukemia patient.) Each donation can potentially help 3 people - the unit collected is seperated into platelets, plasma & blood.

Rain Rain Go Away

The Nebraska City Relay for Life was cancelled due to rain, but that didn't stop Kamp Kim! Our team raised over $9,200 for the American Cancer Society - that is more than the past 2 years combined!

Although we weren't able to walk that night, we are sporting our BRIGHT Kamp Kim shirts around town to spread the word!

Kamp Kim at the College World Series

Kamp Kim Showing Us Where to Go Our Inspiration for it all - Kim & granddaughter Hailey

Dressed for Success!

Thank you to those who dropped your donations off last Saturday!

We had 10-12 large bags of clothing for the YWCA's Women's Program and a large amount of household items for the Good Sam Thrift Store. What a good feeling to help out during these hard times. I know that the YWCA folks will be happy to see our clothes come flooding in!

If you have not finished your spring cleaning or did not make it on Saturday, you can still participate...drop your donations off at any Fashion Cleaners in town & they will get them to the YWCA for you.

On another note, we have 2 volunteers for upcoming events. We still need April, May & July through September.

• Kim Kirchhoff & Relay for Life Team will be taking June for the American Cancer Society
• Emily Andres will be taking October for the Race for the Cure

Remember - if you don't have the room to host something at your home, or don't have a particular 'charity' you want to support...we have done things like 'read to your kids' (literacy), playing Bingo at a therapy center, distributing goodie bags to pediatric patients, etc.

YWCA Clothing Drive

Thank you Katie for taking on March! Here's what she has to say...

Are you ready to spring clean? I'm hosting a "drop off your stuff" day on Saturday, March 21st. There are 2 organizations I'd like to donate to...

Omaha YWCA
Career Closet - like-new & gently used women's business attire
Old Phones - goes to abuse victims

Syracuse Good Samaritan Thrift Store - they will take EVERYTHING ELSE

I will have boxes/etc to keep each donation group organized - you just bring the "stuff" on Saturday, March 21st. We will set the time from 10am - Noon, but if you can't make it then, we will arrange something else.

Here's the beauty of it....if you bring me your stuff, I will arrange delivery to the organizations above!