Education

Target Population

Well Wishes Eco-Arts Exchange

storres4365 — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 21:59:28 +0000

Well Wishes Eco-Arts Exchange

The classic art of letter writing is quickly being taken over by today's tech-based social-networks. There are two groups of folks, however, who still appreciate the rare joy of getting a post card or letter in the good-old-fashioned mail; Nursing Home Elders & Summer Youth Campers.

Helpertunity's creative inter-generational program; "Well Wishes" brings these two groups together through the power of stamps, inks, water, pencils, and pen.

Well-Wishes Postcards are being created by all-ages in the most imaginative places: from office holiday-service parties... to outdoor nature festivals... to scout-troop meetings:

With your contributions, "Well Wishes" will be able to continue its outreach and pen-pal exchange efforts; bringing crafts and activities, along with tangible memories and motivation, to those who are lonely and in need of inspiration.

To request or sponsor a "Well Wishes Pen Pal Party" for a local office-service-party, elder-care facility or a summer / after-school youth camp; - or - to "Host a Wishes & Donations Well" for Helpertunity, at the reception desk or counter of your business; please contact Helpertunity directly at 407-234-4768.

To "Sponsor-A-Stamp" for the handmade cards and greetings crafted by Helpertunity's Inter-generational Volunteers, please mark a contribution for this program clearly with "Well Wishes - Stamp Sponsor" and mail it to Helpertunity, PO Box 1956, Apopka, FL 32704. Donations can also be made securely online using Helpertunity's PayPal Button Link on this page. Please indicate "Well Wishes - Stamp Sponsor" in the memo section.

storres4365 Thu, 02/09/2023 - 16:59

Project Type

Target Population

Youth/Teen/YoungAdult

Heritage Helpers

storres4365 — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 23:39:52 +0000

Heritage Helpers

Helpertunity's Volunteers have been hard at work bringing generations together, while honoring history and diversity; by providing creative recreational resources for fun and life-skills education.

Volunteers have set up rubber-band target ranges, created craft kits, and provided premium recreation supplies to summer camps which offer specialty-electives in "Science & Nature" as well as "Frontier Skills" and "Heritage Arts" to a wide variety of youth.

The program currently reaches nearly 1000 children, between the ages of 4-17, every Summer. One camp that Helpertunity sponsors is also specially staffed with sign-language interpreters, and hosts groups of hearing-impaired children, while another reaches out with their "Shining Stars" camp for children with disabilities.

In honor of the legacy and knowledge which our country's elders share with America's Pioneers & International Church Missionaries, Helpertunity's "Heritage Helpers" recently bridged the gap between one elder's dream to create minion-puppets for children; and assisted a camp's staff and teens to earn service-hours while completing a creative craft with an important story and a purpose:

To help support this Activity-Adoption Project for Summer Youth Programs; mark your contributions to this organization with "Heritage Helpers" and send them to Helpertunity, PO Box 1956, Apopka, FL 32704, or Donate to Helpertunity online using our secure Pay-Pal Link. To be a part of our Heritage Helpers "Kit Creation Team" - Please contact Eileen directly at 407-234-4768.

To Find out more about the "Adopted" Youth-Camps which offer programs using resources provided or up-cycled by Helpertunity's Volunteers, click on the links below:

www.campnotredame.com

www.campithiel.org

www.campeder.org

To submit your Youth Camp or Center to be added to Helpertunity's Youth Program-Adoption List, Contact Eileen directly at 407-234-4768.

storres4365 Thu, 02/09/2023 - 18:39

Project Type

Target Population

Youth/Teen/YoungAdult

Kid & Eco Friendly Creations

storres4365 — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 23:45:45 +0000

Kid & Eco Friendly Creations

After 30 years as a school teacher, and a busy day at the theme parks enjoying her "retirement job," Helpertunity's Corporate Secretary, Dorothy Gill, still enjoys a bit of volunteer time. She has a specialty for applying her talents to "creative retail" efforts; by providing fundraising resources and programs that reach out to kids and appreciate the environment.

With decades of kid-friendly experience, she seems to really know what children enjoy! Dorothy is the Captain in the first-phase of Helpertunity's "Bear Care & Repair - Plush Pet Rescue and Adoption Project" - stitching up plush-pet boo-boos and giving the entire stuffed-zoo a sanitizing-suds bath:

Dorothy has propagated plants for Helpertunity's Spring Time Fundraisers and has beaded hundreds of bracelets and glued together dozens more rescued-silk-flower clip-on corsages for various Art and Environmental Festivals.

And, she has also made creatively packaged yarn and crochet kits, that look like carnival treats, for an International Fiber-Arts Fair. Dorothy insists that she is not "crafty," but her imagineer-like creations have already raised funds and provided supplies for many Helpertunity Projects, as well as an Activity Program at a Children's Hospital in Canada.

And that's not all! Dorothy's creative retail contributions have also inspired crafters at a Children's Summer Camp in Pennsylvania; with her collaboratively custom-designed and handmade Camper-Scamper Scrapbook and Cardmaking Kits.

So why doesn't Dorothy just give supplies and cash donations directly to the children's programs? Because as a retired school teacher, Dorothy already knows that there is an un-ending need for supplies and resources wherever children and elders are involved. By generating fundraising revenues, she is often able to double her own donation's value, and do something which she enjoys at the same time.

So, do you have leftover craft or gardening supplies, (which are clean and in allergen-free and odor-free condition) that can be enjoyed by elderly patients or hospitalized children, young campers, or school-aged shoppers? Please contact Helpertunity directly to discuss details for making an in-kind contribution of craft and gardening resources to Dorothy's ongoing project efforts.

Better Yet: If you would like to help Dorothy multiply her creative donation-funding efforts, so that she may continue to "Pay it Forward" with her inspired energy and enthusiasm, then please make a cash contribution via e-banking, check, or credit card to: Helpertunity, PO Box 1956, Apopka, FL 32704 with "Kid & Eco Friendly Creations" in the memo line.

storres4365 Thu, 02/09/2023 - 18:45

Project Type

Target Population

Youth/Teen/YoungAdult

City

Apopka

State

Florida

Art & Activity Resource Rescue

storres4365 — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 23:57:54 +0000

Art & Activity Resource Rescue

Activity Program Resource Awards

Every year, Helpertunity collects recreation resources, craft supplies, and technology items for residents in care facilities and shelters. These items are carefully packaged into "Activity Kits" and are distributed to Activity Professionals attending continuing education seminars, retreats, and directly to Care-Facility Activities Staffs by a personal visit from Helpertunity.

Helpertunity Prize Table shown loaded with Activity Resources Baskets ready to give away to Nursing Home Recreation Services Professionals - photo from Activity Professional's Educational Retreat in 2014.

By packaging and distributing items in this manner, Helpertunity raises the odds that these brand new and gently used goods will be properly cared for, and used by a trained professional, to improve the quality of life for their elderly, disabled, or homeless shelter clients.

Activity Director wins a custom T-shirt Printing Kit from Helpertunity

Often the items provided exceed the typical facility resource budget, and are far beyond the personal financial means of the clients it will be shared within a facility activity or adaptive-class setting.

A Nursing Home Activity Director wins a basket of paintable ceramics for use in craft class with her art participants

An activity Director wins and inflatable globe to use in games with her Care Facility Residents

Often the items do more than simply fill a few hours of time for the clients. Many time's the items are re-usable, or may be enjoyed, and then incorporated into a facility's annual event decor, or painted/crafted and sold to raise donation funds for additional resources at the facility where they were given.

An Activity Director wins a paitable ceramic Christmas Village to use with her arts and crafts participants

Helpertunity's Creative Volunteers have even used their Gift-Resources to hand-make trinkets to give as rewards and educational incentives to school children and pediatric patients. And, over the years; volunteer-crafted items are distributed through: A Gift for Teaching, The Health Care Center for the Homeless, The Coalition Women's Shelter, Loaves & Fishes, the Hope Community Center of Apopka, and Barberville Pioneer & Settlement & Heritage Education Center. Each of these high-impact charities is located in Central Florida.

Alphabet Beads are an excellent resource for Elder and Memory Care Facility Craft Activity Programs

In addition to crafts and game equipment, the activity kits and resource baskets have included "kitchenless-cooking" appliances, "silly science" senior workshop experiments, software, and gently used technology tools.

Chemistry and Physics Kits and other Maker Themed Activity Supplies are a fun alternative to crafts for our Retired Rocket Scientists

Useful Technology Resources are displayed to be won by Nursing Home Activity Directors for use with their Care Facility Residents

In addition to dropping off resources directly at Ender Care Facilities during the charity's travels; by presenting the resources at a low-cost gathering, which attracts Activity Professionals from around the State, Helpertunity is able to eliminate the cost of packing and shipping of these useful items, thus providing greater funding for additional resources.

Activity Professional wins a Basket of Paintable Ceramic Vases for use in her Eldercare Facility Crafts Classes

The project also helps to reduce the tendency for Activity Professionals to purchase activity supplies, for their residents, out of their own limited paychecks.

An Activity Director wins a complete Felt Crafting Class Supply Set for use with her Nursing Home Patients in Sewing Club

Often the facility clients are as anxious and excited to see; "what their Activity Professional is bringing them back from the conference..." as their Activity Professional is in having their name drawn for the item they most needed. Professionals who are unable to attend the conference are also given the chance to receive resources; by participating in periodic Activity supply Give-Away Drawings on Helpertunity's Facebook page.

Computer programs on CDs are still appreciated and used in older model computers that have been donated to some disadvantaged disabled patients

To be a part of the Activity Resource Awards & Prize Basket Collection & Distribution Efforts:

Please contact Helpertunity directly if you feel you may have items that would be useful to contribute to the distribution event.

To provide funding for the careful selection and purchase of new and useful items, please be sure that your donation to Helpertunity is marked with "Activity Resource Supply Prizes" on the memo line.

storres4365 Thu, 02/09/2023 - 18:57

Project Type

Advocacy/Awareness

Helpertunity Printable Busy Bag sewing Instructions

Target Population

Busy Bags & Ditty Kit Packers

storres4365 — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:03:07 +0000

Busy Bags & Ditty Kit Packers

With the help of sewing volunteers; elders can now keep busy with independent pursuits... because they can carry the tools they need in their walker & wheelchair "Busy Bags"

As facility clients forego carrying wallets, keys, briefcases, and purses, they often also lose a tendency that people have; to bring along items of interest to use during their daily free time. In facilities, many elders use walkers and wheelchairs to assist with "transportation" but the unique bags that could store their useful belongings, hands-free, are not nearly as easy to find:

Volunteers who enjoy sewing, and gift givers who enjoy collecting recreational items, are working together this year to spread Helpertunity's "Busy Bag" advocacy message:

No elderly client should be left sitting in the nursing-home hallway... without access to something to do to help them pass the time! That is why church groups and sewing guilds across Florida have been gathering to cut and sew Busy Bags by the dozens since 2017!

.... and that includes sewing and embellishing Busy Bags for Alzheimer's Patients, who can enjoy the sensory-stimulation of customized "Fidget Bags / Fidget Aprons / and Fidget Pillow Covers" too!

Busy Bags are also a wonderful bed-rail caddie, and are a great make-one/share-one sewing project for scouts troops, crafty campers, and quilt-retreat attendees.

Cash contributions and donations of the following resources are needed to support this project through Helpertunity:

Sewing Volunteers & Sewing Machines

Scrap Material / Thread / Buttons

Zippers / Velcro / Ribbon / Lace

And Busy-Bag Filling:

New Puzzle Books & Click-Pens

Grown-Up Coloring Books & Markers

Silk Flowers & Stringing Beads / Pearls

Handheld Puzzles & Fidget Games

Our Busy Bags Kit Packing Team Volunteering at the Helpertunity Home-Office in early 2020.

Print the flyer and sewing instructions posted below and get a "Busy Bag & Ditty Kit Packers" volunteer group started in your area:

Helpertunity Sewing & Crafting Supply Request Flyer

storres4365 Thu, 02/09/2023 - 19:03

Project Type

Target Population

State

Fiesta Foundation

storres4365 — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 00:12:58 +0000

Fiesta Foundation

Gabriel Callejas, husband of Helpertunity's Founder Eileen Callejas, was the first business to step up and support Helpertunity's Mission, but it was not the first time the family restaurant owner had reached out to elderly, disabled, and homeless persons in his community.

Gabriel is an outspoken advocate for the plight of child immigrants, migrant farmers, and disabled workers, and has been known to honor the requests of needy persons; seeking a volunteer tasks in exchange for a hot meal, from time to time.

Gabriel's restaurants have hosted holiday banners made by homeless crafters, and have proudly displayed handmade items, produced by disabled persons and elderly nursing home residents, in their front counter-case.

The small business owner continues to provide a source of ongoing support for the organization by accepting donations and offering candy at local register locations. Such efforts not only provide a small stream of resources for the organization, but it also serve to advocate and educate about Helpertunity's work within the local community.

Over the years; Gabriel's restaurants have provided classic Mexican treats to local shelters and elder care facilities, in celebration of Mexican holidays and fiestas, and have hosted educational sessions for Activity Professionals on the History, Culture, and traditions of Mexico and its People.

La Fiesta Mexican Grill continues to provide catering services for events, and is proud to be an ongoing advocate, with Helpertunity, for Direct-Impact Seed-Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility in the community.

To provide counter space, project sponsorship, or other support for Helpertunity's efforts, through your neighborhood business or corporation, please contact Helpertunity directly at 407-234-4768 / Eileen@Helpertunity.org.

storres4365 Thu, 02/09/2023 - 19:12

Project Type

Target Population

City

State

Bottle Brick Builders Guild

Eileen — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 19:40:52 +0000

Bottle Brick Builders Guild

In 2020 Helpertunity realized that all of its kit-packing projects were producing an excessive amount of plastic bags. So, the charity began looking for fun ways to recycle and upcycle waste plastics. Today, volunteers help hand pack plastic bottles with clean, dry plastic bags and wrappers. After turning these bottles into bricks they are used to make practical and decorative items.

Our friends from AmeriCorps RSVP have been crocheting covered abstract bottle people. They are being made to adorn a planned parade float in the coming year.

The bottle bricks have also been used to build obstacles, mazes and bot-ball arenas for creative cooperative team games with our friends from the Family Cafe Expo Events held in Orlando, Florida.

Eileen Fri, 04/28/2023 - 15:40

Project Type