The VISTA Adventure!

This whole VISTA thing is just one big adventure after another!!!!!  Which is why I haven't posted in a while.  I've found myself working long hours to get things done, but it is starting to pay off.  For instance, Sedalia just got a new Panera Bread, so I went over to welcome them to Sedalia and the next thing I knew I was setting up The Salvation Army and Amigos for weekly donations!!!  WOW!!!  They are just so AWESOME!!!!  I cannot say enough good things about Panera Bread!!!

This past Saturday, we had the Legacy Ride from Katy Depot for the Senior Center.  That was fun!!  I got to hang out with the main director for a few hours and the ideas that we came up in that conversastion!!!  I had a BLAST!!!

Then today, I got to The Salvation Army Camp Mihaska!  What a BEAUTIFUL place!! We dropped off the kiddos, took a tour, and then we were headed back home.  I was so glad that I got to at least see the place.  The Salvation Army practices Safe From Harm, which means that there is always 2 adults with the kids at all times.

So, I find myself working, hard, long hours, but I wouldn't change it for the world!!!

Summer Food

The Salvation Army Summer Food Program is off and running for the summer, this is made possible by a grant from the USDA.  I went over to help out one day to see how it really works.  As of now, there are about 550 lunches that get packed out to 32 locations across Pettis County.  We have 6 cooks that prepare the all food and put it in deliverable containers.  I was assigned a location, that needed 55 lunches served, so I pack 55 cartons of milk, sandwiches, peaches, and applesauce into 2 big coolers.  Then I grabbed a stack of lunch sacks and a clipboard to keep track of everything that we passed out.  I was paired up with another volunteer and we set out in a van loaded with 5 coolers, the other 3 coolers had to be dropped off at other locations, where volunteers waited for the arrival of the food.  Once we got to our site we started assembling lunches into the sacks, to make easy work of handing the food out to the kids, because when the kids start coming they tend to come in small groups to our picnic tables.  The children are encouraged to sit and eat with each other and it is also part of the grant requirements.  The Pettis County Health Department does come and do inspections to make sure the food is safe and that the volunteers are properly handling the food.  The children sit and visit with us and the other children, so it makes for a nice picnic.  There is a Youth Director that makes the rounds at different locations everyday to make this a learning experience too.  Currently, we are expecting to exceed last summers numbers.

WOW!! The things a VISTA gets to do!!

I've been so busy getting things done that the time has just flown by!!!  I've also been putting in some really long hours, but for a good reason!  Last Thursday was Salvation Army's Volunteer Appreciation Dinner, so I helped to set-up and clean-up afterward, but it was an amazing dinner!  I got to help pass out awards, sit by the Mayor of Sedalia, and have a great meal among other volunteers.

Friday I had EDS Trainging all day at the Salvation Army.  This means that if there is ever a disaster, I have a chance to be deployed to that area to provide food and comfort to the victims. 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all I did was research!!!  The community outreach VISTA wants to have a big multicultural festival, to celebrate all cultures.  I love this idea, but times are tough and finding funding for something like that, well it's challenging!!  I'm still working on it, my supervisor warned me I needed to be able to take a lot of "no(s)" for an answer!!  We started by listing  a lot of possiblities for funders, and now it's short!!

Today I made my first budget!  I used Excel, which that was an experience since I haven't used Excel much.  This YouTube video help so much!!  If you need help learning how to make a basic budget, I HIGHLY recomend this video!!!  We had a meeting with a UCM Professor so he could show us few basic things about the Pachoro.  We have looked high and low around Sedalia to find someone that knows how to play the Pachoro, but we have not had any luck, so I e-mailed the UCM Music Department.  UCM doesn't know anyone either, but they do have a stringed insturment department and they helped us get started and found a fingering chart for us!!  One of the music students came with us and on the way home he sat in the back seat and had figured out how to play "Go Tell it on the Mountain" before we got back to Sedalia.  The student was so excited about the Pachoro!!  I also observed the ESL class tonight!!  WOW!!!  The things there get done in that class!!  The teacher is amazing!!  Even though these are adults, she still gives them play money so they can practice buy items from other students in the class. 

New Ways of Fundraising

With my graduate degree being in Educational Technology, I find new uses for technology amaze me!  When I was at my PSO, they mentioned a new way of fundraising by using the social resources of the web.  I had lunch today, with a fellow VISTA, and she made mention of Crowd Funding, which I hadn't heard of it, but then I described www.hopemob.org and www.donorschoose.org.  To my amazement, we were talking about the same thing!  What are your thoughts on this idea?  I know there are a ton of grants out there that can be written, but what about just making your plea to the public?  I think the odds are just as good anyway you try!  At the time of my PSO, April 19, 2012, was the first day of www.hopemob.org so this is a REALLY new idea.

Yesterday, I was filling out an initial survey for a grant and they said" of everyone that will complete the survey less than 2% will go on to receive funding."  I was kind of surprised by this number!  My wonderful supervisor said that a number like that is very normal among foundations that give grants.  She then said when I receive my first grant, "I'll give you a big party!"  Because grant writing is a very competitive field.

Getting Started as a Grant Writer

Here are a few tips I have learned in my first few weeks of being a grant writer.

• Make 12 folders, one for each month of the year, and keep the details of grants the need to be submitted or looked into for that month.
• I'm writing grants for three different places, but one thing that could be helpful is to gather legal name, address, phone number, tax ID numbers, DUNS number, and other identifying numbers and put it onto a card then keep it close!  That will save you from having to look that information every time you start a grant.
• Encourage the organization to have a web site!  I ran across a grant today that I couldn't even try to apply for it since we don't have a web site address!!  So tomorrows adventure is to invent a web site!
• Don't be afraid to e-mail people to ask for help!  I e-mailed the UCM Music Dept. to see if they would help teach one of our volunteers to play the pacharo.  They unfortunately don't know anyone who plays that, but they do know how to play other guitars so we could make this work.

Stay tuned for more things that I will learn!

I went to a Sedalia Inter-Agency Meeting, this is where all of the non-profit agencies get together and tell each other what they are doing, like fundraisers, projects, or issues they need help solving.  I found this information very useful!  This meeting happens only once a month, so I think it could be worked into my busy schedule.

Day 18

I spent my day reaserching funding for a couple of projects.  Such as a culture festival we have started planning as a community outreach project.  With Cinco de Mayo we just did everything with donations and really didn't spend a lot of money on it, but it was a really nice family event.  This time we are planning to have professional entertainment instead of a VISTA in a chicken outfit!!  Although that was the funnest chicken ever and I'm not sure how we will top that!!!  We also wrote down several ideas of what we would like to see there and an estimated cost of each section.  So we have got that project started, now to find funding!!

Day 17

I used this QR Code maker to make this QR Code
I found it very easy to follow the steps on the QR Code maker web site.  To me this is a simple way to guide people to an online/digital destination.  All anyone needs to access the information is a phone with a QR Scanner that you can download free from any of the app stores.

Day 16

Today I set up two Facebook Pages for Minority Outreach of Sedalia and Sedalia Salvation Army, soon I will posts links to these!!!  I also worked with one of my supervisors on setting up a project budget.  That was very interesting!!!  Since this project involves welding, I felt comfortable in knowing at least what was needed, since I have several years experience in welding.  We started by listing out everything the SABER project needs, such as rent, utilities, and supplies, and then putting down estimates of each item we listed.  The local newspaper had this article about the SABER Program.

I also went to my first Diversified Community Outreach (DCO) meeting.  The people there were so nice and informative!!!  We discussed the Community Garden they have for people to plant whatever they want in it.  I found the whole meeting very informative.

Day 15

Our Cinco de Mayo Festival was on the front page of the Sedalia Democrat!!

Yes, that is one of my fellow VISTA's dressed as the chicken!!  She was so awesome and the kids just loved to chase her in the chicken chases.  To read more about it and to see more pictures click here.  The festival was a big success!!!  We estimate about 300 people showed up Saturday.  This event was not meant to be a fundraiser, but our goal was just to break even and have a fun family event, and we did!!!  We broke even by having a raffle, donation jar, and sold both spaces to both profit and non-profit agencies.

Today, we wrote thank you notes to all the volunteers that ran the games and other activities, and to everyone that donated items for us to use.  I also made us a data base for us to make address labels and for future records.

Days 12 & 13

For all my readers, sorry I didn't make a post yesterday, but I was busy graduating from grad school!!  I received my Master of Science in Educational Technology from the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, Missouri. 



That morning I did help with the set up of our Cinco de Mayo Celebration, but then I left in time to take part in my celebrations!!

The Cinco de Mayo Celebration was my first major community outreach project as a VISTA!  Since this is the end of week 2 for me, most of the planning was in place before I started, but I was informed of the activities.  The VISTA in charge of it (the Community Outreach VISTA for our site) had to leave to go to her daughter's college graduation, and she then gave me the clipboard, some details, and then left me in charge!!!  WOW!!!  The things I learned today!!!!  The one thing I want to tell anyone that is about to tackle any project like this is to be prepared to think creatively to solve problems and to use what you have at the site!!!  Everything went smoothly, oh sure there were things I had to try to figure out last minute (like not enough tables for all the vendors that showed up and then how do I squeeze an extra table in a very small space!!LOL!!!).  Lots of people showed up and told they had a nice time, so that made me feel good that others enjoyed our hard work!!! There were a lot of AWESOME volunteers there to help out us VISTA's to pull all of this off without a lot of major problems.  Overall, I feel that it went over well!!!  We had a great turn out and everyone had fun!!! 

Day 11

My wonderful supervisor, that has over 20 years of grant writing experience, looked over my first grant application today.  Yes, she made a few changes and I had one concern that I asked her about, but other than that...she loved it!!!  I got a "that a girl" for my work!!!!  That helped boost my confidence with my grant writing skills, considering that I've never done one before!!

The rest of the day was spent working on last minute items for the big Cinco de Mayo Celebration on Saturday.  I've enjoyed helping make things for the celebration!!  I've made all sorts of items such as coupons, signs, 6 boats-all with different sails, oh yes it's been a lot of work!!  Here is a link to the article that the local paper, The Sedalia Democrat, wrote about out celebrations.  We talked about it at work and we all agreed that they did a nice job describing what will be going on Saturday.

By the way, this article is a follow-up article, from The Sedalia Democrat, that I blogged about on Day 9.

Day 10

Yet another exciting day as a VISTA!!!!  I tell you, everyday is something new, but I wouldn't change that!!  So we continued to prepare things to get ready for the big Cinco de Mayo Festival that is on Saturday.  I made small certificates for children who show good sportsmanship skills to receive and then they will get to participate in the final rounds of the games we have set up for them to play.

Just before my arrival, as a VISTA, the others had started to set up a group that is called "Hand to Hand Outreach" which is a group of crafty people that want to get together to make crafts for those who need them, such as classroom aids for a Head Start class, out of donated materials.  Today we finalized the name and decided to come up with a mission statement, then we also wanted to get tags made up so everything the group makes can get a tag to identify that Hand to Hand Outreach made it. 

Day 9

Today, the Senior Center partnered with St. Pauls Luthern School to have a walk-a-thon and raised money for the Senior Center.  The students had people sponsor them during the walk, then they walked to a nearby park.  Where we had a lunch set up for the, some Senior Center board members BBQ hot dogs, seniors citizens supplied donated bags of chips and baked cookies, and Open Door donated the hot dogs and buns.  Sonic even donated their holders for hot dogs, which was really nice!  I thought this was a great example of using your resources to have a simple and successful fundraiser.  At the park, we had reserved 2 shelter houses, one to serve the food and the other for students to eat.  A parent volunteer even brought over the students instruments and they preformed along with the choir after lunch.

I also finished my very first grant!  I still need to add some documents and let my mentors read it first before I submit it.  The grant is with the Allen P. and Josephine B. Green Foundation and their web site is http://greenfdn.org/.   One of my mentors, said she has wrote grants with them before and they are really nice people since she had meet them.  The Green Foundation just happens to be located not far from us.  My grant with them is to help fund GEDs and transprotation costs for the Salvation Army.

Day 8

To we mostly focused on getting stuff together for the Cinco de Mayo Festival.  Another VISTA and I did go and look at kitchen facilities, since we are working on putting together a pilot type program for distributing food to the home bound outside of Sedalia city limits.  We currently have the Kids Summer Food Program that is going to other towns in Pettis county.  While the kid's meals are being delivered, we are going to drop off the seniors meals to a volunteer for home delivery.  This program hasn't been confirmed, but we are thinking about it.

Grants for Child Hunger

One of my goals for this blog is to be a resource for my fellow VISTA's and anyone else that is doing their best to end poverty.  I know in Sedalia our Wal-Mart has been stepping up to the plate about donating soon to be expired food for the Red Shield Cafe (which is the same concept as a Soup Kitchen and meals are offered free of charge to anyone).  Well then I came upon this site http://www.walmartstores.com/pressroom/news/9863.aspx that talks about how Wal-Mart is using their resources to help end child hunger and that includes $250 million in grants. 

VISTA's-I would love to hear any of your stories about this.  Like if you get a grant from Wal-Mart or how is your local Wal-Mart helping your food programs.

Currently, Pettis county now has the largest kids summer food programs in the state of Missouri.  Last summer, there was over 20,000 meals delivered to Sedalia's kids in poverty.  This summer, Salvation Army will be delivering an estimated 40,000, as they are expanding the program to include the smaller towns around Sedalia, but still inside Pettis county.  The big kick off party is at the end of May and I will give you more details as I know them.

Day 5

Today I completed my first week as a VISTA and it has been a week!!!! A GREAT week!!! I have learn so much in 5 days!!!! I do believe I've learned more in the last week than I have in at least 5 years of college!!! :) The people I'm working with know what they are doing and are so willing to share every tidbit they know!!! I know I am in for one serious life changing year and I am greatful for every minute of it!!!!

Today I spent most of the day in meetings and meeting people, like board members, Senior Center Staff/Volunteers, and the teacher for the SABER Class. Everyone made me feel welcome, which makes it easier for me to do my volunteer efforts.

Day 4

It was another educational day for me as a VISTA!!!!  I heard a young man's story about how he left Guatamala, as a boy, because his gaurdians becames injured and ill and could no longer take care of him.  It just made me realize how lucky we are here is America!  He came here to be with his mom and to get medical care, and as an adult he just wants to raise his daughter with his wife in their house.

The Salvation Army Battling Economic Recession (SABER) Program is just getting started in Sedalia.  It's sponsored by the Sedalia Corps Salvation Army.  The program is geared for those that are out of work, underskilled, under-employed, or a convicted felon.  Since this is just a pilot program there is only one course (but we are planning on expanding it), those quilifed, take a class on pipe fitting that is currently being taught by volunteer that has the skills.  The class is offered free of charge, but the students must complete an hour of volunteer service for every hour they are in the class.  I have been given the task to find out how much it costs to get a GED and then find funding for the students in the SABER class to be able to get their GED too, so when they finish the SABER course they are ready to enter the work force.  I think this is an excellent idea!!!  Do any of you have ideas about the SABER Program?  I had to go to the local community college and talk to the lady in charge of the GED classes and she just loved this idea for her students, she said there would be a lot of demand for it.  I did start working on my first grant with this project, the Green Foundation looks like a good match and my supervisor helped me to get started with it.

At the Limit Salvation Army store tonight they had a fundraising auction.  All the items had been donated, so I wonder how well they will do.

Day 3

This morning I had to go to class so I can finish my masters degree, which my supervisor is more than willing to let me go...which is so awesome, since I only have to go till May 4!!!!  Yes, I will graduate from the University of Central Missouri with a Master of Science in Educational Technology and I'm doing that with a 4.0 GPA!!!!  I was just accepted into Phi Kappa Phi, an honor society, last week.  So it has been busy times for me!!!!

Today, I attended more meetings to find out what I need find funding for...which that list doesn't have an end, or at least not that I have found yet on Day #3. :)  As a rule, when an organization has a VISTA they must fund at least one more...I have been assigned the task to find $10,683 to support this one VISTA for our project or else all the VISTA's will be gone...gees no pressure there!!! :)  The good news is I have a lead on one foundation that might give us funding, it was too late in the day for me to call today, so that is for tomorrow.  Which I didn't realize how concerned my supervisor was until I told her about this one foundation!!  She has 20 years of grant writing experience and has no idea where to find funding for our VISTA, because she has searched and didn't find anything, so this could get very interesting!!!  She said "worst case we just have a few fundraisers."  We also did more planning for the Cinco de Mayo Festival that is just around the corner (Saturday May 5 for my English friends), this is going to be a big party!!

Cinco de Mayo

Minority Outreach of Sedalia is putting together a Cinco de Mayo Festival at the Convention Hall at Liberty Park in Sedalia, MO from 4pm-8pm.  This is a FREE family event!!  There will be tons of games and prizes for everyone!!!

Day 2

Today was a great day, busy but great!!  One of the other VISTA's, from Salvation Army, took me around to some of the resources that we have available in Sedalia.  Let me tell you that was something!!!  We went to the current Habitat for Humanity house, Open Door, Embassy, Salvation Army stores, United Way, Red Shield Cafe, Community Cafe, and some low income housing places.  I also got to see how the Buddy Pack system works from behind the scenes.  As a student teacher I always sent those home with the students and I knew how happy those packs made them.  Now I know what are some resources I have for fundraising and what needs funding.  The Major at the Salvation Army gave me his list of priorities that he would like to get funding for.  He would like to receive money to cover transportation costs for people to receive medical help.  He would also like to receive money to cover educational costs, like GED classes.  While I was at the Salvation Army and doing some waiting around, I went over to the Women's Ministry and participated in their weekly project of making May Day Baskets.  We had fun and I got a chance to work with some of the people I will be helping.

I also started on my first fundraiser!!  We will be collecting Best Choice Labels, it's simple and everyone has a chance to participate!!  So if you would like to help...you can save your labels and give them to me, Jerry, drop them off at the church, or contact me and I'll send you the address.  We get $30 for every bundle of 1,000 labels.  I'm starting small, since I don't have a lot of fundraising experience.

Day 1

So my first day at my VISTA site was fun filled and very busy!!  I was so excited to go in this morning, since I had been warned that they have been putting together a "to do" list for me since March!!  Everyone was super nice to me too!!  They started by showing me my desk and introducing me to everyone.  They had put together a welcome lunch for me, which was really good, and we talked about the upcoming Cinco de Mayo festival.  The rest of the day I spent directing and helping volunteers put together stuff for Cinco de Mayo.  I did have a great talk with my site supervisor!  She told me what grants I needed to check out and what projects need funding at Amigo de Cristo.  She has wrote grants for over 20 years, so I'm looking forward to her sharing her tips with me!!  Tomorrow I will be going to Salvation Army to find out what they do here in Sedalia, MO.

Denver Pre-Service Orientation (PSO)

To start off my year as a VISTA (Volunteer In Service To America) with AmeriCorps, I was sent off to Denver for training and it was an EXPERIENCE!!!!!  First off, I've never flown before this, so just getting there was going to be an adventure for me!!  I got to the Renaissance Hotel my head was filled with tons of information that I will need for the next year.  I also meet lots of people who will be making a difference in the world over the next year.  I found it very interesting to here about every one's project, which brings me to why I'm writing this blog, to keep everyone up to date on what I have found useful or not so useful.

I start at Sedalia Minority Outreach (SMO) on Monday (April 23, 2012) where I will be a Grant Writer/Fundraiser.  SMO is coalition of the Sedalia Senior Center, Salvation Army, and Amigo de Cristo Church.