Page
1:
* Help Wanted
* Donations
* West Side Clinic Update
* Farewell and Welcome
Page
2:
* Special Thanks
* Community Baby Shower
* We're Official!
Page
3:
* Thanks
to Share
* Volunteer Spotlight
Page 4:
* Retired &
Senior Volunteer Programs
* Leaders of Tomorrow
* Web Site Updated
Page
5:
* Shopping
Party
* Christoffers Quintuplets
* Perinatal Loss Conference
* Smocking Anyone?
Page
6:
* Delivering
Baby Items
* Agency Spotlight
* Board Members
* Work Group Meetings
RSVP Retired and Senior Volunteer Programs
Our metro-area volunteers aged 55 and older may be interested in the services that the Retired and Senior Volunteer Programs of Minneapolis and Retired and Senior Volunteer Programs of St. Paul offer. Bundles of Love has begun a community partnership with these groups, which assist seniors in finding meaningful volunteer roles and in covering expenses related to the volunteer work.
If you are a volunteer with Bundles of Love, you already have a meaningful role, but RSVP can help you by providing free supplemental insurance, including excess auto liability, personal accident and personal liability insurance to cover you while you are volunteering. They also may be able to reimburse your out-of-pocket expenses related to your volunteer work, including bus fare and mileage.
If you are interested in joining RSVP, ask your area coordinator for an enrollment form. After you have completed that form, you will mail it in directly to RSVP. There is no cost for joining and RSVP does not sell or trade their volunteer address lists to anyone.
For more information, e-mail Teresa Wilts at twilts@bundlesoflove.org.
Leaders
of Tomorrow
Help Babies Today
Last fall, Den 10 of Cub Scout Pack 290 asked us for a project that could help them achieve their citizenship award. Cindy Taintor gladly provided about 40 unstuffed toys that the six boys, ages 10 - 11, stuffed and finished. They did go on to complete all the requirements for the citizenship award, and we’re thrilled they included Bundles of Love in this achievement!
Tom
Strohmyer is the Den leader for Eric, Robbie, Pat, Colin, Peter, Sam and
T.J. Special thanks go to them for their work and commitment to the smallest
members of our community! No doubt these stuffed toys will become favorites
of the babies that receive them.
If you know of any Scouts or other kid’s groups that would enjoy completing a project for Bundles of Love, let your area coordinator know. There are so many creative ways for kids of all ages to help and we can find a project that will match their skills and interests.
Girls Scouts from Troups 1893 and 1441 also earned credit toward merit badges by helping us stuff toy bears and fold brochures. Behind-the-scenes jobs like these are critical to our success - after all, brochures won't get distributed if they're not folded and ready to hand out, and toy bears without stuffing just aren't cuddly!
Troup leaders Gayle Petrilli and Lynne Faschant helped the girls. We want to thank them and the girls for their time and commitment to Bundles of Love.
For several years, Amy Moses, a high school student from Chatfield, was interested in sewing for babies as a way to meet the requirements for a Girl Scout service award. However, she hadn’t found the right outlet for her idea until her mother, Susan, saw an article in the Rochester Post Bulletin about the Rochester Bundles of Love work group.
Amy’s plan quickly came together. She contacted the work group, and armed with a supply of fabric and batting from Bundles of Love, Amy and her “crew” got to work.
Amy’s
goal for the group is to finish 25 quilts and 50 stuffed bears by mid-February.
This achievement should help her earn a Gold Award.
The group started meeting in December and is well on its way to meeting the initial goals, but they don’t plan to stop in February. They are enjoying the work so much they wish to continue cutting, sewing and stuffing even after Amy’s project is finished. Our thanks go out to all of them!
You can contact Amy or her mother Susan at 507-932-5941 if you’d like to help with this effort.
Third-graders from Plymouth learned special lessons about each other, their family histories and helping families in need last fall with the help of Phyllis Bopp, a Bundles of Love volunteer.
Mrs. Pinske-Czech’s class, from Oakwood elementary school, read “The Patchwork Quilt”. Each student was asked to bring in a square of fabric with a special memory, and with Phyllis’ help, they sewed their squares together to form a quilt top. Phyllis then layered the quilt and brought it back for students to tie their own square with a piece of yarn. The class agreed to donate their quilt to Bundles of Love.
Mary Jo Prinsen visited the class in December to accept the donated quilt and tell the children more about Bundles of Love. The students were delighted to see the other items that would be included in the bundle, and asked many questions about how they could continue to help children in need.
The next day, one of the boys brought in a teddy bear, donned with its own special sweater, and donated it to Bundles of Love.
Web Site Updated
If you haven’t explored our web site lately, please take a moment to check out all the latest updates. We've added several new patterns, including some sewing patterns that can be printed out for your use.
If you have any patterns we can use, please forward them to info@bundlesoflove.org or mail them to Bundles of Love. Of course, if the pattern is copyrighted, we cannot post or distribute it, and patterns do not need to specifically state they are copyrighted to be covered by those laws.
