Category «District One»

Adopting Grace House

Carroll County Altrusa is providing Comfort Bags to Grace House. Grace house is a shelter home for victims of domestic and sexual assault. The house is managed by Starting Point. These comfort bags include all of the personal care items one would need for an extended stay, giving the person(s) time to regroup and make their plan. Items: shampoo, conditioner, lotion, soap, body wash, scrubby, towel, cloths, hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss plus a personal card of encouragement.

Socktober Collection in Conjunction with ILHS InterAct Club

Meredith Altrusa helped in the collection of socks during the month of October in honor of Make A Difference Day. A variety of socks for all ages were donated to the Community focused InterAct Club at Inter-Lakes High School, who in turn, provide to those in need. This is both a service project in response to a need in the Lakes Region, but also working to assist another Community Club comprised of our own local high schoolers…a joint effort within Meredith.

File of Life Packet for seniors who require emergency assistance in their home

Help Save Your Life with the File of Life!
Altrusa International of Meredith, N.H., Inc. is honored to be able to present the File of Life service project to Lakes Region seniors or single member households.
500 File of Life Packets were purchased for assembly and distribution via local libraries, town offices, fire and police departments, the Meredith Community Center, Altrusa monthly Community Dinners, the local Visiting Nurses Association, Interlakes Community Caregivers, local family medicine and family healthcare offices.
Eligible residents who may require emergency assistance in their home are encouraged to take one of the free magnetized packets where they can document a current record of personal medical needs and directives, up-to-date medications, drug contradictions, emergency contact, and a brief medical history.
There’s also a window sticker to alert first responders to the location of the packet in the home…most popular, being the kitchen refrigerator. There is room for a small photo in the front pocket to help with identification during an emergency. Residents are encouraged to ask their medical advisor for assistance in completing the insert if needed.
Medical personnel and first responders can access the File of Life information upon their arrival, enabling them to quickly assess the treatment and transport to the appropriate medical facility if necessary. Our local Altrusa club contact information is also provided should residents require more than one insert for their home.

Books for Seniors enjoyment

In January 2020, the Bermuda Club partnered with our local Meals on Wheels organization, enlisting their assistance in having their volunteers hand over reading material to their meal recipients, in lovely burlap bags which we purchased for this venture. The Altrusa brand and Club name is inserted in a clear plastic pocket in the front of the bags for advertising awareness.

The Meals on Wheels staff and volunteers were very complimentary of the little packages upon delivery and were very happy that the project had begun after several months of trying to put it all together.

Recipients are provided with 3 or 4 books and when they have finished reading the material they return the books in the bag, via the volunteers, to be recycled and to receive replacements to enjoy.

Books for Prison’s Library

The Bermuda Club purchased and donated $300.00 worth of books to assist in furnishing the library of Bermuda’s prison for our 2020 ‘Make a Difference Day”.

The books were selected by a representative of the prison and focused mainly on “self help” type reading material. As an example, there were books on anger management, how to start and run a business, how to effectively communicate with others and other similar titles. In this assortment of books, there were also some very interesting fiction titles by a popular author which seemed to be very popular with the prisoners.

The books were collected by a representative of the prison and subsequently the Club received a letter of appreciation and thanks from the head of the prison’s education department.

Reading, Writing and Zooming

The Bermuda Club donated a laptop computer and Microsoft package to Teen Haven, a home for young at-risk teenage women to assist them to continue classes, sharpen their reading and writing skills especially during the closure of schools during the pandemic.

This home empowers the young women to maximize their potential, increase self-esteem and coping skills in order to make healthier choices in life by promoting ongoing education, counseling and support.

This Snack’s On Us!

Altrusa of the Seacoast wanted to give back to the First Responders at York Hospital in York, Maine and its satellite facility in Wells, Maine, by providing all employees; all shifts with a healthy snack as a way of thanking them for their service. All members of our Club took part in some way. We secured a budget; decided on healthy individual drinks and snacks; shopped at BJ’s for items and had 3 groups of 4 women each, gloved and masked, and outside at the Chairperson’s home, fill 300 snack bags with these snacks and drinks, adding an Altrusa sticker and thank you on each bag. The local Lindt chocolate company donated many, many hundreds of chocolate treats to add to each bag as well as enough left to make five large baskets of chocolates for the Fire, Police, Ambulance, EMT departments and two local retirement and rehab communities. It was an extremely rewarding and, we believe, successful project, reaching probably close to 400 people with snacks; chocolates, and Altrusa information.

Jou Nouvo Library

Jou Nouvo in Bon Repos, Haiti, is in the process of raising capital for building a centrally located structure housing a computer lab, library, a multi-functioning classroom, offices, and a cafeteria to nourish their students while providing an appropriate environment for studies to improve their economic opportunities. Altrusa of Plymouth County is raising funds to help kickstart the construction of the library room, “The Altrusa Library”, and fund books and related equipment for it. Additionally, we would have the ability to have hands on experiences using Zoom to teach English, assist in creating financial literacy classes, business mentoring, and working with the students. Kerline Tofuri the founder of Jou Nouvo and a former Altrusan, has recently visited Haiti, bringing with her items donated by Plymouth County for the students. These included school supplies and reading glasses for the adult learners.

“Remarkably You” Book Distribution

Literacy Day 2020 was made possible with the help of the Brockton Public Library and BAMSI. The Brockton Public Library helped Altrusa International of Plymouth County purchase 100 copies of the children’s book titled “Remarkably You” by Pat Zietlow Miller. To spread the word of our project, we posted on our Facebook page and shared that post to the local Brockton Hub page. We received a tremendous amount of publicity with this, 1,556 people saw the post. The books were distributed in the Brockton Library’s childrens room and the Children’s Librarian read the book during her Sept. 10 Storyhour via Facebook Live. Families are required to make an appointment to visit the room and we had placed the books on the check-out desk so parents could take one for their family. Of the 100 books, 30 were given to the Brockton BAMSI for their family program.

Read To Grow

“Read to Grow” is a project spearheaded by Senator Chris Murphy to get books into the hands of children in the Western part of the state who, because of Covid-19, do not have access to schools or libraries. Anne Rash, chair of our Literacy Committee, collected over $15,000 in grants and contributions to bring this program to the Willimantic/Windham CT. for children in this area. Books were purchased though “The Read to Grow” program. Our members sorted and bagged the books, and handed them out at lunch distribution centers. Each child received, along with their meal, a bag of 5 books in various genres and leveled reading ability. It has and continues to be a wonderful and safe way for children to be able to get books and read during this pandemic.