Category «District Three»

Toiletry Kits for victims of Domestic Violence

Our club members have donated for several months: different types of toiletry items, make-up & toiletry bags, hygiene products, blankets, underwear, as well as gifts cards to be donated to a local domestic violence shelter called “The Haven”, to which we have made donations in the past. Over 40 toiletry kits were given to “The Haven” and enough donations were left over to donate items to “The Open Door”, a homeless drop-in shelter which serves women & men who are victims of domestic violence, as well as veterans who are homeless.

International Literacy Day: Impacting the children of homeless youth at Forward Paths

International Literacy Day 2020 was celebrated by dropping off books and toys to Forward Paths for the children of the youth in their program to encourage reading. We have very close ties to Forward Paths, a local foundation whose President, Denise Burry is also a Lake County Altrusan. Forward Paths helps homeless and unaccompanied youth find a forward path to success.

Essential School Supplies for Lake County in the “Red for Ed” Campaign

The children of Lake County have been significantly affected this year due to Covid-19 and our club was able to make a $250 donation to the “Red for Ed” campaign, which helps to stock the Apple Mart with school supplies for teachers to shop for their classroom and their students throughout the year for free. The stores are manned by a group of volunteers & there are 3 locations in Lake County. Our club was also asked to donate individually to this effort, resulting in additional funds donated.

Point in Time Veteran’s Survey

Altrusa of Sanford-Springvale invited a guest speaker from our local Vet Center to tell us about the work they do. We realized right away that there was a great need to help homeless and disadvantaged veterans in our community. This also fit with our SOS project. Each year our local vet center conducts a point in time survey. At this time they offer items to help vets manage our cold Maine winters. We partnered with our local senior center, they were a drop point for the community and we collected warm socks, blankets, hats, gloves and other necessities. We collected 197 individual items and delivered them over a two week period. The vet center also has a food pantry that we have adopted by our club and we collect items at our business meeting and deliver them to the center on a regular basis.

FLO – Providing local support. Period.

The club partnered with a local organization to provide feminine hygiene supplies to women and teens who may not have access to them. The focus is primarily on homeless women, support to domestic violence shelters, schools, and safe havens for LGBTQ+ teens and young adults. This aligned with the club’s work on Days for Girls, which has an international focus.

Changed Choices

The club partners with a local organization to assist women and their families, who are returning from incarceration. Club provided school supplies to the children, blankets and journals for the women to write down their thoughts and included the women in a club service project.

Tools 4 Teaching

A special project with Tools 4 Teaching, a program of our local public education foundation, was selected by the club members. Tools 4 Teaching was created by the education foundation to provide teachers with free classroom supplies and books since many parents are unable to continually purchase these basic items for their children. Community organizations, businesses and individuals donate supplies that are transformed into classroom learning materials and made available to all 3,500 public school teachers through a voucher system at the Tools 4 Teaching “store.” Organized to look like an actual store, Tools 4 Teaching is centrally located at the Thelma Parker Center, named in honor of one of our charter Altrusians. The club stocks three bookshelves at the Tools 4 Teaching store with books and school supplies, the shelf is named for another club charter member, Juanita Cunningham. This project has two important objectives: 1) to impact the supply shortage experienced by our teachers at area public schools, many of whom purchase books and classroom materials with their own funds, and 2) to promote Altrusa name recognition and our staunch support of literacy. Many of the books provided by Altrusa are purchased through our partnership with the First Book organization. First Book is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing educational opportunities for low-income children through services that include the sale of books at reduced prices. Supplies, e.g., paper, crayons, pencils, etc. were collected directly from our members or through supply drives members held at their local businesses. Over $2,000 was spent on books that were combined with the donated materials. At least one member oversees Juanita’s Bookshelf and coordinates with the Tools 4 Teaching staff to ensure the shelf is always full and contains relevant and useful items. The Literacy Committee monitors the book and supply inventory and notifies the membership of shelf “sales” and most requested materials at monthly meetings and through the club newsletter. Altrusa was originally given three shelves to stock at the store but our allotted space continues to expand over time. The public education foundation tracks the number of visits made to the Tools 4 Teaching store and the items purchased through the voucher system and provides these reports to our club. In 2017, 6,500 visits from teachers at 52 schools “shopped” the Tools 4 Teaching store and shared with their students over 4,000 books, of which 1,209 had been donated by Altrusa. We continue to provide funds, supplies and at least 1,000 books each year.

Born Learning Trail

The second Born Learning Trail for Altrusa International of Ocala was a collaborative effort between the Early Learning Coalition of Marion County, The United Way Success By 6 Program, Marion County Parks & Recreation and Altrusa International of Ocala, Florida Inc. The Early Learning Coalition of Marion County is dedicated to providing children and their families in Marion County, Florida with access to quality early learning programs that nurture their learning potential and prepare them for their educational success. The United Way Success By 6 Program is a community wide initiative of the United Way of Marion County and is focused on bringing together volunteers and resources from business, government and non-profits and the community to increase awareness of the needs of children, ages birth to six and their families. The mission of Altrusa leads to a natural partnership between our club and these two organizations. In 2014 the club partnered with these parties to do our first Born Learning Trail. We chose to do another trail due to the fact that quality early learning experiences are critical determinants of school readiness and academic success. The trials impact our community by providing parents/caregivers with a fun and interactive opportunity to bond with and to help their children develop mentally, physically and socially. The brightly colored signs (branded with logos of each partnering entity) help with the recognition of colors, shapes and animals. In addition, they help with number recognition and counting. The sidewalk activities/games associated with each station help with muscle development, balance and coordination. The Club would have an initial outlay of $2,500 and applied for an Altrusa International Foundation Grant of $2,000 to help fund the project (signs, paints, etc.) We were responsible for sidewalk layout, taping and painting and ribbon cutting activities. In addition to the trail, we also suggested adding a “Little Free Library” to the site. We continue to add these all over our area to encourage and promote lifelong reading. Members assist in the selection of books for the library and maintain it.
The Born Learning Trail and the Little Free Library are an ongoing resource for families to enjoy today and for months and years to come. The Club had an outlay of $4,800 and over 100 hours of volunteer time. The trail is located in a family park that requires no admission and has 365 day access with an adjoining playground, restrooms and picnic pavilions. It is located in a heavily populated residential area and the total population in the area is 22,347 with approximately 1,545 households with children and 2,131 people below poverty level so we estimate impacting a minimum of 1,500 children annually. Altrusa’s name is on each sign and prominent on the “Little Free Library”, which has been refilled numerous times since the initial opening.

Annual Literacy Festival

The festival is promoted by the Marion County Public Schools in conjunction with the Marion County Literacy Council and brought together over 70 “vendors” distributing books to children and encouraging and engaging them into reading. The club members participated either by attending the day of the event or creating pages for coloring for the children, labeling books or gathering supplies for the day. Each “vendor” was assigned a book for their booth, our club selected chose “Time Traveling with a Hamster” by Ross Welford. Members were asked to help design and provide pages of hamsters doing different activities for the children to color. Books were ordered, besides the main book, along with National Geographic Explorer Magazines and other books from First Book.org.
On the day of the event about one-third of the membership participated in the event. A tent was sent up with tables and activities for the children and our Altrusa banner. About 100 books were distributed and each child was able to enter a drawing for their school to receive a copy of “Time Traveling with a Hamster”. Six schools were awarded the books. There were also hamster cartoon drawing activity available and matching games. In addition to each vendor’s booth, the festival had back-to-back story times every 30 minutes with guest readers sharing their favorite stories. The other community organizations involved were all the Marion County Schools, Ocala Fire Department, Early Learning Coalition, St. Leo University, Ocala Civic Theatre and Ocala Health Care, to name a few.
The festival was a huge success with an estimated 2,000 in attendance. Each one of those participants received a book from Altrusa and information was available related to Altrusa.

Make A Difference Day at the Arnette House

A delicious, homemade lunch was prepared for the youth of Arnette House and the club donated 35 quality books for their library and each attendee received a canvas tote stuffed with school supplies and personal care items.
Arnette House was co-founded by our first President and charter member of Altrusa International of Ocala, Sara Arnette.
Arnette House provides an emergency youth shelter, family counseling services,and foster care group homes to Marion, Lake, Sumter, Citrus, and Hernando counties.