Friday Roundup – 12.10.10

The office renovation project is in its final stages. We will come back Monday to some repaired walls and fresh paint. Perhaps it’s not as riveting of a story for everyone in the blogosphere, but for us at Hands On Charlotte, it’s a big, big deal.

Through all the excitement, we’ve been working on two fronts. For one, our holiday donation campaign is in full swing. Have you considered making a charitable donation to Hands On Charlotte this holiday season? If you want to donate this weekend, amid all the holiday shopping, please visit our main website.

In addition to working on the holiday campaign, we are in the thick of planning for our MLK Week of Service, which we will kick off in mid January. News of our big plans broke on WSOC earlier this week. I promise to keep you updated on here over the next five weeks. Hands On Charlotte’s MLK Week of Service is going to be fantastic! Stay tuned.

Of course, you don’t have to wait until January to volunteer in Charlotte! Here are a couple opportunities to volunteer through Hands On Charlotte:

• Saturday – Thunder Road Marathon: Charlotte is buzzing about tomorrow’s marathon. Here is you chance to watch the event while helping make it a success.
• Saturday – Metal Recycling at Habitat ReStore: One of our favorite projects, come join Habitat for Humanity’s efforts on a different level. By sorting through donated materials, volunteers help make Habitat’s process more efficient and impactful.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back to the blog next week!


Tanner

Friday Roundup 11.19.10 - The Let's Have a Discussion Edition

Slow down, life! I am trying to enjoy the next six weeks. Christmas carols are on the radio. People are cooking delicious food. Colored leaves are falling from the trees. It’s just a great time of year, and I need life to shift down a couple gears. Who is with me?

Busy week at Hands On Charlotte. My fellow AmeriCorps members and I played catch up after being away at the conference. We are in full swing planning service projects for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so be sure to check back here for details as we move into 2011.

At the core of MLK Day and most of our programming is the idea of civic engagement. Hands On Charlotte exists, in large part, to facilitate opportunities for Charlotteans to connect with their community. So when I read a recent article explaining how North Carolinians are participating below most national averages for civic engagement, I took a step back. How can Hands On Charlotte better engage YOU?

Look, I have access to readership statistics, and something like 30 people read this blog. So let’s have a little discussion here. How can Hands On Charlotte better reach out to you, your neighbors, your friends and your family? How can we compel you further to join us at our projects? What is it going to take to get 3,000 new volunteers to join us for MLK Day? Post a comment or send me an email. We would love to hear from you!

Normally on the Friday Roundup, I list a number of weekend projects for you to consider. This week, I’m highlighting only one. Tomorrow’s BIG Project is at Hawthorne High School, where our volunteers will join students and faculty in building a peace garden in memorial of Tiffany Wright, the pregnant teenage student who was gunned down over a year ago while waiting for the bus. We need 80 volunteers, and we currently have 50 signed up. Can you join us tomorrow from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.?

Thanks for reading! Check back next week as we kick off the holiday season in style!


Tanner

Back in Charlotte and fired up!

Whew! That was a very busy week. We left Sunday for Atlanta and put in 56 hours in four days. Then I flew to Chicago for a wedding then to Raleigh then home to Charlotte. It feels great to be back.

The trip to Chicago gave me a few days to digest the Hands On Network’s AmeriCorps member conference. If there was an overriding idea to the training, it was that we – as individual citizens – are connected to the people in our communities in important ways. As AmeriCorps at Hands On Charlotte, we have the opportunity to foster those community connections. Here is how we think we can reach that end:

1. Organize volunteer events: A.M., Bryan, Janelle and Shari are part of Hands On Charlotte’s frontline in designing service projects for Charlotte-area volunteers.
2. Recruit volunteers: Marcel, Sarah and I help out here. Whether it’s in person, on the phone, through email, blog, Twitter or Facebook, we are always trying to find ways to bring new Charlotteans onto the volunteering seen.
3. Support volunteers: Once we have volunteers at our events, it’s our job to support them. We have to let them see the impact their making and equip them to continue their work.

So here’s my question to you, our most dedicated supporters: How can you help on these fronts? With which of these three bullets can you bolster our efforts? Do you know an area non-profit that needs some help in the coming months? Organize an event! Do you know someone who wants to volunteer but doesn’t know where to start? Recruit someone to join you at an HOC project! Do you have ideas about how HOC can better support its volunteers? Send me an email, and I’ll read it aloud at our next staff meeting!

What I learned at the conference is this: AmeriCorps members can organize, recruit and retain volunteers until we’re blue in the face. Unless we convince the community to join these endeavors in significant ways, our impact will lack the breadth and depth to answer sufficiently our community’s needs.


Tanner


PS – The wedding was great! And if you haven’t been to Chicago, I suggest you make it a priority…in the summer.

Friday Roundup 11.5.10: The Pre-Wilderness Retreat Edition

Happy Friday, everyone! This week zoomed by – perhaps because all the Hands On Charlotte AmeriCorps members are heading to Atlanta this weekend for a conference. As you may know, Hands On Charlotte employs seven AmeriCorps members – A.M., Bryan, Janelle, Marcel, Sarah, Shari and yours truly. As part of our development, we attend conferences and trainings throughout the year. Next week’s conference is at what appears to be a wilderness retreat outside Atlanta. I will Tweet and blog to keep you updated. Wish me luck.


In other news…not many people have updated their demographic information, and so not many people are eligible to win one of three US Airways gift cards worth $250 each. If you want to enter the drawing, all you have to do is update your demographic information on our Web site by November 10. That is next Wednesday. As I blogged yesterday, right now, your chances of winning are pretty good.


While I’ll be in Georgia by Sunday, there are plenty of fun volunteer opportunities for you here in the Queen City. Here are a few of your options:

• Saturday – Spruce up Hospitality House: Hospitality House offers a place for people to stay while their loved ones are receiving medical care in Charlotte. They need your help cleaning on Saturday morning.
• Saturday – Assistance League Thrift Store: This is one of my favorite projects. Come help sort donations at the AL Thrift Store. Proceeds go to help low-income communities in Charlotte.
• Saturday – The Amazing Race: Volunteers will try to follow clues and to solve problems in a race around Uptown. Total walking is about 4 miles.
  
  

I hope you have a great weekend! Check back next week for blogs and Tweets from the Georgian wilderness. And don’t forget to enter the US Airways drawing!




Tanner

Friday Roundup: the Halloween Edition

It’s the Friday before Halloween weekend. Fall finally feels like it’s creeping in, and to me, that is wonderful. Hands On Charlotte Day was a great success, and now we are focusing on all the other projects that sustain us throughout the year.


Rob and I put out our first partner newsletter this week. Are you a local non-profit organization interested in learning what Hands On Charlotte can do for you? Let us know and we’ll set up a meeting! Of course, for everyone else, Bob sends out a bi-monthly newsletter, which will catch you up on the ins-and-outs of Hands On Charlotte.


A few weeks ago, I mentioned Kerry McCray, a super-volunteer who leads our Panthers Recycling Program. Well, guess whom the county featured this week on its Web site? Thank you to Kerry and all our volunteers who help with this fantastic program! Do you want to help out with this project or something similar this weekend? Here are just a few of your options:

• Saturday – New Green Acres Project: Come work on the farm! Shining Hopes Farms provides therapeutic services to individuals with disabilities. They need volunteers to do general farm labor, which, if you haven’t had the opportunity, is a lot of fun. Just wear some older clothes! Children ages 10+ may attend if accompanied by an adult.
• Saturday – Animal Care and Control: Come play with the animals, clean their living spaces! Volunteers must be at least 18 years old.
• Sunday – Bingo at White Oak Manor: Sunday night bingo with senior citizens! Some residents need assistance hearing and placing the pieces on the board and some residents are looking for more competition! It’s easy and fun for volunteers and residents! Children ages 6+ may attend if accompanied by an adult.
  

Well, by the time I next post, it will be November 2010. Time is flying! I hope you have a great weekend and a very spooky (and safe) Halloween.




Tanner

Believe it, Mrs. Math: I'm a math tutor now

The words every volunteer tutor loathes to hear from a high school student: “I need some help with math.”


The response I’ve always wanted to give: “Hey, me too, kid. Where do we get in line?”


Alas, today I was the math tutor. For one hour, it was my responsibility to help a ninth grader at Midwood High School understand the concepts of integers and basic algebra. And to what I imagine would be the utter disbelief of Mrs. Barritt, Mrs. Pilo, Mrs. Zack and every other math teacher I’ve ever had, I didn’t cause this student to regress in her understanding of mathematics, time or space. In fact, the session was a great success.


I don’t know if there’s a more rewarding volunteer experience for me than to tutor students. The objective and success are clearly defined. That’s easy. But more importantly, tutoring provides an opportunity to have a real impact on a young person’s personal and professional life. Success in school snowballs into positive self-confidence, and confidence, I’ve learned, begets success in so many of life’s challenges. Help a kid earn an A on a math test after he earned a D on a previous attempt. Then watch how his outlook about school and life changes.


My co-worker Shari and I are planning to go back to Midwood High School every Wednesday from here on out. Sign up to join us on the Web site. And I assure you: no matter how bizarre it might seem to your former teachers, you can handle the academic rigors of being a high school tutor.




-Tanner



PS! - Hey, we're really serious about getting this blog up and running again. If you made it all the way to the "PS!" of this post, do you mind following our blog, ReTweeting, hitting the "Like" button or just calling a friend to tell them about us! Hands On Charlotte is hitting the blogosphere!

18th-Annual “Hands On Charlotte Day” rapidly approaching

On October 16, approximately 1,000 Charlotteans will participate in service projects throughout the city – all part of Hands On Charlotte’s 18th-annual “Hands On Charlotte Day.” The event will focus on projects that support Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

“This year’s ‘Hands On Charlotte Day’ is going to be an exceptional experience for our volunteers, the city’s public schools and our partnering organizations” said Lisa Quisenberry, executive director of Hands On Charlotte. “It’s a special opportunity for people in Charlotte to spend a morning reinvesting in their community.”

At the participating public schools, efforts will include garden and beautification projects and classroom renovations. In addition to projects at schools, volunteers can serve organizations such as the Carolina Raptor Center, Charlotte Nature Museum, Habitat ReStore, Men’s Shelter of Charlotte and Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, among others.

Individual and team opportunities to volunteer are still available. To register, please visit our Web site for details.