Wednesday, September 30, 2009

City of Bloomington Volunteer Network

If you are interested in volunteering in a particular sector, but can't seem to find info, check out:

City of Bloomington Volunteer Network
401 N. Morton St. Suite 260
Bloomington, IN 47404
(812) 349-3433
volunteer@bloomington.in.gov
www.bloomington.in.gov/volunteer

And, as always, feel free to e-mail speastart@gmail.com if you have any specific questions!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Bloomington Multicultural Expo

Dear Civic Engagement Stakeholder members,

The Bloomington Multicultural Expo (BME) needs our help! On Saturday, October 10th of this year, four festivals will come together to create a new, exhilarating “Expo” experience! The I.U. Moon Festival, Soul Food Festival, Festival Latino and International Village will integrate their activities at Bryan Park from 11am to 4pm, and by doing so, they are expecting well over 1,000 participants! Students always play an integral role as festival participants but this year we hope that our student volunteers can help, too!

This volunteer opportunity seems perfect for students and provides a wonderful educational experience. I am hoping we can help support BME by funneling some of our student volunteers to their Expo during the event day. I serve the BME planning committee and, as a communication bridge between our group and theirs, I would like to propose a possible system for recruiting Expo volunteers from our Stakeholder group. See what you think:

1. What if four Stakeholder members each signed up to have their I.U. volunteer program support one, individual festival with their student volunteers? That person would then be able to recruit their student volunteers most easily, and help to fill their 11am to 5pm volunteer needs.

2. Each festival site at Bryan Park will have unique volunteer needs – some need many and some need few; each has just now come up with their final volunteer numbers and volunteer job descriptions;

3. Student Volunteer shifts will be in 2 hour slots from 11am to 5pm;
SO – are there 4-5 of you who are willing to sign up your students from your volunteer program to help with this year’s Bloomington Multicultural Expo?!
If so, here are the totals that they will need. (Please note that community volunteers will also participate in this event and might contribute to these numbers. But, the more student volunteers they receive, the easier this will make their total recruitment effort!)
Let me know the festival site for which you would like your volunteer program to sign up:

Moon Festival – 24 volunteers

Latino Festival – 4
Soul Food Festival – 35
International Village – 0
Expo Children’s Activities – 8
Misc. – photographer, clean-up, etc.

We can talk more about the specifics of this at our next Stakeholder’s meeting on September 23rd but I would love it if you could tentatively provide sign up feedback now so that BME knows how IU student volunteers might be contributing.

Email speastart@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering for this event!

Red Cross Basic Aid Training for Kids

Basic Aid Training

Monroe County Chapter American Red Cross

Contact: EJ Chung, eunchung84@gmail.com


We are looking for student volunteer teachers to teach this program to 519 4th graders in Monroe County.

The BAT program will teach children emergency response skills, rescue breathing and ways to prevent and care for choking, wounds, nosebleeds, falls and animal bites.

We are targeting 7 schools and we are going to teach them 6 health related topics. And each unit is about an hour long.

We will provide teaching materials and training for volunteers, and guest speakers from different organizations like Bloomington Hospital and Bloomington Fire Department.

The BAT program will start in the spring semester of 2009/2010 academic year, and this program will provide student volunteer teachers to gain teaching experience, skills to manage a whole classroom, expand public speaking skills, develop new job skills and build professional contact network for their future.

If you have any questions or more information, please let me know!

Community Garden Volunteering

Bloomington Community Gardens Program is looking for volunteers to help with maintenance. The program offers organic plots, as well as financial aid for people who need help to cover the cost of renting a plot. Groups of 5-25 can volunteer in 3-4 hour shifts at one of the two community gardens. Here are the links to the two gardens:

Willie Streeter CommunityGardens: http://bloomington.in.gov/documents/viewDocument.php?document_id=212
Crestmont Community Gardens: http://bloomington.in.gov/documents/viewDocument.php?document_id=211

If this sounds like something you are interested in, please let START know (speastart@gmail.com), or you can directly contact Natalie at nmmesser@indiana.edu. Once we receive enough interest, Natalie will set up a shift on a Saturday or Sunday and then hopefully make regular arrangements for students who are interested and available.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

SPRING 2010 START EVENTS

SPRING 2010

January
17th Soiree for Service (joint event with GSA)
18th Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Day

February
1-5th Election Week

March
TBA Rally for Service Week

April
TBA Blood Drive

FALL 2009 START EVENTS

FALL 2009
August
27th First Year Orientation Service Day and lunch event

September
19th United Way “Day of Action”
20th United Way Campaign Concert at Buskirk-Chumley Theater
26th Hoosiers Outrun Cancer (Join the START/GSA Team!)

October
14th Red Cross Blood Drive

November
16-20th Hoosier Hills Food Drive (week-long event)

December
7-11th Salvation Army Angel Tree
12th Salvation Army Christmas Caroling

Thanks to the newbies!


Saturday, September 19, 2009

Thanks for stopping by!

Dear new START members and interested parties,

Thank you so much to those of you who stopped by our table at the organization fair on Thursday. We are excited to share with you the events START has planned for this semester. Please don't hesitate to contact Jenna or me if you have any questions about volunteering, START, or any other SPEA info.

We look forward to meeting you soon! Watch for a message to come soon about our first meeting and upcoming events. In the meantime, be sure to check out our blog at
www.speastart.blogspot.com!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Red Cross Book Fair


Boys and Girls Club Event October 3, 2009

Boys and Girls Club of Ellettsville presents…

Cornival--our very first 'real' fundraising event!

Saturday, October 3rd -- Noon-5:00pm

There are two ways to help out with this event:

1) Go to www.bgcbloomington.org and register yourself in the corn hole event! It's simple -- you get pledges, come play, win prizes, and have fun! Your pledges are donations for our club! Getting your friends to join you and even creating some competition between groups is encouraged!

2) Volunteer the day of event --- maybe it's helping with kids events, greeting guests with programs, helping serve food....we can use your help!

Please RSVP to speastart@gmail.com or contact Amy Matney, Unit Director at amatney@bgcbloomington.org or 812.935.6970.

Volunteer Opportunity with PALS on October 23 and 24


Sunday, September 13, 2009

Thanks for your support!

Thanks to everyone who supported our September 11th Day of Service and Remembrance.

Thanks to your generosity, we are sending 11 cell phones and accessories to Cellphones for Soldiers!

I know that they appreciate your support. To find out more about the nonprofit, visit www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com.

Friday, September 4, 2009

September 11th Day of Service and Remembrance

START Members,
Be sure to check out this wonderful opportunity to team up with AmeriCorps and do something simple to give back to members of our U.S. military.



Wednesday, September 2, 2009

5K Benefiting Cancer Research

HOOSIERS OUTRUN CANCER – 5K


Many of you may have seen an e-mail sent out by Ann on behalf of the GSA regarding the upcoming Hoosiers Outrun Cancer event. We would like to encourage START members to take a second look. SPEA has a team each year; so we are trying to get a group of SPEONs to run, walk, crawl, skip, etc.

WHAT: 5K supporting Bloomington Hospital's Olcott Center for Cancer Education.
DATE: Saturday, September 26th
TIME: Opening ceremony @ 9:50AM – 5K race @ 10:50AM
WHERE: IU Memorial Stadium and throughout campus
WHO: So far only Ann and Jenna are registered…


If you're interested in running, please follow the link below and fill out the online registration form. Be sure to add "SPEA Graduate Program" as your team. The early bird deadline to register is 09/18/09. https://www.kenlongassoc.com/hoc/hoc09entryform5kr.htm

For more information, visit the run's website: www.hoosiersoutruncancer.org.

Help United Way later this month!

UNITED WAY CAMPAIGN EVENTS
—FALL 2009—


Partner Agency Fall Day of Action
DATE: Saturday, September 19th
TIME: 9am-12pm
WHO: 3-12 SPEA volunteers
WHERE: Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard
DETAILS: Pantry cleaning, garden organizational project


Big Band Concert
DATE: Sunday, September 20
TIME: TBD
WHO: 8 volunteers to usher
WHERE: Buskirk-Chumley Theater


Look out for more details coming soon! If you’d like to sign up to help now, please email speastart@gmail.com.