Once again our local Windermere agents pitched in at Good Cheer for their Community Service Day, that makes it four years in a row and we are very appreciative. There were two dozen Windermere agents from the Freeland and Langley offices who contributed 123 hours of labor to the Good Cheer Food Bank.

That is a big number and much was accomplished!

Containers were painted.

Donations were sorted.

Frozen vegetables were repackaged.

The Good Cheer Garden saw its share of help as well. Peas, lettuce and bok choi were picked and beets were thinned! Cary Peterson, the garden coordinator at Good Cheer told me that “the beds were weeded and prepped, and lettuce, beets, cucumbers, spinach, pole beans and nasturtiums were planted! That’s a lot of planting! And then even more beds were weeded and mulched.”

The Good Cheer Garden has been short on volunteers so the help provided by Windermere and its agents was a blessing. You can find out more about volunteering to work with Cary in the Good Cheer Garden by just clicking here.

Windermere Community Service Day Photo 2010.

What is Community Service Day?

The photos tell a story of giving and it comes from the heart. This is the true essence of giving. When you give from your heart, you put yourself in line to experience a deeply rewarding truth. There really is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.

Creating vibrant communities is one of the things that inspire the Windermere network to be involved in service projects that make things a little brighter for all our neighbors. Supporting the communities Windermere serves is at the core of the company’s formation and growth.

Every year since 1984, Windermere associates dedicate a day of work to complete neighborhood improvement projects as part of Windermere’s Community Service Day. Community Service Day gives Windermere Real Estate an opportunity to give back to the communities where we live and work. They clean, landscape and repair parks, playgrounds, schools, shelters and community buildings.

We all want to thank Windermere Real Estate and it’s wonderful employees for brightening our day!

Click here to view a slideshow of  Windermere’s Community Service Day at Good Cheer.

Good Cheer!

Photo courtesy of SJ Photography

The Good Cheer Thrift stores will be open on the 4^th of July so plan on stopping by. We have a lot of changes taking place with all the new construction, giving us the ability to highlight certain departments and make your shopping easier.

Here is Aljean Muncey in the new sewing and linen department at the Langley Store, so well organized what a great job! Aljean has been a volunteer for the last six years and has made the sewing and crafts department her area of focus.

Bill Tulloch built the shelves for the linen department and crafts center right to Aljean specifications. Aljean says “I’m very excited about the remodel of the store and have enjoyed hearing everybody’s reactions to the changes!”

The new shelving gives us more room for product and the new space makes everything easy to find.

Whether it’s linens, clothing, shoes or a nice summer outfit you can find something special at the Langley thrift store or the Good Cheer Clothing Rack in Clinton. Remember this Tuedsay is Bag Day, whatever clothing fits in a bag only costs $6.

Come on in a visit our stores!  Our merchandise changes daily, so come often and take a look at what’s new

Last year I wrote a wonderful story about Mira Slovak who used to drive the Miss Wahoo hydroplane. It is a story of freedom and has been getting quite a few views due to the 4th of July. Just click on the hydroplane and it will take you to the post..

Have Good Cheer and a Happy 4th!

This past Sunday the South Whidbey High School Falcon football team participated in a service day at Good Cheer.  The incoming seniors, along with coach Mark Hodson, used their teamwork getting things done at the Bayview site.

Along with some muscle, they brought pressure washers and other tools to take care of a number of projects at Good Cheer.

The players pressure washed the containers at Good Cheer getting them ready for the new paint job that will be done by Windermere Real Estate and their team Friday, June 17^th. Here is an article that was posted about last years community service day by Windermere Real Estate.

The rest of the players were busy with spreading several yards of gravel around the parking lot. They filled potholes and raised the lot back up to the sidewalk level.

When the truck returned from Albertson’s in Oak Harbor with the food we receive every Sunday from Albertson’s food rescue, they unloaded the truck of several hundred pounds of food.

The team also had some help from an up and coming underclassman. Perhaps this encounter will sway Rodrick into attending South Whidbey and joining the Falcon football team?

My guess is that most of these guys have been playing football for a number of years. I’m sure they will remember their moments of individual glory, most of those who have played remember the glory days even though they are overstated. The true benefit of team sports are the friends that you meet along the way and the way you take on challenges together and become more confident in doing so. Your team friends become family.

An interesting note that I picked up from the South Whidbey Record was that out of 1,071,775 high school football players, only 5.7 percent play college football. Only about 2% of college players make it to the NFL.

Two of last years seniors are moving on to play college ball.

South Whidbey’s, Associated Student Body president, Tyler Norris an all-conference defensive end committed to the University of Puget Sound. He was a first-team defensive end his junior year before other teams keyed on him during his senior season. He still finished with 6.5 sacks and averaged 10 tackles per game, on top of his 279 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

Austin Bennett was a first team selection at safety in the All-Cascade Conference and honorable mention as a wide receiver.

We wish the best for the incoming seniors who gave their support to Good Cheer this last weekend.

Good Cheer!

JaNoah Spratt has been nominated for Linda Lee Martens Memorial Health Hero of Island County Award (youth division) and we would love to have JoNoah’s supporters on hand for the event.

While the event is scheduled for May 11th; they are hoping to receive RSVP s by May 4th so they can get an estimate of attendance. You can call Carrie McLachlan at 360-221-8486 or email her your RSVP to carriem@co.island.wa.us.

JaNoah Spratt has been a Good Cheer Food Bank volunteer since the spring of 2008.  He was then 7 years old when he heard from his neighbor Kay Stanley (a Good Cheer Board Member) that there were hungry people who needed help here on South Whidbey Island.  JaNoah had a garden that he planted with his parents. He would harvest and then sell his crop from a vegetable stand in front of his home. The funds were donated to the food bank; he raised $300. The next year JaNoah wanted to do even more. A poor growing season caused problems and he was only able to raise $50 from his garden sales.

Time to get creative! JaNoah goes to all of the businesses here on South Whidbey and asks them to match his donation. JaNoah in the end raised $2000 in cash and gift certificates.

JaNoah was becoming a seasoned Good Cheer volunteer. He went to Olympia and spoke to Representative Norma Smith and Governor Christine Gregoire about the work of Good Cheer.  He invited Norma to come to visit the Food Bank when she got back from their session. When JaNoah reported back to me about his visit I followed up and made sure JaNoah was given the opportunity to give Norma a tour of our Food Bank.

During the tour Norma mentioned to JaNoah that she thought a south Whidbey Talent Show would be a great fundraiser for Good Cheer. After she left I asked JaNoah how he thought the visit went. His first words to me were “I’m really intrigued with her idea of a talent show fundraiser.”  That is all it took and one year later the “Mother of all Talent Shows” was born. JaNoah co-chaired the event with Good Cheer’s food bank coordinator Damien Cortez.  I budgeted that they would raise $3,500 but they surpassed the budgeted amount and raised $5,090.

Last year JaNoah also sponsored a fund drive at the Goose Community Grocery Store and Casey’s Craft; he and his friends from Tiger Martial Arts raised $690.  Then in the summer, right after his tenth birthday, he coordinated a fund drive with the Washington State Ferry system where he solicited the help of his Tiger Martial Art friends and raised over $1000.

JaNoah has been working hard again this year as he is in the midst of co-coordinating our 2^nd annual “The Mother of all Talent Shows Rides Again” scheduled for May 28^th.  JaNoah has already solicited MANY items from local businesses that will be used for raffle items.This year he is also signing up businesses that want to sponsor the event, another revenue making effort. He is solely responsible for this portion of the talent show.  Damien brings in the talent and JaNoah focuses on bringing in the MONEY.

JaNoah Spratt is one of Good Cheer’s most treasured volunteers. He is a shining example that one really can make a difference. He shows how commitment and perseverance inspires others to get involved. Good Cheer is so fortunate that JaNoah’s passion is to end hunger.

While raising funds for Good Cheer has been extremely important; his largest contribution has been educating others in our community about the need.  He has told the Good Cheer story through news coverage, one-on-one, fund & food drives and community events. JaNoah has become one of Good Cheer’s leading advocates.

Having worked with JaNoah now for three years we have become close friends. When the spotlight shines on him he just turns that spot light right back onto others. JaNoah is humble, wise beyond his years, and full of love.  He is so deserving of the Island County’s Health Hero Award. He is definitely an old soul and one that brings inspiration to this community.

Thanks JaNoah!

Good Cheer!

There are many suggesting that the recession that officially started in December 2007 officially came to an end in June 2009. However, if anything we are seeing more and more people access the food banks across this country of ours.

The rising cost of utilities and increased co-pays for health insurance are stretching family budgets and many that have never used the food banks are doing so. Many working families are not fully employed; they’re not earning wages to afford nutritious food. Employment is not a guarantee against hunger.

Complicating matters even more for the food banks has been the emergence of a new type of store that competes with the food banks for surplus food.

The Good Cheer food bank has always prided itself on being unique and creative. Using the thrifts stores to generate the funds to buy the food is a novel idea and one that more food banks should explore. The points system and grocery store atmosphere at Good Cheer is empowering to our clients.

Rather than picking up a bag of food the client picks the food items their family needs for the month. There is a pride issue about coming to a food bank; having to admit to your family that you’re not making ends meet. We try to make that transition easier.

Creative shopping is helping the Good Cheer Food Bank rise above many of these issues and we’re a better organization because of it!

The story begins with Ula Lewis. Remember that saying about the actions of a few changing the world?

Ula who is a coupon shopper had a discussion, awhile back, with Damien Cortez the Good Cheer Food Bank Coordinator. Ula was getting some of her food for free and asked Damien if the food bank could use it!  Damien saw the value of what she was doing and started giving Ula some funds; Good Cheer could use the savings and free food always comes in handy!

This is where the idea of creative shopping comes into play, it is “thinking outside of the box” as Damien would say. “We were dealing with a tough recession and some of our food resources were going elsewhere; our logistics needed to be rearranged” says Damien.

The creative buying program of using coupons continued to grow. Ula and friends would go to grocery stores with their coupons, purchase merchandise, stand in line to checkout and then do it again and again. The reason for doing the shopping over and over was because there were coupon limits.

Ula began to develop relationships with the store managers and this provided the food bank with a real bonus, coupons with no limits. She would make sure that she would not deplete any one store of their supply of product through her use of the coupons and I think this helped in her relationship building. Now they have a checker that works specifically with her or an associate to streamline the process!

Ula found that she could work with the store managers and they could bring in extra coupon or rebate merchandise for the food bank. Bob Drennen the store manager at Albertsons in Oak Harbor says that coupon programs are a “win-win” situation since the individual stores receive money back from the manufacturer on coupons that are used. The stores essentially receive full value. Coupons are a way of enticing people to come to their stores and in times like these a way for the store to help the community.

Coupons are wonderful tools that many of us don’t take advantage of. The use of food stamps and coupons can dramatically increase the amount of food that you can buy. There is a need to teach people how to shop differently; if you don’t need a coupon item now just put it in the pantry.

Here are a few of the stores that work with Good Cheer; Haggens Food And Drug in Burlington, QFC in Everett, Albertsons in Oak Harbor, Saars Market Place Foods in Oak Harbor, Payless Foods in Freeland and the Goose Community Grocer in Bayview. We are finding that we are saving 75% off of the retail price on average.

Coupons can have a major impact on local food banks; at Good Cheer 25-35% of our food comes from the use of coupons and rebates.

There a number of benefits that are derived from couponing. We can preview the sources and look for those items that are the healthiest for our clients. Saving money through the use of coupons and rebates have affected other parts of our operation; the savings allow us to have more flexibility and gives us the ability to make choices when filling holes.

We can have certain staples on hand at all times. Having cooking oil, mayonnaise, mustard and catsup are important since they are part of the food preparation.

Like Damien says “Food banks need to think outside of the box. Instead of waiting for the food to come to them they need to be creative.”

The success story that we are having has opened up help from the community; they bring us coupons! Being creative and making things work encourages community participation.

Here is a last thought. Good Cheer and you can donate expired coupons to military families through American Legion Post 141.  They are allowed to use expired coupons up to 1 year after the expiration date on base and at the commissaries abroad. Every coupon that we don’t use goes to the American Legion and is sent to Germany. The one thing that we hate to do is to throw away an expired coupon and now we NEVER have to!

Good Clipping and Cheer!

Your Good Cheer Food Bank and Thrift Stores were presented with the Excellence in Community Resource Development award and $5,000 to continue expanding its mission, and to increase and better its capabilities to serve the hungry people in the Island County community.

The award recognizes strategies that raise awareness of hunger and develop resources from the community to fight it, such as effective fundraising, volunteer development, in-kind contributions, hunger education materials, and outreach activities.

The award presented by Food Lifeline is one of four 2011 Agency Excellence Awards. There are 300 agency members in Western Washington so being selected for this award is very special.

The grant application was started by our own board member, Robin Hertlein.  Robin had already written two other grant applications when she sent Kathy McLaughlin the following message.

“Here’s the volunteer one.   I’m running out of steam, so the last few answers are pretty short.   Feel free to add things that could help the case.”

Kathy added to what Robin had written and submitted and the rest is history. This story is all about our volunteers and the spirit of giving that is so prevalent in this organization and community.

Volunteers are the backbone of Good Cheer. They increased the num­ber of hours of donated services, and in point of fact, nearly rivaled the amount of volunteer hours donated at a regional food bank distributor.

Here is a brief look back at 2010.

The Award for excellence is just a reminder, to those connected to Good Cheer, that it is working and we are creating a hunger-free community!

Good Cheer!

The peace and feeling of comfort that comes from having a good family and circle of friends is often taken for granted, however,  it is where most happiness begins.

There is comfort in family and friends and a love that we share on a daily basis. The Holiday Season is a time of peace and happiness and sharing gifts has become a way of expressing our love with family and friends. We all know the importance of giving and the feeling that comes from the experience. 

There is a wonderful program that we have at Good Cheer, it’s about a child’s chance to give. The program is for children of parents or caretakers who are clients of the food bank. Children between the ages of 4-15 will be presented with a $10 gift certificate for each parent or caretaker in their home.

There is a signup sheet at the Good Cheer Food Bank in Bayview.

The kids can go shopping at the Langley or Clinton Thrift Stores and The Rack in Clinton.

Langley Thrift Store Thursday, December 9th 5:30 p.m.until 7:30 p.m.

Clinton Thrift Store Two and The Rack Friday, December 10th 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.

Parents can drop their children off at the store where the kids will be met by volunteers who will help them  find the just right present! Parents need to stay away for awhile.

Volunteers will even help to wrap the gifts.

This is a program that doesn’t get much public attention since it is something that is done in-house for our clients. I wanted to remind you of the many ways that, we together, are bringing light into the lives of others!

I guess you could call this “Spreading Good Cheer.”

Did you know that an anonymous donor offered a cord of good firewood to a lucky Good Cheer volunteer this fall? Maybe that volunteer gave of his or her time and talent to help stock the Food Bank, sort donations at the Distribution Center, or display holiday goods in the Langley or Clinton’s stores.

That donor gave something that helps Good Cheer say thank you and keep a volunteer’s house warm this winter.

Everyone has something to give and in this case it was gratitude.

The same graceful cycle of giving and receiving will make our new program work. It’s an online system called SomethingToGive.org, set to start November 1st at Good Cheer. Good Cheer will be the first organization ever to use SomethingToGive.org because its world class developer, Andy McRea, lives right here on Whidbey Island. With a dedicated team, Andy’s been planning, programming, raising funds, and gathering donations for nearly two years. You’ll see him around Good Cheer most of October preparing for the launch of  SomethingToGive.org.

You can view a video about the program by clicking on the above photo.

Volunteers will use SomethingToGive.org to choose and schedule their volunteer assignments by computer. Yes, your “same old job” will still be there; your volunteer hours are what you give Good Cheer and the people we serve.

But that’s just the beginning. Others who can’t give their time to Good Cheer want to give something to YOU.

When you sign on to SomethingToGive.org, you’ll see lists of dozens of donated trips, special services, and amazing experiences. Using your volunteer hours, you’ll “bid” on the thank you gift of your dreams.

Volunteering is a form of giving and we understand that our volunteers give without any expectation of reward. There are those in the community who want to give, as a sign of appreciation, to those who help within our community. This type of giving is just as meaningful as giving time helping those in need. The Good Cheer staff is excited to let you know just how valuable we think your efforts really are to the organization.

A Volunteer Forum will be held on October 21st, from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30p.m., at the Langley Methodist Church (Fellowship Hall). Andy McRea will be in attendance to demonstrate how the program works. They will have computers and expert help to guide you through the process.

SomethingToGive.org’s mission is to create a community that rewards and increases volunteerism. Last year we had over 380 volunteers at Good Cheer.  The top 50 volunteers accounted for 71% of total hours volunteered.

With SomethingToGive.org, Good Cheer aims for lofty goals: For existing volunteers, Good Cheer hopes to amp up involvement in their scheduling, to expedite matches between jobs that need doing and the volunteers available, and to allow Good Cheer to say, “Thank you!” in new, intriguing, and downright fun ways. They also wish to reach out to new potential volunteers to increase hours of volunteer contributions to Good Cheer’s mission.

The vision of the program is to create an online social network to give something back to those who give of themselves. This network will feature a marketplace that will provide a venue for people to ‘spend’ credits they have earned volunteering to ‘buy’ rewards that are offered by others. The concept assumes that, whether it is volunteering your time or supplying access to a unique opportunity, we all have something to give.

SomethingToGive.org’s platform will connect three groups:

• Nonprofit and community organizations in need of volunteers (Good Cheer)
• Potential volunteers
• People who provide sought after life experiences as rewards to inspire others to volunteer

This is truly a unique idea of enhancing the cycle of giving and receiving. It also provides a novel means of rewarding and retaining the current base of hard-working volunteers that we have a Good Cheer. Perhaps we will find ourselves with many new volunteers:)

We will let you know when the site is complete and ready to use!

Good Cheer!

Want to learn about coupon clipping from a pro?  Ula Lewis will be at the food bank in Bayview this coming week to help you learn how to maximize your dollars. Ula will have two coupon classes one on Tuesday, October 5th from 5:00-7:00 p.m.  and again on the 6th from 10:00 a.m. until noon.

She will be back each week at the same time for consultations. If you would like to be on her email list you can send an email to damien@goodcheer.org  and we’ll get you on her list.

Ula raised 11 children and she had to watch her food budget; clipping coupons was one technique that worked very well.

Lewis is a special kind of volunteer for the Good Cheer Food Bank. She’s a coupon-clipper, organizer and frugal shopper who saves us hundreds of dollars a month by using coupons for items purchased at chain stores offering double and triple coupon redemptions.

Does this get your attention? That looks like 100% savings; yes no bill.

Ula can spend up to 30 hours a week at her coupon and shopping work for Good Cheer; on top of volunteering at the Food Bank. This is a woman with a great heart!

You may be surprised by what you can learn!

Good Cheer!

Wondering what the word “Choochokam” means? Choochokam is a Hopi word which roughly translates as “a Gathering of Stars.” Our “stars,” a diverse group of several hundred local artists, inspired by the early organizers to create what we now know as The Choochokam Festival of the Arts.

The Festival, which began as a dream, has been a reality for the past 35 years! This years event was a wonderful mix of art and music; the weather was just perfect.  The Choochokam Arts Festival has become a stage for our community artists and one can see that it is a true reflection of the richness and depth of talent found on the island.

On a warm sunny day what better than a root beer float!

Kay Stanley (pictured on the left) is a member of the board for the Good Cheer Food Bank. She headed the committee that put together this effort to raise money for our organization.

Kay organized 20 volunteers with shifts that included 3 volunteers per shift.

Good Cheer was spread through-out the weekend Food Bank fundraiser.

Total income from the event was $1090.55.

Another step in creating a hunger-free community.

Good Cheer!