Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Summer of Service

I thought you might like to hear about Summer of Service so far! We have had 4 projects and they have all turned out great!

Our kickoff project was at Provo North Park. We made 11 tree aprons.


Our second project was at Community Action Services and Food Bank. We decorated 96 treat bags for Community Action clients and wrote 25 letters to the troops in Afghanistan.


For our third project, we had the opportunity to help CUCIL (a local nonprofit which helps people with disabilities) at their annual 5K race/fundraiser. We had a lot of fun and the event was a success for CUCIL!


And last, but not least we helped at the Community Garden in Provo yesterday. We were able to weed and water many plots.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Help United Way Win $100,000!

We need your help to win $100,000 for United Way of Utah County! (many of our VISTAs work here or with agencies that are part of United Way)

APX Alarm is hosting a project called APX Gives Back where participants are encouraged to vote for their favorite charities on Facebook. The charities with the most votes will be eligible to win either the grand prize of $100,000 or one of 5 runner-up prizes of $30,000. This means you can help us win part of $250,000 just by voting on Facebook in five simple steps.

We have already made it to the second round and with your help, we have a good chance of winning! Vote for us each day to help us advance the common good of Utah County.

1. Log on to your Facebook account and visit this link

2. Go to the Application

3. Click “Click to Start Voting”

4. Click “Mountain”

5. Scroll down until you find United Way of Utah County and click “vote this charity”

You can vote once a day, every day! Keep voting until August 23, when winners will be announced!


Tuesday, June 22, 2010

VEP VISTA Training

On June 15, all of the Volunteer Empowerment Project VISTAs gathered from across the state for a VISTA training. Topics included: life after VISTA: resumes and interviewing, strengthening supervisor relationships, evaluation and goal setting, VISTA Barriers, and Influencer training. It was a great day of learning, connecting, and socializing. Here are some photos from the event:


Jeremy, Amy, Stephanie, and Russell

More introductions with Sully, Rachel, Kayla, and Jill:

Barry, Carol, Kristin, and Sonali:

Lunch was a nice break from the training.
Here are Aly and Heather grabbing some pizza:

Lee and Jeremy:


Enjoying lunch outside:

Stephanie and Sonali:

Matt and Jill:

A training discussion between Allen and Jeremy:

Stephanie and Kristin:

Russell and George discussing projects:



Influencer training by Justin from Vital Smarts:

Thanks for your participation! We appreciate all of your great work as VISTAs and hope you will use this information to help you succeed in your projects.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Kick-Off S.O.S. Project

Last Saturday, we had our first Summer of Service project at North Park in Provo. The looming rain forecast made us nervous, but we lucked out! No rain, perfect weather for working outside, yummy food, and most importantly, LOTS of great volunteers. We are excited for the rest of the summer! If you have any ideas of some service projects for youth, let me know!


Look closely at Kristin's face. Quite beautiful.

Hardest workers' award.

Coolest hat award.

Coolest VISTA award. Not!

Volunteering!

Check out the article in the Tribune yesterday! Look closely at the picture and you might see a VISTA. Saturday was a really fun project and we had a great turnout. We'll post a little more about it later, but I just wanted to share the story.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_15302710?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com

I think we are all really lucky to work in a state where people find volunteering so important.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Looking for Something to Do This Summer?

Do you think you'll get bored this summer? Even if not, do you want to get involved and do something meaningful with your months in the sun? I have the perfect solution. Summer of Service!

Summer of Service is a summer-long program designed to encourage youth to serve! To learn more, please join our Facebook group or visit our website.

Join us for our kickoff on June 12th!

When: June 12th 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Where:Provo North Park (500 N 500 W Provo)
What: Outdoor park cleanup and party- Pizza will be served and learn about our fun prizes!



Hope to see you there!