Helping to build a brighter future for people in need


March 2014
In This Issue
Volunteerism at COH
Because of YOU
Coming Up
 
Circle of Hope-Haiti Sweet Basil Event  
Now through March 17

Enjoy a meal at Sweet Basil and support Circle of Hope-Haiti! The good folks at Sweet Basil will again be offering a three course Prix Fixe Menu March 3 - March 17 (excluding Friday and Saturday nights).  The price is $50.00, half of which will be donated to COH-Haiti to support our vital work bringing medical care to rural Haiti.  Takeout is included, and substitutions are fine.  COH-Haiti Director Dr. Emilie Hitron and COH Board members will be on hand opening night, Monday March 3rd, to greet guests and fill you in on what's happening at the clinic in Haiti.  We hope to see you there!

Lyn Evans Potpourri Designs Spring Cleaning Event 
March 13-15

Lyn Evans Potpourri Designs will be hosting a company-wide 'Spring Cleaning' event March 13th -15th in each of their Massachusetts store locations.  Lyn Evans invites shoppers to join the fun by bringing in your favorite item from your closet and the Lyn Evans stylists will help you find the perfect wardrobe pieces to accompany your item!  Purge those ill-fitting jeans and old white tees, shop for new spring essentials and enjoy sips & sweets.  Learn about the trends of the spring season from Stylist, Aricia from Shift Your Style and Lyn Evans herself!  Enjoy 10% off your purchase with any clothing donations brought in for Circle of Hope.  Store locations: Wellesley, Andover, Concord, Norwell and Westborough.
 

Needham Garden Tour 
June 8

The Needham Women's Club's Needham Garden Tour takes place Sunday, June 8th, and will feature the gardens of six Needham homeowners. If you enjoyed the Tour last year or the year before, you will be pleased to know that the 2014 event features six different gardens that have not yet been featured on a Needham Garden Tour. The proceeds of the Needham Garden Tour will be donated to Circle of Hope.


      
Special Requests
  • Warm clothing for infants, children, women, and men
  • New socks for all 
If you have any of the above, please drop them off at 65 Rosemary Street during any of our              
DROP-OFF TIMES:

 

Monday, 9-10 AM 

 

Tuesday, 4-5:00 PM

Wednesday, 9-10:00 AM

Wednesday, 3-4:00 PM

Thursday, 10-11:30 AM  

 

Saturday, 9-11 AM  

 

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One Wednesday morning we received a call from Year Up, an intensive educational and job training program for 18-24 year old low income youth.  A student was scheduled to start the program on Monday but did not have any work wear, only jeans and sneakers.  She wore a size 2X - 3X and couldn't afford to buy clothing in her size.  So our COH volunteers sprang into action.  We "shopped" through our business clothing and found 3 skirts, two blazers, and 2 blouses for her and 2 brand new pairs of shoes in her size.  One COH shopper loaded his car that afternoon and delivered the clothing to Year Up on Thursday morning.  Here is the note we received from the student:
 
"Dear Circle of Hope,
 
I just want to say thank you for the clothes.  Also the shoes and the purse.  I am very grateful for your help and support.  The gift you gave me helped me in so many ways.  I appreciate all you did for me.  

Amber

Go To Crew Update   

 

A warm hug and thank you to the "Go To Crew" members who responded to our call for large size clothes for women and men.  We immediately packaged up what was donated, including a brand new woman's size 2X coat and handmade hat and mittens and sent all of it off to Boston Healthcare for the Homeless.  Thank you to the "Go To Crew Fund" donors whose generosity enabled us to purchase new underwear along with the warm clothing folks needed.  

 

The Go To Crew is a small group of supporters who receive an e-mail if a special need arises.  Being a member of the Go To Crew does not obligate its members to donate every time there is a need.  If you would like to be a member of the Go To Crew, or know someone who would like to be on this e-mail list, just respond to this e-mail, or click here.

 

 


Dear Friends of Circle of Hope,

Thank you, all, for making this seemingly endless winter warmer, healthier, and kinder for the people we serve.  Each and every donor and volunteer at Circle of Hope touches lives with love, transforms fear into hope and brightens dark days.
 
In this issue we are highlighting the work of our more than 65 volunteers.  We started out it 2008 with a handful of volunteers and a vision of what we could do together.  You'll read about the volunteer positions at COH that have evolved during this period of growth.  I continue to be amazed and energized by the generosity that abounds at COH.  And I find joy each and every day we work side by side to serve people in need.
 
Every volunteer brings a unique gift to Circle of Hope.  In the words of Mother Teresa, "What I do, you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do.  The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things.  But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."
 
Please accept my deepest gratitude for sharing from your abundance of compassion to help our fragile neighbors.
  
With deepest thanks,

Barbara Waterhouse
Executive Director       
Volunteerism at Circle of Hope 

 

As we think about how far we have come in the last five years and the thousands of people we have helped, we have to acknowledge and celebrate that it would not have been possible without dozens of dedicated volunteers. As we expand our reach to help even more of Boston's families and individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, we are looking forward to expanding our volunteer family. Here are some of the opportunities where you can help...

 

Sorters sort donations by gender, size, type and season. They package clothing donations in carefully labeled brown bags. Sorters also greet donors and accept donations during our drop-off hours. If interested in learning more, click here to send a message to Eileen Mullen, Volunteer Coordinator. 

 

Order Pullers prepare orders for delivery to shelters and other programs served by COH. They fill out delivery logs detailing all of the items donated in an order. If interested in learning more, click here to send a message to Eileen Mullen, Volunteer Coordinator.

 

Drivers deliver orders to shelters and other programs in the Boston area. Drivers provide the

most consistent personal contact between COH and the programs we serve. If interested in learning more, click here to send a message to Eileen Mullen, Volunteer Coordinator.

 

Shoppers purchase clothing and other items we wish to donate using funds given to COH for this purpose. If interested in learning more, click here to send a message to Eileen Mullen, Volunteer Coordinator.

 

Collection Volunteers run collection drives for COH to gather clothing and other items that we donate to shelters and programs. If interested in learning more, click here to send a message to Eileen Mullen, Volunteer Coordinator.

 

School/Business Liaison. This is a new position to be filled. We would like a volunteer to be on call to support schools or businesses interested in doing drives for Circle of Hope. That person would provide the school or business with any signage or handouts they might need to educate potential donors. Additionally, the liaison would communicate the event internally so that we can publicize it through our media resources. If interested in learning more, click here to send a message to Kate Maguire, Director of Development.

 

Event Volunteers. This is a new type of volunteer and we are looking for lots of people who will be on our event list so that when an event comes up, we will reach out to you to see if you would like to be part of the planning or simply donate a few hours on a particular day. This could be anything from holiday gift wrapping to working a shift at this June's Needham Garden Tour to serving on a committee for major events we are planning for next year. If interested in learning more, click here to send a message to Kate Maguire, Director of Development.

 

The Go To Crew is a small group of supporters who receive an e-mail if a special need arises, and the needed items are not in our inventory. Being a member of the Go To Crew does not obligate its members to donate every time there is a need. If you would like to be a member of the Go To Crew, just click here to sign up.

 

Social Media "Friend". For this volunteer position, you can do it virtually anywhere you have internet access! If you are on Facebook, first "Like" Circle of Hope and when you see posts you like (we try to post something every weekday) consider clicking "Like," or "Share" it with your Facebook friends. We are also building our followers on Twitter, so if you haven't already, please "Follow" us on Twitter. If you see a "tweet" that you like, please consider "retweeting" it so that your own followers may see it. Also, no need to keep our Monthly Newsletters or other e-mails we send you to yourself. Feel free to forward them to your friends who might be interested.

To Like us on Facebook, click here.

To Follow us on Twitter, click here.

 

Finally, the following volunteer positions are currently filled, but we thought you might enjoy knowing what all of our volunteers do at Circle of Hope. Our Scheduler plans deliveries by contacting the programs we serve concerning their needs and coordinating with drivers to schedule deliveries. Our Data Entry Volunteer enters information into databases and spreadsheets. For example, the information from delivery logs goes into a database that allows us to track the value of the clothing and other items we donate. Our Website Volunteer keeps our website current by updating it with content changes to our hours and other information.

 

If you are reading this, you are already helping Circle of Hope and we thank you for your past and future support!

 
Because of YOU...
Because of people like YOU, Circle of Hope is able to help hundreds of people in Boston area homeless shelters and programs serving refugees and disadvantaged youth.  Here are some of our stories from this month...

Shout Out's To Many                           
Gabi Chansky donates nearly 350 pairs of socks!  

We are grateful to be the recipient of so many acts of kindness.  No doubt we will forget at least one group who ran a drive for us and quietly came by with what was collected, but here are at least a few supporters we would like to recognize.  We're so appreciative to the management at Needham's Trader Joe's for donating bags that are a critical part of our sorting and delivery process.  Thank you to the talented and compassionate knitters at Black Sheep Knitting for the donation of so many beautiful handmade hats and mittens!  You warmed children and their moms at Casa Nueva Vida in Jamaica Plain and Lawrence and brought huge smiles to our COH sorters.  And the adorable photo above is Gabi (Gabriella) Chansky who collected socks for Circle of Hope as part of her bat mitzvah project.  Gabi held an ice cream social in the fall and asked her guests to bring new socks for Circle of Hope!  She collected almost 350 pairs of socks!   Lastly, thanks so much
to Teri Volante and the folks at Volante Farms for inviting us to be a part of their recent Local Food Winter Fest.  We had a blast telling people about Circle of Hope and selling necklaces.  By the way, it's not too late to purchase a necklace.  If you would like one, click here. 

Muzi Continues Their Support                         
 The Muzi Van with (l to r) COH board members Kate Maguire, Barbara Waterhouse and Emilie Hitron

Thanks to our fabulous COH supporter, Dale Sinesi, we now have a cargo van from Muzi Ford.  For the past 4 years Dale has facilitated the generous monthly donation of a cargo van from Muzi Chevrolet for COH deliveries.  We can put as many donations into the van for a single delivery as we could in 3 volunteer cars.  Dale made sure we never had to skip a beat during this transition from the Chevrolet Division to our new partnership with Muzi Ford.  Thank you to all of our Muzi friends! 

Charles River Apparel Surprises COH With a Donation
 

We are VERY fortunate to have such good friends at Charles River Apparel.  In January, they ran a Facebook register-to-win campaign for customers to win a new jacket.  They were so excited about the number of people who entered to win, they decided to donate two jackets for every entry submitted to Circle of Hope!  That meant that last week, we got to pick up 382 jackets to deliver to Boston's most vulnerable children, women, and men.  Thank you to all at Charles River Apparel and especially our special angel looking over us, Deb Lipsett!

Thanks Again, Orvis
 

We feel like we have been a part of the Orvis at Legacy Place staff for the last several weeks.  First they invited us to operate their holiday gift wrap during the month of December.  A few weeks later they kicked off a coat drive that attracted car loads of warm outerwear that is already on it's way to keeping people warm in Boston.  Thanks for being a great friend and a special thank you to Betsy Husted who made it all happen and also Store Manager Ty Patton for making it all so easy. 

B In Touch Blanket Program
 B in Touch owner, Bonnie Matross-Antoniou

B In Touch Massage Therapy collected BLANKETS for Circle of Hope throughout the entire month of February. For every blanket donated, B In Touch offered a credit of $5 toward the customer's account or a gift certificate. Thank you B in Touch!  The snuggly blankets are on their way to keeping families warm!


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