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Donor Highlights: Thank you Altrusa International of Tucson
We thank our donor community. You Are Somebody! You are a big part of all the progress we are making. The life changing impact being made is supported by your generosity. It is appreciated.
We were honored to have an interview with Gail Dent, the Service Committee Chair for
Altrusa International of Tucson. Inc and are happy to highlight this community partner.
I Am You 360: "Tell me about the focus of Altrusa's giving efforts"
Gail: "Literacy"
I Am You 360: "And Young people?"
Gail: "Yes"
I Am You 360: "Is that the link that attracted you to I Am You 360, what put us on your radar?"
Gail: "It was actually that someone invited Desiree Cook to come and speak at one of our meetings. Once she talked to us, then it was like, oh we should help these people, nobody else is doing this work. We were very impressed, she took us on a tour recently and everybody was admiring everything that she's been able to do there."
I Am You 360: "Its so exciting to see the progress of this project every time I go in and see it"
Gail: "You're more impressed"
I Am You 360: "Yes, recently we were celebrating doors, we have doors!"
Gail: "Yeah, when there's paint, Oh another party." After sharing laughter. "It's a huge project and we're a very small group. We only have about 20 members and a lot of them are not active. So it's a very small group and we do what we can with what we have. We contribute to free little libraries and we want to put one at the I Am You 360 office because we don't want it locked up inside with the houses we want it to be out at the office. We can stock it with books for a variety of ages because the neighborhood can use it too. That's been a big push of ours because there have been people who started free little libraries and then they sort of let them go. There's one over here on McCormick Park that was just one of those newspaper venue things and its been neglected for I don't know how long and when we found it, we said people come here to this park, we should put books here so we did and they disappeared and so we kept doing it. We've got let's see, I know Marsha does two freewill libraries, we do one at the Haven, I have one at a park near where I used to live and so we're very much into trying to get kids to read. They started, before I became a member, they started the Tully preschool library because the little ones weren't allowed to check from the regular library because it's a privately run preschool within the school, most of them are like that. So we supplied books and then we went and helped them check out and we're still doing that work, still supplying books."
I Am You 360: "Where do you get the books from?"
Gail: " Well we have used some of our money to buy them from Barnes and Noble. I've gotten from from Friends of the Library because I volunteer there too, several of us volunteer there and they give books to people who are helping to supply free little libraries and schools with books. We try and give the preschool only the best because, you know like Desiree's attitude is, you know you do. A school library, yeah you can have some messy stuff, but in a preschool library where you're just starting and getting the idea of what books are you want them to have nice ones"
I Am You 360: "Yes I'm glad you mention Desiree's attitude, we're very much about that, trying to give our residents a taste or sense of the best. Instill our motto in them, 'I am Somebody'. They're so used to not having, we must change that narrative to change the trajectory. The message that you're worth it.
Gail: "Good. Yes, you're worth it, you're valuable."
I Am You 360: Please share what it was about Desiree or what she said that drew and impressed you to partner with us?'"
Gail: "Well I think the first thing was the magnitude of what she was trying to do. That was when she originally talked to us, and then when we got more information on the tour, it was even more impressive because it was like she's limiting it so she can do a good job. You know, my husband was with us on that tour and he said, 'well it's only ten kids' and I said 'well that's the first group'. you know, but she obviously has plans, it's not a 'we're gonna do this once and then forget it' so I think that's a key to success is to limit it. It's just like in a school classroom, if you have 40 kids, you can't do what you can do if you have 20 and so you've got to make those decisions about what's important and I think she's made a good decision."
I Am You 360: "How long ago was it that she spoke?"
Gail: "Probably about a year."
I AM You 360: "How have you kept in touch with us since?"
Gail: "I started donating, I think I gave my foster care money to her last year. The tax credit money and then when the newsletter told me about donating, then I started going to Amazon and looking at that list and seeing what I could do. I just kind of kept a little bit in touch with her since then and I now have gotten more people in the group involved because I'm kind of pushy." More shared laughter "Yu know so I organized the tour and said who's going, that kind of thing."
I Am You 360: Well from the pictures, you had a pretty good sized tour group."
Gail: "Yes we had some friends come too that we thought would be interested in it and actually we had a few people not able to come that day that wanted to but they were out of town r some had been sick. A lot of the people in our group are older, we have some people who are 90 in our group, so it is hard for some of them to get around. But one of the things that Desiree showed us on the tour were the cards of encouragement, the inspiring cards that you put into the bags so at lunch today we made some of those and we have plans to get together and make some more. So we'll be bringing her some of those inspiring, inspirational cards for the hygiene bags. That's something that we thought, you know, people who can't go out and volunteer some place can do that."
I Am You 360: "I love that."
Gail: "The plan is to bring them at the end of the month when you do your hygiene drive. Some people brought some things today to bring to your hygiene drive too. Desiree said Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning so if I'm over that way I can drop them off"
I Am You 360: "The hygiene drives are so important and necessary for meeting a big need in our community and the way we organize the donations according to age and ethnicity. That personal touch that Desiree brings, that every child knows, this is specifically for me both the products and the word."
Gail: "Right. I taught for 30 years. There were those kids in the class who you knew didn't take showers on a regular basis and get their hair cleaned and their you know, and they would sometimes be ridiculed and you had to deal with that, and they had to deal with that because I'm sure even if they weren't in school you know.... So anything you can do to prevent that, and there's only so much you can do. So one thing is have them have clean hair, and don't have lice, and you know don't look a mess and things will go more smoothly for you. That was not one of our inspirational phrases, that we used however; no lice. Some of us have been teachers but quite a few other members have been in the business world, and for instance our treasurer made it very clear to us that if we gave to the foster care tax credit and we didn't use that tax credit this year that it would carry over for next year and not to worry about it. I think that people were interested to hear that, and that that was a possibility so I'm hoping that we get more people giving to that. I had no idea that if you didn't use it, it carries over to next year but she's an accountant. So you know, because we do have people from a lot of different backgrounds they have different things to offer."
I Am You 360: "We talked about hygiene and the tiny homes, were you aware of the self development curriculum and the classes that we offer.
Gail: "Yes, that's part of what makes it so valuable. Is that, you know, they don't teach things in school that kids need to know if they're gonna live on their own. So absolutely for them to earn their way into the houses by taking classes and keeping a job is super."
I Am You 360: "what is the process like for your group when deciding where to donate?"
Gail: "Good question, as far as I can tell, there's a committee and they decide where whatever money we raise will go. Since we're such a small group we don't raise that much and it takes about $5000.00 to run the Tucson Festival of Books Young Author Contest. That takes up much of our money so we'll be having an online auction in October and that auction is to raise extra money to give to maybe some groups. I have not been here long enough to know how they decide which ones, you have to be a member three years to join that committee. So I push them to do things and we try and sell things to make the money. We don't have any paid staff or anything like that so we spend a little bit on stamps and then on the causes. I'm hoping we can make a fair amount on that auction because last year we didn't give to any causes except we always give a scholarship to Pima and a small scholarship to U of A so we did that and we did the Festival of Books but we didn't give to any other causes last year. So it depends on how much we make.
I Am You 360: "Tell me more of what Altrusa is? What is the core or what binds the group together?"
Gail: "It's supposed to be leadership and right now it seems to be literacy and at the end of every meeting we say something about going out and upholding the Altrusa ideals because we want to help people, that's the basic idea. It has focused on children and literacy the last two years that I have been here, I'm not sure that it has always been focused that way. Then the international group that we're attached to Altrusa International has some causes too and the projects that we participate in for them is called Days for Girls. That is here in Tucson and they make personal period products for women that can be washed and reused. I don't think many of them stay here in Tucson, unless a group ask for them, I think a refuge group asked at one point, but a lot of them will go to other countries. The last set went to Sudan, sometimes they go to Mexico, it varies based on who is asking for them. They are made out of bright colorful cloth and can be washed and reused after they dry so they don't have to buy them every single month. In America we use and throw away paper products but in other countries where women are put away during their period it brings a sense of freedom. Days for Girls operates in conjunction with a Mormon church on 22 street. It's only once a month and I don't sew, but a lot of the women are sewing these. They get the material donated or they buy them and sew them into these specific packages where they are paired with panties and a bar of soap so that they can wash them.
I Am You 360: "How did you hear about Altrusa?"
Gail: "Altrusa, some friends of mine were in it and the first time I saw them do something was at the Tucson Festival of Books, they used to have a big show that they would do at the festival and then after the first couple years of the festival they took over the Young Authors Contest and they've been doing that ever since. We have about 20 winners from kindergarten to high school in the Young Authors Contest that write whatever they wanna write, we don't demand that they write on any topic, and they submit that and we just started working in conjunction with the library so that they have the entry points to give out to library patrons too. The writings are judged by Altrusa members and we have a ceremony at the festival and the winners receive a $100 gift certificate to the University of Arizona bookstore along with other prizes. Then we have a party for them about a month afterwards where they can read their stories and bring their family and friends. Their stories are also published in an anthology and the anthology is given to their schools and to each winner so they are now published authors. We get it published for them and give them a copy of their published work. There is a Young Artist Contest too. Each of their school libraries have a copy and we sell extra copies to family members. We pay the publishing costs and work with a local printer.
I Am You 360; "How can others join and get involved in this work? What is the commitment?"
Gail: "It's really a year commitment because we pay yearly dues. We're changing our website right now but its https://altrusatucson.org/. we're moving from one website to another right now for donations and information. If you go to our website you can see more information. The third Thursday of every month we have lunch at Kingfisher at 11am so you can show up and express interest in person.
I AM You 60: "What's your favorite part of being involved in Altrusa?"
Gail: "The service, that's why I joined. I really like having a group to support me in service, to not be doing it alone, to have a group. We volunteer at Friends of the Library for their sales and there are like five of us that volunteer, we don't necessarily do the same things but we're all there, it's the camaraderie. Camaraderie is a big part of Altrusa.
I Am You 360: "Are there any requirements for joining Altrusa?"
Gail: "Not really, we have men and women. You have to be able to pay the dues, but we have scholarships too. Someone has donated some money to bring people in who are unable to pay so all they'd have to do is talk to the treasurer. We get together and celebrate one another's happenings and we take care of each other when people have fallen or had eye surgery or had problems. That group support and community.
I Am You 360: "What gives you warm fuzzies?"
Gail: "Ok I'll tell you what gave me warm fuzzies, the first time when I dropped off the hygiene supplies, and the kids came out and got them, and were so excited about it. I teared up. I mean It was like, wait, these are 20 year old kids who are excited about getting this stuff and having to see me bring it. That was very, very rewarding, I think it gives me a good feeling. I was a school librarian, so working in the Tully library and trying to make it a better place is very very rewarding for me. But everybody has their own thing, you know, some people emphasize different aspects of it. A lot of people who have been in Altrusa for a while say the community and group support is the biggest thing for them.
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