CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF SOARING HEROES!
MEET BARBARA GIBBONS, VOLUNTEER
Barbara Gibbons relationship with Our Friends Place (OFP) began at Christmas in 1995. She met Kristianne Hinkamp who was the development director at that time. Kristianne told Barbara about OFP's mission and the need for "elves" to be paired with Transitional Living Center (TLC) residents to fulfill their Christmas wish list. Barbara, her parents and aunt liked the idea of creating a Merry Christmas for a young woman who was striving to better herself. They shopped to make sure she felt appreciated and had a happy Christmas. Their family has adopted a TLC resident each year since 1995.
Barbara met executive director, Sue Hesseltine, when she joined the Zonta Club of Dallas. Somehow they always missed each other during the Christmas deliveries. Barbara was pleased to begin participating in the TLC Skills Nights at Beazley House and Pauline's Place. She became known as the salad queen, teaching the girls how to make salad and their own salad dressing. And she introduced pumpkin stew which was a surprise hit with the young women. The sewing Skills Nights were enjoyable as the girls learned to hem so they could finally wear their jeans and work pants. Over the years Barbara lead other Skills Night programs including topics like creating a savings plan and working on taxes.
Barbara states, "I thoroughly enjoy the time that I share with Our Friends Place. I see the positive growth that the TLC residents accomplish. It is very exciting to share in their successes or offer suggestions on how to regroup, refocus, and try once more. They are a very resilient group. And their persistence has given me a new lens to view how to solve just about any situation one encounters!"
Barbara has bonded with many young women over the course of her twenty plus years with OFP. She begins a new chapter that takes her away from Dallas and there are no words to express how much we are going to miss her! The skills, knowledge, gifts of time and treasure Barbara shared are tremendous and inspiring. She is truly an important HERO to Our Friends Place. Thank you for all you have done to support the young women who call Our Friends Place home Barbara!
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SAVE THE DATE FOR THE
2018 30th ANNIVERSARY GALA
AUCTION & CASINO NIGHT
JOIN CO-CHAIRS
SUZANNE JACO,
ANGELA MAVERICK AND
LESLIE SIMMONS
WHEN:
Saturday, April 21, 2018
TIME:
6:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Auction l Casino l Dancing
Cocktails l Dinner l Open Bar
Cocktail Attire
Due to the generosity of sponsor support this event sold out! To learn more about supporting Our Friends Place 2018 30th Anniversary Gala Auction & Casino night through underwriting and auction donations email Caitlin, call 214.520.6268 or visit the online event page.
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CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS
Visit Voly.org and search Our Friends Place under agencies to sign up online for the following activities!
- Join us at the office the week of April 9th from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily to assemble and decorate beautiful silent auction baskets. Evening volunteers are welcome to come on Tuesday April 10th until 8 p.m. This is a wonderful chance to share your many talents and design skills creating beautiful baskets benefiting Our Friends Place!
- All hands on deck April 21st at the Omni Dallas Hotel! Volunteer shifts available during the day for set-up from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. plus silent auction area sitters needed from 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. We can use evening volunteers from 5 p.m. - 11 p.m. for many areas including greeters, check-in/check-out, silent auction area support, casino chip sales, table runners, and handing out gift bags. Clean-up volunteers (the more we have, the faster this goes) help out from 11 p.m. - midnight.
Call Cindy at 214.520.6268 for more information.
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DONATE THROUGH
Shopping for the young women OFP serves just got easier! The client wish list found on OurFriendsPlace.org is now an 'Our Friends Place' list on Amazon! Click on the 'Account & Lists' tab on the upper right side, select 'Find a List or Registry' in the menu on the left side and enter Our Friends Place in the search box.
In-kind gifts purchased through Amazon will arrive at OFP's office. And purchases made through smile.amazon.com, designating OFP as the charity, provides a donation based on qualified product purchases at no additional cost to you. Let us know what you think and thank you for continuing to support these amazing young women!
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Toilet bowl cleaner
Dishwasher soap (pods)
Paper towels
Pots and pans
Kitchen & Bath size trash bags
Umbrellas
Notebooks
Adult scissors
Black & Blue pens
Manual pencil sharpeners
Bed pillows
Twin sheets
Vibrant colored towel sets (2 each - bath, hand and washcloth)
Blow dryers
Motions Hair Care, Shea Moisture, and Dr. Miracle hair products
Hair straighteners
No show socks
Underwear (Med.-XXXL) sizes
Walmart gift cards
DART bus passes
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Ways to Get Involved
- Share your talents and knowledge on a committee
- Redecorate a bedroom or living space for young women
- Offer crucial support to our office staff
- Engage the community to gather school supplies, personal items and more
- Put your party planning skills to good use for our annual fundraiser
Our Friends Place helps young women, between the ages of 18 and 24, break the generational cycles of abuse, neglect, poverty and homelessness through empowering self-reliance and independence. OFP provides a supportive home and teaches the skills young women need to become self-reliant adults. OFP young women enroll in an educational or vocational program, hold a job and pay a portion of their earnings as rent and savings. The nonresidential SOAR to Success outreach curriculum teaches young women weekly life skills through high school, community college and local resource programs.
Our Friends Place Staff
Sue Thiers Hesseltine,
Executive Director
Melanie Jones Meijering,
Program Director
Caitlin Doepfner,
Development Manager
Libby Woolverton,
Outreach Manager
Janaye Easter,
Beazley House Site Manager
Nicole Price,
Pauline's Place Site Manager
Cindy Washlesky,
Program Specialist
Our Friends Place
Administrative Office
6500 Greenville Ave
Suite 620
Dallas TX 75206
214.520.6268
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