Hello Everyone!
The Community Connections program has wonderful news to report! Thanks to the terrific work of our Abilities United fund development department, we have received a grant from the Hedco Foundation for $42,000 to buy a new van for the Adult Day program.
We have really been struggling with transportation issues this year and so Jo Bailard and Linda Chin have been working extra hard to find us funding. With so many new volunteer work sites, we have not been able to transport everyone to the various work locations. With the addition of this van, we will be able to bring several more participants to our work sites.
We cannot thank our fund development department enough. The new van that we will be purchasing will be completely wheelchair accessible and able to transport several participants and staff.
Our holiday wishes have come true! We look forward to being even more productive in 2011.
Andrea
Abilities United Community Connections activities and announcements
Monday, December 27, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
What a Wonderful Year!
Hello and welcome to Abilities United Community Connections blog.
We are almost at the New Year and so we have been reflecting on all of the wonderful work we have been doing in the community.
During 2010 we added ten new partnership and had six educational seminars. We are currently maintaining over 35 partnerships with local businesses in the community. Our service hours have really grown and we are now averaging over 50 service hours per week. Some weeks we have so many work assignments we barely have enough people to do all of the work. A couple of weeks we calculated over 65 work hours!
The one problem that we continue to struggle with is our lack of transportation. With only two working vans it is hard to get all of our groups out into the community. Hopefully, our transportation situation will be improve and we will be even more productive.
Our biggest success in 2010 was getting our Community Connections program vendorized by San Andrea Regional Center. It is wonderful to know they are supporting our program. It has brought a lot of changes to the program but they are all positive and moving us into the future.
2011 promises to be even better and even busier! We hope you will join us.
And have a wonderful holiday!
andrea
We are almost at the New Year and so we have been reflecting on all of the wonderful work we have been doing in the community.
During 2010 we added ten new partnership and had six educational seminars. We are currently maintaining over 35 partnerships with local businesses in the community. Our service hours have really grown and we are now averaging over 50 service hours per week. Some weeks we have so many work assignments we barely have enough people to do all of the work. A couple of weeks we calculated over 65 work hours!
The one problem that we continue to struggle with is our lack of transportation. With only two working vans it is hard to get all of our groups out into the community. Hopefully, our transportation situation will be improve and we will be even more productive.
Our biggest success in 2010 was getting our Community Connections program vendorized by San Andrea Regional Center. It is wonderful to know they are supporting our program. It has brought a lot of changes to the program but they are all positive and moving us into the future.
2011 promises to be even better and even busier! We hope you will join us.
And have a wonderful holiday!
andrea
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays from Abilities United Community Connections!
We hope everyone is having a great start of the holiday season.
Our participants had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The Adult Day Staff cooked a traditional Thanksgiving feast and everyone ate as much as they could. After the wonderful meal a group from the College of Adaptive Arts in Redwood City put on a wonderful performance. They had the whole group dancing and singing. It was so much fun and nice to relax after a month of hard work.
The adult day program volunteers started a new partnership with the Family Giving Tree in Milpitas. We have been helping with holiday ornaments and Christmas gifts. It's been a great experience to help another new group.
We are also continuing our volunteer work at several local food banks. The Ecumenical Hunger Project, Milpitas Food Bank and Second Harvest are some of the groups we help. It gets especially busy during the holidays and so our help is really appreciated.
At the Community School of Music and Art we have been cleaning pottery wheels, washing paint brushes and keeping the art rooms clean. This is our third year at CSMA and we love it! We also take a Marimba and Art class there.
In late December we will be having a holiday party for all of the participants. It's wonderful to celebrate all of the successes we have had this year. We will reflect on all that we have accomplished and prepare for a busy year to come in 2011.
Thanks for reading! And blessings for a wonderful holiday.
Andrea
We hope everyone is having a great start of the holiday season.
Our participants had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The Adult Day Staff cooked a traditional Thanksgiving feast and everyone ate as much as they could. After the wonderful meal a group from the College of Adaptive Arts in Redwood City put on a wonderful performance. They had the whole group dancing and singing. It was so much fun and nice to relax after a month of hard work.
The adult day program volunteers started a new partnership with the Family Giving Tree in Milpitas. We have been helping with holiday ornaments and Christmas gifts. It's been a great experience to help another new group.
We are also continuing our volunteer work at several local food banks. The Ecumenical Hunger Project, Milpitas Food Bank and Second Harvest are some of the groups we help. It gets especially busy during the holidays and so our help is really appreciated.
At the Community School of Music and Art we have been cleaning pottery wheels, washing paint brushes and keeping the art rooms clean. This is our third year at CSMA and we love it! We also take a Marimba and Art class there.
In late December we will be having a holiday party for all of the participants. It's wonderful to celebrate all of the successes we have had this year. We will reflect on all that we have accomplished and prepare for a busy year to come in 2011.
Thanks for reading! And blessings for a wonderful holiday.
Andrea
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Success!
Hello Everyone! Welcome again to the Abilities United Community Connections blog
We have very exciting news. Last night we taped our seventh episode of our television program, Abilities United Presents: Community Connections. The program was a big hit and we had a really great time. Our theme was Bridging Communities with local colleges.
One of our guests was Ross Smith, a licensed MFT and counselor at West Valley College in Saratoga. He spoke about the importance of integrating our participants into the community and into their peer groups. He was very inspirational and encouraging.
We also had two Abilities United participants on as guests. Jill King and Nancy Barragan spoke eloquently about their experience as college students. Both of them are enrolled in community colleges and are really making great choices in their lives. They too were very inspiring.
In the middle of the program we showed two field shoots of our participants volunteering out in the community. They are doing a terrific job! Stayed tuned for programming information. When we are finished editing the program I will put the link up on the blog so everyone can watch.
Along with the television program, we are continueing our work out in the community. Last week we had over 65 service hours in just four days. That's a new record!
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful thanksgiving!
Andrea
We have very exciting news. Last night we taped our seventh episode of our television program, Abilities United Presents: Community Connections. The program was a big hit and we had a really great time. Our theme was Bridging Communities with local colleges.
One of our guests was Ross Smith, a licensed MFT and counselor at West Valley College in Saratoga. He spoke about the importance of integrating our participants into the community and into their peer groups. He was very inspirational and encouraging.
We also had two Abilities United participants on as guests. Jill King and Nancy Barragan spoke eloquently about their experience as college students. Both of them are enrolled in community colleges and are really making great choices in their lives. They too were very inspiring.
In the middle of the program we showed two field shoots of our participants volunteering out in the community. They are doing a terrific job! Stayed tuned for programming information. When we are finished editing the program I will put the link up on the blog so everyone can watch.
Along with the television program, we are continueing our work out in the community. Last week we had over 65 service hours in just four days. That's a new record!
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful thanksgiving!
Andrea
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Happy Halloween!
Hello Everyone!
Happy Halloween from Abilities United Community Connections.
It's been a terrific couple of weeks and we have been extremely busy. In fact, during the month of October we had 63 Community Connections activities and provided the community with 250 service hours. That's over 60 service hours per week!
We have started another new partnership with the Milpitas Food Bank. We work in the pantry; sorting food, making grocery boxes and doing anything they need us to. It's fun to be at a new location and the staff there seems to really appreciate us.
The Ecumenical Hunger Project has also asked us to pick up an extra shift. They are starting to get really busy for the holidays and they really need our help. It is so great to feel so useful.
Our participants are really getting used to knowing how valuable they are.
At the BOK Horse Ranch and NCEFT Horse Ranch we continue to help care for the grounds and the horses. It gets a bit tricky with the weather turning cold and rainy, but we are determined to help out no matter what!
To end the month we held a big costume party and dance for Halloween. It was so fun to see everyone in costume and it was also nice to have a celebration! We can be very proud of all that we have accomplished.
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
Happy Halloween from Abilities United Community Connections.
It's been a terrific couple of weeks and we have been extremely busy. In fact, during the month of October we had 63 Community Connections activities and provided the community with 250 service hours. That's over 60 service hours per week!
We have started another new partnership with the Milpitas Food Bank. We work in the pantry; sorting food, making grocery boxes and doing anything they need us to. It's fun to be at a new location and the staff there seems to really appreciate us.
The Ecumenical Hunger Project has also asked us to pick up an extra shift. They are starting to get really busy for the holidays and they really need our help. It is so great to feel so useful.
Our participants are really getting used to knowing how valuable they are.
At the BOK Horse Ranch and NCEFT Horse Ranch we continue to help care for the grounds and the horses. It gets a bit tricky with the weather turning cold and rainy, but we are determined to help out no matter what!
To end the month we held a big costume party and dance for Halloween. It was so fun to see everyone in costume and it was also nice to have a celebration! We can be very proud of all that we have accomplished.
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Lights! Camera! Action!
Hello Everyone!
Welcome again to the Abilities United Community Connections blog!
It's been a very busy few weeks. We are getting ready for our 7th episode of our television program and we have been busy filming our field shoots. Last tuesday we filmed our participants at their West Valley College work site and on thursday we filmed at Menlo College. It was so exciting to see our group work while being filmed. They did a great job and enjoyed being on camera. Our television program will be finished in November and we hope to have several interesting guests as well as the field shoots.
At the Veteran's Hospital in Menlo Park we started a weekly food distribution site. Each tuesday we help unload the trucks and assemble food for the families that live in the shelter. It is wonderful to know that we are helping others have access to groceries.
The Redwood City History Museum is another popular work site. We have been helping assemble marketing materials and it's fun to be doing so much work. We also like being in the museum!
In our educational program, we are taking some of our classes off site. Two of our Adult Day staff members are teaching math and reading at the Mountain View Community Recreation center. Our participants are really enjoying learning in an off-campus classroom and it is a good way to integrate into the community.
Next week promises to be just as busy! Stay tuned....
And thanks for reading.
Andrea
Welcome again to the Abilities United Community Connections blog!
It's been a very busy few weeks. We are getting ready for our 7th episode of our television program and we have been busy filming our field shoots. Last tuesday we filmed our participants at their West Valley College work site and on thursday we filmed at Menlo College. It was so exciting to see our group work while being filmed. They did a great job and enjoyed being on camera. Our television program will be finished in November and we hope to have several interesting guests as well as the field shoots.
At the Veteran's Hospital in Menlo Park we started a weekly food distribution site. Each tuesday we help unload the trucks and assemble food for the families that live in the shelter. It is wonderful to know that we are helping others have access to groceries.
The Redwood City History Museum is another popular work site. We have been helping assemble marketing materials and it's fun to be doing so much work. We also like being in the museum!
In our educational program, we are taking some of our classes off site. Two of our Adult Day staff members are teaching math and reading at the Mountain View Community Recreation center. Our participants are really enjoying learning in an off-campus classroom and it is a good way to integrate into the community.
Next week promises to be just as busy! Stay tuned....
And thanks for reading.
Andrea
Monday, October 4, 2010
We are Finalists!
Hello Everyone!
Welcome to the Abilities United Community Connections blog!
We have terrific news! Our television program, Community Connections: Bridging Communities With East Palo Alto is a finalist for a WAVE award (Western Access Video Excellence). This is great news because there are a lot of entries. We won this award last year, but this year the competition is even tighter. Cross your fingers!
Another exciting event is that we are getting ready to film another episode of our Community Connections television program. Hopefully we will be able to film our work at West Valley and Menlo Colleges. We are doing great work at both sites.
And last week we provided over 60 volunteer service hours to the community. We are really enjoying our new partnership with the Redwood City History Museum. We are helping distribute their marketing materials and it is really interesting work.
In November we will celebrate our second year of work at the National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy. We love cleaning the barn and working with the horses. We have learned so much.
At the Ecumenical Hunger Project we are helping make food baskets; as well as sorting food and separating groceries.
We are off to a great start for October. We love being so busy and productive.
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
Welcome to the Abilities United Community Connections blog!
We have terrific news! Our television program, Community Connections: Bridging Communities With East Palo Alto is a finalist for a WAVE award (Western Access Video Excellence). This is great news because there are a lot of entries. We won this award last year, but this year the competition is even tighter. Cross your fingers!
Another exciting event is that we are getting ready to film another episode of our Community Connections television program. Hopefully we will be able to film our work at West Valley and Menlo Colleges. We are doing great work at both sites.
And last week we provided over 60 volunteer service hours to the community. We are really enjoying our new partnership with the Redwood City History Museum. We are helping distribute their marketing materials and it is really interesting work.
In November we will celebrate our second year of work at the National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy. We love cleaning the barn and working with the horses. We have learned so much.
At the Ecumenical Hunger Project we are helping make food baskets; as well as sorting food and separating groceries.
We are off to a great start for October. We love being so busy and productive.
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
Monday, September 20, 2010
Another Great Week!
Hello Everyone!
It's been a terrific week for the Community Connections program.
The Palo Alto Weekly did publish the story about our participants working at Menlo College. It was so fun to be in the news and see our participants in the spotlight. We are also planning on filming our next television program at the college as well.
We started a new partnership at the History Museum in Redwood City. We are working in the Marketing Department; helping with mailings, brochures and general PR. It's a wonderful partnership and our participants are learning a lot by working in a museum.
At the Community School of Music and Art we helped their staff get ready for the fall quarter. We cleaned the art rooms, washed the pottery wheels and helped separate all of the paint brushes. This is our third year helping out at the school.
We also started two new classes at CSMA. We are taking Marimba and Art classes and we love both of them. There will be an art reception in the spring to celebrate our work.
At the Marine Science Institute we helped prepare a mailing and cleaned the fish tanks. And at West Valley College we organized file cabinets, shredded office paper and put together binders.
It's been a great week; we had over 60 service hours in one week! Way to go!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Andrea
It's been a terrific week for the Community Connections program.
The Palo Alto Weekly did publish the story about our participants working at Menlo College. It was so fun to be in the news and see our participants in the spotlight. We are also planning on filming our next television program at the college as well.
We started a new partnership at the History Museum in Redwood City. We are working in the Marketing Department; helping with mailings, brochures and general PR. It's a wonderful partnership and our participants are learning a lot by working in a museum.
At the Community School of Music and Art we helped their staff get ready for the fall quarter. We cleaned the art rooms, washed the pottery wheels and helped separate all of the paint brushes. This is our third year helping out at the school.
We also started two new classes at CSMA. We are taking Marimba and Art classes and we love both of them. There will be an art reception in the spring to celebrate our work.
At the Marine Science Institute we helped prepare a mailing and cleaned the fish tanks. And at West Valley College we organized file cabinets, shredded office paper and put together binders.
It's been a great week; we had over 60 service hours in one week! Way to go!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Andrea
Monday, September 13, 2010
We're off to a great start!
Hello Everyone! And welcome to this week's edition of the Abilities United Community Connections Blog.
We are starting this week off on a great note. To begin with, our annual Abilities United Aquathon was held over the weekend and it was a huge success. Several Adult Day Participants and staff members swam in the event and we raised a lot of money. We are hoping to surpass our goals and will know the final numbers in a few days.
Today we started a new partnership at Menlo College in Menlo Park. Our group is working with Dining Services and we will be doing a variety of tasks. We help clean the tables, organize the salad and sandwich bars, clean the condiment table and anything else they need us to do. The Executive Chef and kitchen staff said they are so grateful for our help. The Palo Alto Weekly even sent a photographer to take pictures and interview our participants about their work. Hopefully they will publish our story in one of their upcoming newspapers. It was a wonderful way to start out!
We also returned to the Unitarian Church in Palo Alto. We help the administrative staff set up the church for sunday services.
At Haven House in Menlo Park we are working hard to organize their donation closets with toys, kitchen ware and clothing. It is fun to interact with all of the families that live there.
These are just a sampling of our activities; we will keep you posted on all of our activities over the next few months.
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
Monday, September 6, 2010
Welcome to September!
Hello and welcome to the Abilities United Community Connections blog!
I can't believe the summer is coming to a close and we are already into September! I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day.
Community Connections is really gearing up to have an incredibly busy fall quarter. We have set high expectations and goals and expect our program to really grow.
We have added five new partners over the past few weeks and will continue to increase our educational programs.
Two weeks ago we started our work at West Valley College in Saratoga. It is a great partnership. We travel to the college once a week and work in the Administrative offices on campus. We organize books, help with paper work and do whatever work that is asked of us. It is so exciting for our participants to be working on a college campus. Just watching us work is very inspiring.
Next week we will begin another partnership with Menlo College. We will be working in the dining hall which should be a lot of fun.
At the beginning of September we celebrated our one year anniversary of working at the East Palo Alto YMCA. We have accomplished so much at this site. Their facilities manager said the Y has never looked so good!
Several of our participants are also planning on attending the Abilities United Aquathon on Sept 11. We hope to raise even more money than last year.
Whew...we are really growing! Next week promises to be even busier so stay tuned!
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
I can't believe the summer is coming to a close and we are already into September! I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day.
Community Connections is really gearing up to have an incredibly busy fall quarter. We have set high expectations and goals and expect our program to really grow.
We have added five new partners over the past few weeks and will continue to increase our educational programs.
Two weeks ago we started our work at West Valley College in Saratoga. It is a great partnership. We travel to the college once a week and work in the Administrative offices on campus. We organize books, help with paper work and do whatever work that is asked of us. It is so exciting for our participants to be working on a college campus. Just watching us work is very inspiring.
Next week we will begin another partnership with Menlo College. We will be working in the dining hall which should be a lot of fun.
At the beginning of September we celebrated our one year anniversary of working at the East Palo Alto YMCA. We have accomplished so much at this site. Their facilities manager said the Y has never looked so good!
Several of our participants are also planning on attending the Abilities United Aquathon on Sept 11. We hope to raise even more money than last year.
Whew...we are really growing! Next week promises to be even busier so stay tuned!
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
Sunday, August 22, 2010
55 Service Hours!
Hello from Abilities United Community Connections!
This week just flew by and we certainly were busy. We logged 55 service hours to the community in just four days of work! What an accomplishment.
We started the week at Collective Roots Garden in East Palo Alto. We helped plant seeds, take care of vegetables and do other garden tasks. On Monday we also helped out at the Palo Alto Red Cross.
Tuesday was just as busy with work sites at Mitchell Park, The National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy and the BOK Horse Ranch. We really enjoy Tuesdays because we get to work with the animals outside. We also started helping with food distribution at the Inn Vision Homeless Shelter at the VA Hospital in Menlo Park. It was a lot of fun to unload the food from the delivery trucks.
On Wednesday we worked hard in our Abilities United garden. Pretty soon we will be packaging all of the lavender we have been harvesting. We also helped make food boxes at the Ecumenical Hunger Program.
At the Nine Lives Cat Foundation we helped with laundry and took care of the shelter cats.
It has been a very productive week and we all feel really great about our work. We look forward to following up and continuing our good work next week. Stay tuned! And thanks for reading!
Andrea
This week just flew by and we certainly were busy. We logged 55 service hours to the community in just four days of work! What an accomplishment.
We started the week at Collective Roots Garden in East Palo Alto. We helped plant seeds, take care of vegetables and do other garden tasks. On Monday we also helped out at the Palo Alto Red Cross.
Tuesday was just as busy with work sites at Mitchell Park, The National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy and the BOK Horse Ranch. We really enjoy Tuesdays because we get to work with the animals outside. We also started helping with food distribution at the Inn Vision Homeless Shelter at the VA Hospital in Menlo Park. It was a lot of fun to unload the food from the delivery trucks.
On Wednesday we worked hard in our Abilities United garden. Pretty soon we will be packaging all of the lavender we have been harvesting. We also helped make food boxes at the Ecumenical Hunger Program.
At the Nine Lives Cat Foundation we helped with laundry and took care of the shelter cats.
It has been a very productive week and we all feel really great about our work. We look forward to following up and continuing our good work next week. Stay tuned! And thanks for reading!
Andrea
What a week!
Hello Everyone!
Once again, happy summer and welcome to the Community Connections blog. This has been a very productive week for us. At the Community School of Music and Art we have been working on a recorder project. We have cleaned, assembled and organized 500 recorders for the fall music program. We have been doing this project for several years and they really appreciate our help. It usually takes us a few weeks but we finish the entire project.
At the East Palo Alto YMCA we did a lot of landscaping. We trimmed bushes and cleaned up the yard outside. The director told us that the area has never looked so good! Earlier this year we organized the pool house for the summer swimmers.
We also worked several shifts at the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Carlos. Our group is getting really good at separating food and making food baskets for the homeless. We love our work there!
Next week promises to be a very busy week as well. Stay tuned for an update! And thanks for reading.
Andrea
Once again, happy summer and welcome to the Community Connections blog. This has been a very productive week for us. At the Community School of Music and Art we have been working on a recorder project. We have cleaned, assembled and organized 500 recorders for the fall music program. We have been doing this project for several years and they really appreciate our help. It usually takes us a few weeks but we finish the entire project.
At the East Palo Alto YMCA we did a lot of landscaping. We trimmed bushes and cleaned up the yard outside. The director told us that the area has never looked so good! Earlier this year we organized the pool house for the summer swimmers.
We also worked several shifts at the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Carlos. Our group is getting really good at separating food and making food baskets for the homeless. We love our work there!
Next week promises to be a very busy week as well. Stay tuned for an update! And thanks for reading.
Andrea
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Welcome!
Hello! And welcome to the Abilities United Community Connections Blog!
I am Andrea Throndson, Community Connections Developer, and I will be reporting on our activities throughout the year. Stay tuned to learn more about our volunteer work out in the community, our educational seminars and other great events.
It's quite inspiring to see all of the wonderful work our participants are accomplishing. We couldn't do it without the terrific support of family, friends and staff members. This blog is for everyone, so feel free to send in comments! We would love to hear from everyone!
Enjoy!
Andrea
I am Andrea Throndson, Community Connections Developer, and I will be reporting on our activities throughout the year. Stay tuned to learn more about our volunteer work out in the community, our educational seminars and other great events.
It's quite inspiring to see all of the wonderful work our participants are accomplishing. We couldn't do it without the terrific support of family, friends and staff members. This blog is for everyone, so feel free to send in comments! We would love to hear from everyone!
Enjoy!
Andrea
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