Ron, Lisa, Diane, Stacy, and Sabina of CVI/BGI Darien office spent the morning of September 12th volunteering at Person-to-Person organization located in Darien, Connecticut. The Darien team met with Janet King, Director of Volunteers who took us on a tour of the facility and gave an overview of the programs and their mission. We assisted the volunteers in the clothing area- sorting, hanging, organizing, moving some heavy boxes (thanks to Ron), which came from donations.

Person-To-Person, started in 1968, it is a volunteer-driven, community-supported agency which, through a sharing of goods and talents, responds to individuals and families who lack basic necessities or resources to improve their lives. More than 90% of all donations go directly to programs.

P2P serves 27,000 people in the surrounding community. Families schedule monthly appointments to come in to shop for clothing and food. They are given 30 minutes to shop in the clothing store. In the food pantry, the clients are provided a list of nutritional foods and are able to make selections based on the number of people in their families.

From the outset Person-to-Person began by helping and educating. The efforts to help began with food and clothing and grew to include financial assistance for emergencies, summer camps for children while their parents worked and college scholarships to help break the cycle of poverty.

We were very impressed with Person-To-Person’s mission and have signed up to assist in their holiday gift program for the client’s children on December 11th.
By Diane Frate

I’ve been hearing about the Trans Rockies Run for years as my husband Ross has raced it 4 times.  It’s been one of my top 10 goals for two years.  So after missing the 2012 race to have knee surgery I finally took the plunge and teamed up with Ross this August for the experience of a lifetime.

I felt ready, sort of.  It’s hard to know what 120 miles over 6 days with 20,000 plus feet of climbing will feel like.  Add to that Ross is much faster than me and pushed us hard every day gunning for 1^st place.  Several times we had the 1^st place team in our sites….which only encouraged us to go faster.  I had to take it one day at a time and mentally prepare for just about anything –  24 miles with rolling hills, or 14 miles with a steep climb up to 12,500 ft followed by a rocky technical downhill.  I will lose two toe nails from the down hills.  We always started at an elevation of at least 8,000 ft and it definitely helped coming from Tahoe.  Every day was different with its own challenging terrain.

Fortunately the scenery of the Colorado Rockies was so breathtaking it helped distract me from my fatigue, oxygen deprivation, and sore muscles.  Not to mention I had something to prove to my husband who had always raced with a male partner and had 1 partner drop out.  I’m a tough wife, and I never quit.  Many people had asked jokingly before the race “is this going to be good for your marriage.”  Although I knew they weren’t really joking.

I’m glad to report we took 2^nd place in our division of 80 + mixed (ages combined) and we were among the top 8 teams overall.  The experience was awesome with a killer course, beautiful camping spots each night, a cool relaxation zone to hang out, plenty of food, massage, and the coolest, most extreme people you could ever meet.  Every time I think back about our journey I’m overcome by a sense of accomplishment.

So will I do it again?  Ross and I have already signed up to compete in 2014.  We have a 1^st place finish to achieve.

Two Larkspur Office Corporate Visions expert gardeners, Geoff Kinnaird and Charlotte Kobayashi, spend an afternoon at The Redwoods in early August…

[Fred Mulheim, Garden Coordinator, Charlotte, Geoff with Resident]

The Redwoods is retirement community, established in 1972, known for their beautiful campus, just a mile outside of the hub of downtown Mill Valley. This diverse community of residents lead very active physical and intellectual lives, supported by staff and embraced by 400-plus core of volunteers.
Volunteers are frequently asked to help in the garden area to work with the physically challenging tasks such as digging, weeding, moving soil, etc. Geoff spent 3 hours digging out an area to place layers of gravel for easy access of garden tools, while Charlotte helped to level out the gravel with a hoe for a segment of her time. [see photo] She also helped to remove invasive weeds in their herb garden to make room for new herbs to be planted by the residents.

The garden has 4 sections – fruits such as apples, pears, tangerines, plums, persimmons, and lemons. Vegetables include squash, lettuce, tomatoes, summer kale, pumpkins plus a section with a variety of herbs. Flowers include blue bachelor buttons, cosmos, sunflower, star gazers, roses, dahlias, and shasta daisies. Here are some of the lovely flowers…

The Redwoods welcomes volunteers to join in before the winter season arrives…

[Photo of two other volunteers on the left with Gabriel Barkin [beard] and Leela Newman on the far right]

Stone Soup of Marin in Northern California is a loosely-tied group of friends and Facebook connections; most of the people involved don’t know too many of the other folks; it is just a real grass-roots network thing. Each month, a volunteer crew of about 12-15 Stone Soup people (whomever shows up that month) prepare a gourmet, “home-cooked” meal, in a fully-stocked professional kitchen, for 60+ folks at Marin County’s only emergency adult homeless shelter. The folks at the Mill Street Shelter get a lot of frozen Costco lasagna (and the like) donated throughout the month – they don’t starve, but to counter the culinary boredom, it takes CVI volunteers like Leela Newman and Gabriel Barkin to provide meals that offer big love, positive attention, and especially a full dose of DIGNITY. (And of course, flavor! Oh, and nutrition too.)

Stone Soup provides meals that are served at the Mill Street Shelter in San Rafael, California on the first Thursday of each month. Volunteers help to cook the night before, which is a Wednesday, of each month – this was on July 31st, 2013. (FYI and full disclosure: Gabe and his wife, Janna, help to organize and coordinate the crew every other month, swapping off with the Stone Soup Marin founders.)

Interested in a turn at the stove? It’s fun, free, you get a meal, and you might learn some cool cooking tips. And it also is for a REALLY great cause – there’s nothing more awesome than feeding people!

You may read more about Stone Soup of Marin: http://novato.patch.com/groups/opinion/p/stone-soup-marin-serves-the-needy. By Gabriel Barkin, an abbreviated version

And now, for a preview of the scrumptious gourmet dishes:

[Ben Crawford, Paul Hennessey and Beth Boone taking a short break from stuffing packets]

BayGroup’s [a division of Corporate Visions, Inc.] Beth Boone, Ben Crawford, and Paul Hennessey volunteered for the 51st Marin Century and Mt. Tam Double, a major cycling event which hosts over 3000 riders and supported by over 300 volunteers.

The proceeds from this event help support youth and community organizations, sports groups, senior citizens, and health advocacy organizations in the surrounding Bay Area.

The trio worked with a team of volunteers preparing registration packets to be mailed to the 3000 riders.The Century and Double Century riders greatly appreciate starting their ride (between 4-5am) without standing in a long registration line on event day. This is a vital step in making this one of the most popular rides in the Bay Area, which helps attract more riders and subsequently, raise more $$ for charity.

Beth coordinated the volunteer recruitment effort. In his follow up note to volunteers, Doug Henningsen, Chairman of the Marin Century, gave “Special thanks to Beth Boone for organizing the volunteers. ~ by Paul Hennessey and Beth Boone

[Full volunteer force for the evening at Mill Valley Community Center]

(Above photo: Jaime Farrar on far left with members of the Pleasanton Senior Center)

(Joe Terry with a few Senior Members)

Volunteering at the Pleasanton Senior Center went well! Tyler McDonald, Julie Dean-Lawrence, Joe Terry, Jaime Farrar, Korey Krueger, Nathan Parrott, all had an opportunity, during the last week in June, to serve lunches provided for the seniors, as well as served them coffee, entrees, desserts, etc. We really enjoyed chatting and joking with everyone as we served the lunch, and everyone was really appreciative for the help and support of this great cause!  Joe Elquez and Korey Krueger will be volunteering on Friday, July 5th.

During Joe’s and Jaime’s shift, they were celebrating one of the men’s birthday’s, which was fun- they had live music and sang  “Happy Birthday”  a few times. It was nice to be a part of his “party”. ~ Jaime Farrar

Ron D’Andrea, Executive Vice President who works out of the Connecticut Office, is a Board member of the Darien Land Trust.  Their mission is to preserve open space in Darien which is 98% built up.  Darien Land Trust owns, or has conservation easements on, almost 200 acres in our small town.  Our office is surrounded on three sides by a 50 acre park made of Selleck Woods and Dunlop Woods (which is Land Trust property.)

Part of our mission, as volunteers, was to remove invasive non native plants that choke out native plants that support beneficial birds and insects.

On June 11, 2013, members of the Darien, Connecticut office helped to remove ARTEMISIA  (sometimes called Mugwort ) from the butterfly meadow which is made up of milkwood and butterfly plants that attract butterflies etc.

Everyone worked hard, sweated, and was followed by lunch with Erik Petersen.  It was a great morning. (by Ron D’Andrea-June 12-2013)

[Left to right: Lisa Slen, Sabina Walters, Sibley Law, Ron D’Andrea, Stacy Kopald, and Diane Frate and Chris Filmer, Bill Van Loan from the Darien Land Trust)

Three Twins Organic Ice Cream is the best local ice cream outlet in Larkspur Landing, near Corporate Visions headquarters.  I chose this vendor as they donated over 500 scoops of ice cream for the annual ZeroBreast Cancer Dipsea 6 mile hike/run in September of 2012.

I arranged to sit outside during one of their busiest time on Sunday May 19th, which was from 2-4 pm. I sat outside with my ukulele and music book playing songs that parents and children would enjoy as they waited in line.

The first customer, a young gal, who came out of the shop smiling and looking around for the donor or a camera hidden somewhere. Others, stared at the clerk bewildered and a few placed tips in the tip jar. A mother with a 9 year old son was most vocal and expressive as she stomped out of the shop shouting, “This is amazing!” as her young son continued to enjoy his ice cream in a waffle cone.  They both hung around until they finished eating their ice cream, expecting to learn about the donor. I kept on playing the ukulele, acting as though nothing unusual was happening.

40 free scoops for ice cream were served which took about two hours.

It was a pleasure seeing the smiling faces, puzzled expressions and bringing joy to so many of their customers.

Charlotte Kobayashi – CVI Headquarters in Larkspur, CA