[photo Lexin, Lynn, Lindsey Maynard School Counselor, Teresa and Charlotte]

Lexin Chen, Lynn Zambrano, Teresa Kwan, and Charlotte Kobayashi ventured out from Larkspur Office, mid-day to take part at a post-lunch event at Davidson Middle School, in San Rafael, California on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2014. Davidson is a middle school nestled in an area that has student population from a mixed range of socio-economic backgrounds.
The CVI four-some team volunteered through a program called “Beyond Differences”, an agency that provides support to many Marin County middle schools to prevent students from feeling isolated and bullied. This program was founded by Laura Talmus and Ace Smith, the parents of daughter, Lili Rachel Smith.
As with many children, Lili suffered from social isolation. Lili wasn’t bullied or teased, but was often treated as if she were invisible. What we now know is that social isolation is an experience felt by thousands and thousands of middle school students across America. The good news is, once you make kids aware of how others around them are feeling, they want to make a difference to transform the situation into something positive.
When Lili passed away unexpectedly in her sleep due to complications from Apert syndrome in October 2009 at 15 1/2 years of age, the outpouring of grief was enormous. Lili’s inspiring life, particularly her success in overcoming social isolation by the time she entered high school, serves as a guiding light for other children, adolescents, and families.
The CVI team assisted in creating positive experiences by passing out note cards and asked students to write something positive or nice about someone else and tie them on to the tree. [See photo.]

Another activity was to circulate a letter-size paper with many questions for students to fill in by talking with other students. Questions like, who was born in the same city as you or, who has their birthday in the same month, or, find someone who likes the same color, etc. Once the form is completed, a volunteer reviews the form and issues either a one night’s homework pass or jogging pass credit of one mile.
We were kept busy for the hour and half and had fun as well. The students were very cooperative and seemed to enjoy the time interacting with one another.
For more information about Lili Rachel Smith and legacy she left behind, please go to the website: http://www.beyonddifferences.org/#!lili/c17a0
[By Charlotte Kobayashi]

Eileen Suico of Seattle CVI, together with her husband, nephews and niece, extended their generosity toward to those who have given much through thankless efforts in serving our city. Dozens of donuts and boxes of coffee were taken to their local City of Auburn Police Department. This simple gesture definitely brought cheer and much appreciation to the whole team. It was a nice way to extend our holiday greetings…
[By Eileen Suico in Seattle]

[Christmas tree at Corporate Visions Larkspur location]

The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program matches donors with about a million children in need of Christmas gifts across the nation. Corporate Visions offices -Incline, Pleasanton, Larkspur, Darien and Seattle, all 5 offices took part this year and did an outstanding job of donating gifts to the Angel Tree project in their respective cities. Our total number of gifts this year was slightly over a 100 gifts.
Here are photos from the 5 locations:

[Photo above Pleasanton Office ….}

[Photo above, Seattle, left to right bottom row: Glenn Jones, Nerissa Ong, Eileen Suico, Meredith, Christine Horvath, and Shaun Han. Left to right top row: Mike Rohan, Michelle Mole, and Marilyn Kay]

[Photo above,Larkspur, left to right: Teresa Kwan, Fabiana LeBauve, Lynn Zambrano, Charlotte Kobayashi and Geoff Kinnaird}

[Photo above,Incline Village Office Gifts for Angel Tree Project]

[Photo above Darien, Connecticut Office Gifts for Angel Tree Project]

Your generous contributions have fulfilled over 100 children’s wishes in your respective cities. Thank you for participating in bringing joy to children and families in your communities during this holiday season.

[Fabiana LeBauve, Lynn Zambrano, Anna(Salvation Army staff) and Charlotte Kobayashi]

Santa’s three wonderful helpers from Larkspur, California, Corporate Visions Office, volunteered to hand out gifts at Salvation Army on December 20, 2013 at the San Rafael, California location, about 10 minutes north of Larkspur Office.

Cars lined up around the block continuously from 9 am -12:30; parents with their tickets defining appointed times to receive gift bags marked for their children, as well as,  boxed family dinner, one apple pie and a game “Chute the Ladder” for each family. Adults and children ages 9 through 24 years volunteered their time coming from places like Santa Rosa and other neighborhood cities in Marin County.

400 plus gifts were handed out and of the 400, 35 gifts were donated from the CVI Larkspur Office. The goal next year is 1000 gifts for children and families in need.  We hope to be a part of this community activity once again in 2014 and we hope to set our goal to be at least 3 times greater than 2013 -105 gifts.

[By Charlotte Kobayashi]

Santa’s helpers (Ron D’andrea, Kevin Conklin, Wade Puckett, Stacy Kopald, Lisa Slen, Diane Frate and Sabina Walters) from the Darien CVI Team spent the morning of December 12^th helping to create the Person-to-Person ‘pop-up’ Toy Store.   This is a festive event where volunteers come together and transform their church center into a Christmas Toy Store.  The Toy Store is open for three days in December, serves more than 1600 children and their families in Stamford, Darien and New Canaan, Connecticut.

Ron, Kevin and Wade sent up panels, moved boxes of toys from the attic to the center.  Sabina, Stacy, Lisa and Diane set up/moved tables, organized books, worked in the board game area arranging tables by age groups.

By appointment, Person-to-Person’s clients have 15 minutes to shop for their children’s holiday gifts, as well as, a new book for each child and a board game for the family to enjoy together. All gifts are wrapped by volunteers.

Everyone leaves in the holiday spirit and smiles on their faces.

[Written by Diane Frate, Darien CVI Office]

[Above is Kathryn with her husband as Grand Marshalls in the parade..]

At the acquisition kick off meeting in Seattle, November 2013, Joe Terry, Corporate Visions CEO, provided Executive Communications with the company’s $100 challenge.  Kathryn  Sikorski, Director of Product Design at CVI, sits on the Board of Directors for her local organization – the Corrales Horse and Mule People [ www.champnm.com] quickly took on the $100 challenge at her local parade in New Mexico.

Each year this organization puts on the Christmas de Caballos Parade which is an equine event benefitting the US Marine Corps, Toys for Tots campaign.  Kathryn took the $100 challenge and purchased toys and placed them in Santa’s wagon.

[Santa’s wagon… holding Toys for Tots…]

Here are pictures of the toys Kathryn purchased for the $100 challenge …

What a delightful way to offer gifts to the children including a grand parade! Thank you, Kathryn, for sharing your unique $100 challenge!

[Photos and story by Kathryn Sikorski]

 

 

 

 

 

[Front row: Julie, Tyler(lying down), Korey. Back row left to right: Stu, Nathan, Savannah, Jaime and Joe.]

On November 1st, we arranged a work day to volunteer for our Pleasanton office team. Since Jaime Farrar had recently left our little group to live in Truckee, we included her to join in and she happily trudged all the way from Truckee to volunteer with us. We worked the entire day from 8:30 am-4:00 pm, and snuck in a 45 minute lunch break.

[Jaime Farrar at work]

Nathan Parrott describes – we prepped for painting, hung doors, dug fence post holes, did a little finish carpentry, major re-organization and general site clean-up.

The volunteer work was done at the Brookfield Development (9507 Edes Avenue, Oakland 94603), which was the site Jimmy Carter had been to three weeks before. The week before, the site was robbed and a Habitat employee was shot which was not life threatening, however, that did not stop us.
They say… “No experience necessary!” Though some helped… Our work clothes were fashionable and sturdy as instructed, close-toed shoes added to the safety measures and our matching shirts finished the look. They supplied us with tools and safety equipment though some came really, really prepared, sporting their own SHINEY NEW WHITE hard hats… by Julie Dean-Lawrence

Dustin Ring and his girlfriend, Erin Alpers,  along with two of their friends got together and cooked meals for seven families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Reno, Nevada.

It was such a great experience. The Ronald McDonald House allows families to access specialized medical treatment by providing a place to stay at little or sometimes no cost. Many of the families traveled far from their home and have spent several weeks or months to get treatment for their seriously ill or injured children. They usually do not have much time to go out and eat; let alone cook a meal, so the home cooked meals we prepared for them was a very welcome addition to their day. We will definitely be doing this more often. [See Dustin with his new buddy!]

More info on the charity can be found at: http://www.rmhc.org/ronald-mcdonald-house [by Dustin Ring]

[Jeannie, Sarah and Jessie]

Thanks Joe for letting Jessie Behm and I [Sarah McMahan] snag the tickets for the Chocolate and Wine event benefiting Tahoe Safe Alliance and Project Mana. Jeannie Frantz jumped in too and we had a blast!

It was difficult hearing the stories from victims of domestic violence, people that I see every day. Tahoe Safe Alliance is the angel that children and adults need to escape the violence. I plan to continue to support both in the future. [by Sarah McMahan]

[Del Medina Jr. IT Manager, Charlotte, Marion Boyd, County Deputy Director]

On October 24th, 25 members of the Ukulele Friends Ohana [family] were invited to perform at the 5th anniversary celebration of this beautiful Marin Health and Wellness Campus located in San Rafael, California. Our 2 hour performance included mostly Hawaiian songs mixed with folk,light rock, and interspersed with several Hula numbers.

This innovative Marin Health and Wellness Campus brings together a spectrum of services and clinics together in one beautiful campus. It is a result of local individuals, organizations, businesses, and government pulling together in the spirit of cooperation and neighborhood revitalization.
This campus was formerly occupied by Industrial Light and Sound [George Lucas’s company]. The renovation involved the re-design of approximately 74,000 square feet with five buildings using the principles of sustainability and ecological health.
This Marin County Department is proud to be a partner in this amazing effort to help strengthen health, well-being, and wellness throughout the county.
[by Charlotte Kobayashi]