Blog Updates

[Doylestown Office Team above]

For the past several years Corporate Visions has participated in the Salvation Army Annual Christmas Angel Tree gift-giving program in each of the respective cities where company offices are located.

In 2014, employees from 6 offices – Incline Village, Nevada; Pleasanton, California; Seattle, Washington; Larkspur, California; Darien, Connecticut; and Doylestown, Pennsylvania, donated a total of 100 gifts for children whose families are challenged with their day-to-day financial demands of life.

Employees voluntarily selected a gift tag or two, purchased gifts according to the requests of the children identified on each tag, and brought them into the office to be picked up on a designated date by the Salvation Army Angel Tree project staff.

Every child deserves to experience the joy of Christmas morning. And thanks to everyone who generously donated gifts, this great CVI tradition is being kept alive to support this positive experience for children who, otherwise, would not have had a gift under their tree.

Thank you especially to those who helped coordinate this project at each of the CVI offices: Laura Vollbrecht in Doylestown, Diane Frate in Darien, Christine Horvath in Seattle, Jaime Farrar in Pleasanton, Sarah McMahan in Incline Village, and Charlotte Kobayashi in Larkspur.

Photo at the very top shows the highly motivated, enthusiastic CVI Doylestown Team; they purchased gifts for 20 children who could use a little sparkle and magic in their Christmas this year. This was the first year the Doylestown office participated in the Salvation Army Angel Tree project, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed shopping for that something special. Popular gifts were basically anything related to the movie Frozen, Ninja Turtles, or Barbie. Everyone is looking forward to participating again next year!         by Laura Vollbrecht

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[Pleasanton Office Team below] “We successfully distributed all the tags, 15 tags total. There seemed to be a lot of thought that went into the gift purchases, and the team took great pride in helping out such a wonderful cause. We’re excited to do it again next year!”    by Jaime Farrar

[Pleasanton Office Tree and Gifts below…]

Guess who is watching over us?

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[Larkspur Office Team below…]

[Lynn, Melissa with gifts and Charlotte below…] L

Larkspur Office Tree and Gifts below…

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Seattle Office …

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Darien Office…

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[Incline Village Team…]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful contribution and a highly successful Angel Tree Gift-Giving for 2014!

On December 10th, Laura Lewers, Lynn Zambrano, and Charlotte Kobayashi from the Larkspur Office volunteered for 3 hours at The Redwoods Assisted Living Center in Mill Valley, California. Two lovely Christmas trees were decorated with ornaments donated by community residents over several years.

A choral group sang holiday songs while the trio decorated the large tree in the auditorium. Residents and staff of The Redwoods were so appreciative and sent us a thank you note with a beautiful drawing…

Click on Tree and Message to see the card and message:
Tree and message

Here is the photo of the smaller tree in the library room:

[By Charlotte Kobayashi]

Santa’s helpers, (Diane Frate and Lisa Slen), from the Darien CVI Team spent the morning of December 10th helping to create the Person-to-Person Toy Store. This is a festive event where volunteers come together and transform their community center into a Christmas Toy Store. This year P2P will be serving more than 2200 children and their families (totaling 1050) in Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, and New Canaan, CT.

Lisa helped create the toy area for the 12-15 year olds, while Diane assisted in moving the toys from their attic and basement to the community center.

P2P clients shop for their children’s holiday gifts, while the children are watching a Christmas movie in another area of the center. Each child will receive a toy, book and a family board game. Gifts are wrapped by volunteers. The Toy Store is open for three days in December.

This is a very festive event where people from other companies come together to lend a helping hand.

December, 2014 – P2P Toy Store Fun Facts:
• 100 volunteers set up in 7 hours
• 350 volunteers helped over 28 hours for 2.5 days
• More than 1050 families visited Toy Store
• More than 2500 new toys and new books were given to families
• More than 1000 new board games were given to families
• More than 30 pizzas were consumed by our tireless volunteers
• Most of our families were from Norwalk or Stamford; with a few from Darien, New Canaan, Wilton, Westport and Weston
• Monopoly was the most popular board game

[By Diane Frate]

[Photo above: Simon Hereford with calculator]

“The 4th graders at Mark Day School participated in a fund raising and gift buying project through Adopt-A-Family in Marin County, CA. Each 4th grader was asked to raise money to contribute to the project. My son, Simon, made rainbow loom bracelets and action figures to sell to our family members over the Thanksgiving holiday.

We took the opportunity to teach him how to make a fundraising pitch, including what the funds were going toward and how to say, “the recommended donation is $10, but you can feel free to donate more.” He made a great pitch and raised $90 from 6 family members!

Here’s the rainbow loom ballerina that Simon made for his Aunt for a $20 donation.

The class raised over $3400 from 42 kids. They split the proceeds amongst 4 families, with 17 people total. The kids then were put into groups of 3 shoppers and assigned a family member with a budget of $200 per person. Our group had the father of the family, $200 to spend and his wish list. Off we went to buy gifts!

Melissa, Simon, and friends shopping at Target

The kids were asked to keep track of each item on a list, to be sure they stayed within their $200 budget.

The itemized gift list

Simon with the calculator, staying within their $200 budget

The kids were thoughtful about the gifts. Our recipient asked for work clothes: collared polo shirts, button-down shirts, a belt and wallet, cologne and such. The kids were careful to choose items that they thought were dressy enough for work.

They still had time for fun!

After our shopping trip, the kids wrapped all their gifts, made cards and delivered everything to Adopt-A-Family. It was truly lovely to see the kids thoughtfully raising money and then shopping for families in need.”
[Melissa Hereford]

On December 11th, 2014, Jake Zimmer volunteered for his wife’s fundraiser which takes place each year.

Through combined efforts of many volunteers, Jake and the group helped raise $2000 this year which will be distributed amongst three charities: Save the Children, World Protection of Animals, and the local dance school scholarship fund.

Additionally, Jake offered his special artistic/creative talents by doing the graphic design for t-shirts, posters, and program, as well as, the photography, and music editing for the kids.

For more information on the fundraising, please click on attached link: http://www.worldanimalprotection.us.org/news/thank-you-tahoe-dance-company-protecting-animals

[By Jake Zimmer]

[Photo of Team Reclaim13]

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“Today, I am writing to share a vision of a better world. There is a crisis in every major city across America. It is called “human trafficking” and for the longest time I thought that was a 3rd world country’s problem. Well, I was completely wrong. Here is what the John Rigler from the FBI shared with us last week:

99% of all children involved in the sex trade in America are Americans.
13 is the average age of the victims.
48 hours is the time Police can hold child before returning them to the people that put them in this position.
0 is the number of beds available tonight in Chicago to take these children and began to heal, reclaim their lives

Let me introduce you to Reclaim 13. A new charity origination that is well on its way to making a huge difference and saving lives. We have acquired a large living space that was donated to this cause. I have accepted a position on the advisory board and we have begun to raise funding for our operating expenses. We are committed to the health (both physical and mental),the education and transition / placement of the children back in a loving family environment.

I have been asked by a former client, to help create and capture a POV for the messaging to 3 target audiences. I have reached out to Scott and Jessie and asked for their help; they have agreed to donate their personal time to get this done. We are shooting for the 25th of this month. We are moving quickly as today, the police have stopped rescuing these children because of the emotional harm the children experience when they are returned to the people that put them in this position to begin with. Their spirits are crushed when this happens.”
~By Ted Ergo
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“I want to pass along a special note on the work that was recently done as part of our CVI Power Foundation. Big, virtual hug goes out to Scott Weinhold, Jessie Behm, and Ted Ergo who spent their weekend, away from home in Chicago, donating their time, working on a message for this special group, Reclaim13.

Reclaim13 works with law enforcement to support children in the United States who are victims of sex trade and provides them food, shelter, help, support and most importantly hope. There are over 200,000 of these children in the US alone, who are daughters and sons, that need help.

Check out the thank you letter from the President at Reclaim13. Thank you Scott, Jessie and Ted for your service to this wonderful cause, we are grateful for your commitment at all levels!” ~ by Joe Terry

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To: Ted Ergo & The CVI Team
FROM: Justin Ozinga, Board of Directors, reclaim13

SUBJECT: CVI’s Contribution & Support of reclaim13

Ted,

On behalf of the Board of Directors and the volunteers of reclaim13, I wanted to personally thank you and CVI for your incredible contributions to reclaim13, including your, Jesse, and Scott’s costs and services in developing our messaging.

The development of our messaging will be critical in our efforts to raise $1.5M in the next 6 months. This money will be used to open an innovative one-of-a-kind holistic restoration home, called Cherish House, for children under the age of 18 who are recovered by law enforcement from the commercial sex trade.

It has been estimated there are over 200,000 American Children in the commercial sex trade in the USA, yet there are fewer than 200 beds for these children nationwide. This has forced law enforcement to turn these children over to family service agencies where they do not have access to the care and services they require to start the healing process. This results in the children back in the commercial sex trade within days of being recovered by law enforcement.

Reclaim13 is working closely with the FBI, local law enforcement agencies, churches, healthcare organizations, and other related service organizations to provide the children the health, education and psychological services and support they require to be healed…..allowing them to reclaim their childhood and dreams.

Although reclaim13 has an impressive 20,000 square foot estate which is currently being converted into the first Cherish House, this will only provide a tiny fraction of the number of beds required nationally. Our ultimate vision and goal is to work with high net-worth individuals across the nation to convert oft used estates into Cherish Houses, making a significant dent in the fight to reclaim as many children as possible from this horrific life..

The foundation of our fund-raising efforts is our messaging. Yourself, Jesse and Scott have provided us expert advice in crafting that message which we believe will compel church congregations, high net-worth individuals and corporations to donate money and resources. We believe in CVI’s methodology and the results it delivers. You, Jesse, and Scott have applied your expertise deftly. Without each of you and CVI, we couldn’t have developed a message that will compel our target donors to contribute and allow us to achieve our vision.

With Love and Blessings,

Justin Ozinga
Reclaim13

Every year, the Central Bucks Family YMCA in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, hosts a food drive to provide Thanksgiving meals to local families in need. What makes this food drive different? Each participant selects a family and purchases a complete meal (from soup to nuts!) for their Thanksgiving dinner.

Cassie Galster, from the Doylestown office and her husband Dillon, selected 2 families to purchase holiday meals. One family requested a vegan meal, which was perfect for Cassie, who is a vegetarian.
“I really enjoyed shopping for each family and picking out items I thought they would like to have on their table. It was more fun and meaningful than just dropping off canned goods.”

In addition to a turkey or vegetarian dish, each family received stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, soup, bread and a dessert. These families will be certainly be eating well (with or without a turkey) this Thanksgiving!
[By Cassie Galster]

[Photo above is the Open Heart truck. In the back row from left to right are: Leela, Nathan, Mike, Lee and Rick; Second row left to right are: Savannah, Tyler, Korey, and Jaime in front.]

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Nine people from the Pleasanton office volunteered at Open Heart Kitchen on Tuesday, November 18, 2014; the volunteers helped to unload from 9-11 a.m. The group had previously helped out at this Kitchen by serving and preparing food. This time, the group helped to unload weekly food donations, which consisted of pallets with juice, milk, canned peaches, oranges and carrots.

See Nathan Parrott unloading a load of boxes in photo below:

At the Hunger Relief truck in photo below: Jaime, Savannah, Korey, Mike, Lee, Nathan, Rick, Tyler and Leela.

Every Thursday is Open Heart’s distribution day; the group plans to go back in December to help with distributing food donations.

“It was fun morning helping out and we were all pleased to have taken part in this worthy cause.” ~ Jaime Farrar

For more information, please visit their website: http://www.openheartkitchen.org/
[By Jaime Farrar]

[Meghan Peddicord far back left in photo]

The non-profit Mill Valley [California] Philharmonic is an all volunteer orchestra that puts on free concerts in Marin County [Northern California].

Meghan Peddicord is a viola player who first started playing with them in 2004. The orchestra includes a diverse group of professionals such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, and retired orchestra players.

Meghan started playing viola since she was 9 nine years old and as a youth, performed in Europe and throughout the United States, including the Lincoln Center in New York.

For additional information on next events for this holiday season, check their website: http://millvalleyphilharmonic.org/concerts/ [By Charlotte Kobayashi]