Blog Updates

Another fun day at Kids Against Hunger for CVI in Pleasanton, and even some family members who attended! We were a group of 12 people that packed 3,456 meals in just 2 hours!

KAH is an organization on a mission to reduce hunger in children in the US and around the globe. This is CVI’s 4th visit to KAH, and we will keep going back because the work is fun, team oriented, and rewarding. This year, CVI has packed a total of 14,043 bags of meals – about 6000 more bags to reach our goal of 20,000 bags packed for 2016.

We are ready to go back again and again to help this great organization!
[By Jaime Farrar]

St. Tiggywinkles is a charity based in rural Buckinghamshire which cares for sick and injured wild animals. They take in around 10,000 animals a year, including red kites, deer and hares.

Helen Atkinson has recently been accepted as a foster carer for orphaned hedgehogs. She was able to care for them in her home for a period of six weeks, from mid-June to end of July.

In the UK hedgehogs used to be a regular visitor to our gardens and allotments. However, due to climate change and the reduction of our countryside, figures show that their numbers have declined since the 1950s from around 36 million to just over 1 million. The adults are often killed or injured on roads or by garden/farming equipment and the youngsters abandoned. Helen takes in litters of up to 4 animals, which require syringe feeding several times a day. Once they are able to feed themselves, they are taken back to Tiggywinkles to an outside pen until they reach such a weight that they can be released back into the wild.
[By Helen Atkinson]

On August 18th, CVI employees joined forces to help the United Way of Bucks County with their Stuff the Bus campaign to provide backpacks and school supplies to children in need throughout Bucks County.

The effort started six weeks ago when CVI employees started collecting school supplies at the Doylestown office. An online registry was created to help make purchasing easy and items were shipped directly to the office. This ensured a variety of supplies was collected, including folders, notebooks, binders, crayons, highlighters, glue sticks, index cards, and over 900 pencils.

On the big day, everyone organized and separated the supplies into boxes. We counted each item, then created a list of how many of each item would go in all the backpacks, which were divided into two groups: smaller backpacks for elementary students and larger ones for middle- and high school students.

The team worked together to ensure each age group got appropriate supplies. After that, we stuffed the bags. Everyone worked together efficiently and swiftly while listening to 80s and 90s tunes and reminiscing about their own days at school. Sabina Frison took on the task to count out all the pencils for each bag to help make packing go smoothly. Eric Nitschke disassembled unused binders from an old client project for a surprise addition to the teen backpacks. All 77 backpacks were stuffed in 2 hours!

This entire project was a large group effort across CVI with Cassie Galster who did staged and coordinated the entire process. In addition to the team from Doylestown, Lisa Slen, Diane Frate and Sabina Frision joined us from Darien CT, along with Charlotte Kobayashi from Larkspur, CA. CVI Power Foundation purchased 60 backpacks to give us a jump start on the collection drive. The 17 additional backpacks and all supplies were purchased by CVI employees, including Brent Alwood, Evan O’Donnell, Patti Fiore, Jim Jordan, Sean Leahy, Paul Lowe, and Mary Pacell.

The United Way works with all 13 school districts in the county. “16% of kids struggle to have their basic needs met,” says Jamie Haddon, CEO of United Way of Bucks County. “For these kids, things we may consider ‘basics’ like school supplies, can be hard to come by.” Jamie came to pick up the bags in person and was truly in awe of the group’s accomplishment. CVI looks forward to helping United Way again next year.
[By Cassie Galster]

Here is Emma McCarthy at the local rugby club on June 26, 2016. As the season has ended the club is in need of a coat of paint, bushes to be trimmed, area cleaning, rugby posts fixing, BBQ area rebuilt and painted and many many more jobs. This was an open weekend encouraging parents and kids at the club to volunteer their time to help out with many tasks to make the club a better place ready for the new season in September. Emma is a huge part of the club as she also volunteers to manage and run admin for the U9’s rugby team.

She had a great morning fixing the boards and painting the boundary for pitch 1, just a few hours work made so much difference 
[By Emma McCarthy]

Operation Big Sister is deeply grateful to Corporate Visions http://corporatevisions.com/ and their Larkspur Landing office, for recently donating a two-day Power Messaging workshop [June 2-3, 2016] to help members of the core team working behind the scenes on Operation Big Sister to create winning conversations with donors, and to tell the story about human trafficking in a way that will be a win for the world.

Learning about the terrible global issue of human sex trafficking forever changed the lives of a small group of delegates of UN Peace Messenger Organization “Pathways To Peace,” based here in Larkspur, California. While in attendance at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, they not only learned how pervasive sexual exploitation of innocents is (and shockingly local to Marin- California is one of the top four destination states for purchasers of sexually exploited humans*), but they also met a unique group of individuals who are doing something surprisingly effective to stop it.

“Operation Big Sister” is a true story – soon to be a feature film, documentary and digital education platform initiated by these local UN delegates- on what we can do to stop human trafficking. It is inspired by the 85 anonymous Icelandic women they encountered at the UN, who instigated a successful sting operation to deter human trafficking in Iceland and modeled what we here in far away Marin can also do to end this scourge President Jimmy Carter has called the “greatest human rights violation in the history of humankind.”

[Above photo on the far end, left to right is: Sheila Ryan in black and white top, Nicci Hammerel with red blouse, Sheva Carr, Executive Director of Fyera Foundation, and Cheryl Geoffrion of CVI]

If you are interested in joining with a synergy of social change agents, United Nations Delegates, educators, Hollywood filmmakers, tech wizards, cyber hackers, law enforcement, trafficked survivors, ex-human traffickers, and average everyday citizens who want to make this world work better for all, by helping the efforts to end human trafficking- then contact sheva@operationbigsister.com.

[Above photo is Sheva Carr leading the group]

Thank you to Sheila Ryan and Nicci Hammerel, who led the two-day workshop with their excellent consulting skills, Evan O’Donnell for his masterful writing ability, and Cheryl Geoffrion for partnering with Charlotte Kobayashi and Fabiana LaBauve of CVI to make this all happen.

[By Sheva Carr, Executive Director of Fyera Foundation]

On June 17th, ten employees from the CVI Doylestown office volunteered at the 4th annual Bucks Knocks Out Hunger sponsored by United Way. Hundreds of volunteers from a variety of business sponsors, churches, and other area organizations assembled nutritious meals that will go to 27 area food pantries and 6 senior centers. One in ten residents and 16% of all children in Bucks County are considered food insecure.

The CVI team suited up with gloves, hair nets, and even beard nets and quickly got to work at their table packing meals. Mary Pacell started the line by setting up bags and monitoring all the ingredients for each packet. The assembly line included Justin Bowers, Cassie Galster, Tim Brooks, and Brent Alwood. Each bag was filled with a nutrition supplement, vegetables, pasta, beans, and rice.

After the bags were filled, each was weighed carefully by Leslie Morgan and Jim Jordan to make sure the amount of food was accurate. Next, Evan O’Donnell and Michelina Jones sealed each bag, and finally, Eric Nitschke managed the packing of the meals in boxes. The CVI team completed 11 boxes and packaged 1,650 individual meals in under two hours! Collectively, all volunteers packed 110,000 meals throughout the day.
Everybody worked fast and efficiently and had a great time. The room was full of energy as the DJ played tunes to cheer us on. Our own Brent got a shout out on Twitter from United Way to celebrate his birthday. Everyone at United Way was extremely supportive and helpful.
Through partnerships with Delaware Valley University’s, Hope of the Harvest, and Rolling Hill Harvest Food Rescue, fresh, local produce will also be delivered to area food pantries. Funds raised from BKO Hunger are also dispersed to pantries to purchase perishable items, such as milk, eggs, and meats.
While this year’s campaign has gotten off to a solid start by raising $60,000, United Way is still short of its BKO 2016 fundraising goal of $70,000. To make a donation, visit Bucks Knocks Out Hunger.

[By Cassie Galster]

[Photo above: Far left Teresa Kwan representing Joe Terry, and Francisco Ramirez representing himself 5 bicycles and, Charlotte Kobayashi for one bicycle]

On April 22, 2016, through our combined efforts of San Rafael Elks Lodge, private donors — Joe Terry, Wendy Brache, Charlotte Kobayashi , Francisco Ramirez and Bob Gordon, entertainment attorney in Mill Valley, 16 additional bicycles, helmets and locks were awarded to the 4th graders who wrote letters of why they deserved to receive a bicycle.

The awards assembly held at the school’s multi-purpose room included all three fourth grade classes, staff and some parents . All the donors from the respective organizations and individual donors were present to award each child his or her bicycle, helmet and lock, along with certificates.

Mary Christian represented Wendy Brache, Charlotte Kobayashi represented herself and Francisco Ramirez represented himself to award 5 of the bicycle, helmets, and locks.

[Below photo Molly Schmidt of CVNL, Bob Gordon in the middle with glasses, a private donor second time around; Mary Christian representing Wendy Brache of Colorado; behind Mary is Sarah Gaidano Program Coordinator and Joe Tato of San Rafael Elks – blue shirt]

[Below photo: left to right: San Rafael Elks’  individual donors, Officers and Trustees with the 4th grade recipients. San Rafael Elks provided about half of the 26 bicycles]

And, below is Francisco handing out awards to the 5 recipients who received his generous prize money for outstanding work at CVI]

We would also like to thank the following individuals for making sixteen 4th grader students very happy: Sarah Gaidano, Program Coordinator for Bahia Elementary arranged all the logistics at the school working with teachers; Principal – Cecelia Perez; and the 4 grade teachers and students; Tony Tom of Bicycle Odyssey of Sausalito, who purchased and assembled all the bicycles and San Rafael Elks’ Team -Dennis McNell, Monica McMillan, Joe Tato, Tad Inouye, Travis Jones, Itamar Bikszer, Elks Trustees & Officers for their continuous support in getting the logistical details completed.

We look forward to our continued partnership in serving our communities in Marin!
[By Charlotte Kobayashi]

Nicci Hammerel and family spent a full day, on May 22, 2016, volunteering to support a fundraiser for Tahoe’s Connection for Families. This non-profit organization offers parenting education and early childhood development programs. The three Hammerel family members supported their annual Teddy Bear Picnic event at Aspen Grove in Incline. Attached are a few photos showing how much fun they had!

[By Nicci Hammerel]

Jeanie Clidence and Wendy Brache ran the Boulder 10k Race on Memorial Day in support of Scott Smith’s favorite Denver Charity, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates).

This organization is dedicated to helping children live and thrive in a safe, permanent, and nurturing home.
The four of them- Scott, Wendy, Jeannie and Jill raised $2000!
[By Wendy Brache]

On June 2, 2016 Fabiana LaBauve volunteered at the Oregon Humane Society socializing the cats and dogs awaiting adoption. Fabiana spent the morning playing fetch, teaching commands and lavishing the dogs with belly rubs and “you’re a good boy” affirmations. After an active morning with the dogs, it was time to visit the cat sanctuary where balls, strings and treats made for an interactive playroom for cats ranging in age from 7months to 3 years. The OHS socializing volunteer program is so important for these animals, here’s why:

In 2015 OHS had 11,620 adoptions, that’s a 98% adoption rate!
• 5,178 dogs (99% adoption rate)
• 5,581 cats (97% adoption rate)
• 861 small animals (93% adoption rate)

Their adoption rate is consistently 3-4 times above the national average and is one of the highest in the nation. That’s because animals who are better socialized are more likely to get adopted. This program consistently exposes the animals to people, which makes them better prepared for when they meet their forever home family.

This was such wonderful and rewarding experience that Fabiana has signed up to become a “regular volunteer” – I mean, who can resist play time with the fur babies?! OHS has 140 full time employees and almost 2,000 volunteers! They couldn’t do all the amazing things they do for these animals without the help of volunteers and donations
[By Fabiana LaBauve]