November 2007
The RSVP Comfort Corps is looking toward
the Christmas season! This active group of ladies is focused on
helping a segment of our Lubbock community in need of special items to
keep them warm throughout the winter months. The Comfort Corps
knits and crochets afghans that are distributed through the
South Plains Food Bank, and the Corps also
knits and crochets hats that are distributed through
Meals on Wheels during their Twelve Days of
Christmas. The hat project is one of the most appreciated
endeavors during the cold winter months. We are helping Meals on
Wheels achieve their goal of 450 hats! We have approximately 100
hats to go, and the needles and hooks are flyin'! Another very
important agency is The Bridge of Lubbock;
they provide knitted hats through their soup kitchen ministry.
They are in need of 125 knitted or crocheted hats. If you are a
knitter or a crocheter, I invite you to come and be a part of the
Comfort Corps; we need your skilled hands. You will certainly
bless those who struggle through the winter season. The Comfort
Corps meets every fourth Wednesday of the month at 10:00 am at the 19th
Street Senior Center in the west room. The yarn will be provided
for you, and you can work on your project(s) at home. If you have
questions, call the RSVP office at 742-2423.
OTHER VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES:
Coalition
of Community Assistance Volunteers' (CCAV) Volunteer Income Tax
Assistance (VITA) Program assists low-income residents of the South
Plains. The program provides free income tax preparation and
e-filing services which, in turn, enables low-income persons to receive
all the tax refunds to which they are entitled while ensuring that their
income tax returns are filed properly. CCAV/VITA also promotes
workshops that educate tax refund recipients to invest, rather than
simply spend, their refunds in ways that will prove more beneficial to
them and our community in the long term (i.e. homeownership, small
business, higher education, retirement, etc.).
VITA volunteers
are trained by CCAV and the IRS, and enjoy protections under state and
federal Volunteer Protection Acts. Experienced volunteers will sit
with new volunteers until a comfort level is reached. Volunteers
will not be alone; there will always be a site coordinator in the room
while taxes are being prepared. Volunteers may serve either as
"tax preparers" who are trained to enter taxpayer data into a
user-friendly computer program, or as "greeters" who welcome the VITA
clients. Training for "tax preparers" is scheduled for January 9th
and 10th from 5:30 to 9:30 pm and January 12th from 9am to 6pm in the
Texas Tech Business Administration Building, or if they prefer
volunteers may train online. Free tax preparation and e-filing
services will be available to eligible taxpayers at various times every
Monday through Thursday and Saturday between January 22 and April 15 in
the CCAV office in Lubbock's Depot District. If you have basic computer
skills, I invite you to volunteer your time and talents for this worthy
cause. If you are interested or have questions, please call CCAV
at 687-2228 before December 20.
PREVENT BLINDNESS TEXAS is the oldest national
voluntary health organization that endeavors to prevent blindness and
preserve the precious gift of sight through a variety of outreach
programs. Prevent Blindness Texas provides free
vision screenings for adults and children and aids those in financial
need with free eye exams and eye glasses from local eye care
professionals. Prevent Blindness Texas is in need
of volunteers to assist with vision screening events. For adult
screenings, a volunteer will help prepare registration forms, administer
one or two types of eye exams and record results. For children
screenings, a volunteer will assist the child, point to letters on the
eye chart, administer an eye test and record results.
Instruction/training will be given to the volunteer prior to
participation at the screening site. If you are able to talk to
adults and/or children, speak clearly, hear well, take direction well
and are patient, please consider this area of service. For more
information, contact the RSVP office at 742-2423. Your assistance
will be greatly appreciated.
FAMILY COACHING is an organization that does so much
for individual families in our community; but, until you need them, you
might not know they exist. Their mission is to work with hurting
families to reconnect their members with love, hope and compassion
through intensive "coaching" sessions. By talking together with
everyone in the family, the coaches work to heal the hurts that cause
distance in relationships. Family coaches compassionately help
families become strong teams that will succeed at life! The
services of Family Coaching are provided at absolutely
NO CHARGE to the family. Coaching sessions assist families in
crisis situations to surmount overwhelming issues dealing with poor
communication, anger and stress management problems, teen pregnancy,
addiction and abuse, violence or suicidal threats, school drop out
prevention, gang and discipline concerns, blended family issues and
generally helping to repair damaged marriages. As a Family
Coaching volunteer, you will be thoroughly trained to do the
job. You do not need to have experience, just a caring heart.
Training can be arranged to meet your schedule. What a great
opportunity to receive free training that can enable you to make a real
difference in the life of an entire family. Please call the RSVP
office, 742-2423, if you are interested in a volunteer opportunity with
Family Coaching.
RSVP is looking for more volunteers who would be
interested in stuffing envelopes and preparing packets for mail outs.
We have a group of ladies called, The Dream Team. They have a very
smooth, efficient system for packaging materials, and the number of
packets they can "stuff" is amazing! Their service contains a
double bonus: the ladies extend the agency's staff in order to aid in
the completion of a project that the agency would not be able to
accomplish on its own, and the volunteers get to spend some enjoyable
time socializing with one another. If this sounds like something
you would enjoy, please call the RSVP office at 742-2423, and we'll sign
you up for the team!
DON'T FORGET:
The RSVP Recognition Dinner, "A Fair to Remember!", is
November 9, 2007. Registration opens at 6:00 pm, and the meal is
served at 6:30 pm. The dinner will be held in the McInturff
Conference Center at the University Medical Center, 2nd Floor.
RSVP members are free. Non-members are welcome, and there will be
an $8 charge for you to join us in a wonderful evening of music and
delicious food. Please call the RSVP office, 742-2423, by 5:00 pm,
November 6, to make your reservation. Come one! Come all!
Step right up; it's "A Fair to Remember!"
To
volunteer, or for more information about these or other volunteer
positions, please call the RSVP office at 742-2423.
HOW do I join RSVP?
Becoming a member of RSVP is simple as long as you are at least 55 and have some time to volunteer. Just call the office at 742-2423 and chat with Karon McDowell about your interests. If you are not certain what you would like to do, we can mention several current volunteer opportunities and send you a list of the sort of jobs which RSVP members are presently doing to whet your appetite. If you have a special skill or talent that you would like to utilize, we will search to find just the right job for you. Just mail in the
enrollment form
(requires Adobe Reader) and we will call you!
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