project680.org

What are you doing on Tuesday, December 20th between 5-9pm? Let’s eat some dinner together at Mama Sue’s Soul Food Kitchen in Rancho Cordova. Get some good grub and know that Mama Sue’s will be donating 25% of its dinner proceeds between 5-9pm to Project 680. Thank you to Aaron Redelsperger and youth from the Cordova Church of Christ who initiated this dinner. They’ve been working hard all month “elfing” to raise money for Project 680.

You coming? Let’s get our grub on.

Mama Sue’s Soul Food
10113 Folsom Blvd
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670

We wanted to post a message from the Kiwanis Club in Rancho Cordova since they do great work and they are actually donating food for our pancake finale dinner on November 9. This is a great cause and something we support. Let us know if you have any questions.

———————— message from Alan Withers ————————

Hello to the residents and supporters of the great City of Rancho Cordova:

I am pleased to have served you the for the past 40 years as an educator and community activist.   I am now calling upon you for help this year for many of our at-risk citizens.  The Rancho Cordova Kiwanis Club has for over 20 years provided Thanksgiving Baskets to our families with the help of the City of Rancho Cordova and many other community organizations.  This year we are collecting turkeys or chickens and giving them to the Rancho Cordova Food Locker.

As you have read in The Grapevine, Walt Little and the crew at the Food Locker are short 1,000 turkeys for their annual giveaway on November 21st.   I have also talked to Charlene Hunt, the Folsom Cordova School District Homeless Advocate, and she has over 1,250 families in need in Rancho Cordova.   So our goal is to collect 2,000 turkeys or chickens to give to the Rancho Cordova Food Locker.

The Rancho Cordova Kiwanis Club is donating $1,000 towards this project.  I have contacted Monica Ortiz at Grocery Outlet and, with the shortage of turkeys this year, we also ordered 250 – 5 pound chickens.  I challenge the other service clubs and community organizations to collect turkeys (10 pounders) or 5 pound chickens.

The turkeys and chickens will be stored at Grocery Outlet.   Linda Burkholder from Family Support Services is leading the school district effort.  We are asking the PTA’s and student council’s in our schools to collect funds or turkeys and chickens.   Dawn Hall is heading up the Chamber of Commerce effort.  She is sending out a flyer to all businesses in our area.  Shelly Blanchard is getting the word out to the Rancho Cordova Community Council, and Mayor Bob McGarvey is talking to the City Council.   The turkeys and chickens can be purchased at the Grocery Outlet and dropped off at their store for storage.

If you are going to Project 680′s dinner on November 9th, ( at City Hall) you can drop off your turkeys with Ryan Lunquist or Alan Withers.   If you are making a cash donation, please make the check out to THE RANCHO CORDOVA FOOD LOCKER.  Checks can be dropped off at City Hall to Shelly Blanchard, Dawn Hall,  Mayor McGarvey, or at the Grapevine.

Thank you,

Alan Withers, R.C.Kiwanis Club and retired educator

Thank you to McPeak Design for making us a logo for the Foot Drive (pro bono work). We love it and we sincerely appreciate your hard work and creativity. Anyone is welcome to use the following logos on your blog, website, video, church bulletin, at the office or wherever you’d like. Make sure to link to the site at www.project680.org or directly at www.project680.org/foot.

Thank you again McPeak Design for your generosity in donating a logo for us to use.

A brief message from the Liaison for Homeless Services to thank a few people who stepped forward recently to help homeless students in the FCUSD. There were two immediate needs posted on the Project 680 Facebook page to help provide several nights of dinner to families who did not have food for the night. Thank you to those who respodned immediately.

Thank you so much to generous employees at Progressive Insurancein Rancho Cordova for a recent hygiene-item drive for Project 680. Employees collected a whopping total of 457 items such as toothpaste, deodorant, feminine products, band-aids, shampoo, soap and more. Items like this are highly relevant to the District Liaison’s caseload of homeless students. In fact, one of the ways homeless kids often get discovered is from teachers noticing hygiene issues.

We appreciate your generosity and focus on local kids in the FCUSD. This is an incredible blessing. Thank you Progressive Insurance and also Cathy Owen of Progressive for being a tremendous support for this project.

This message is for Folsom High School students, Mrs. Devore, Allie, The Tom’s Club and the Good Karma Club. Thank you SO much for supporting Project 680. We are so grateful for your generous donation of $400 as well as the 786 pairs of socks that came from the Tom’s Club. This was an enormous blessing and a significant part of making the recent underwear drive a success. Keep growing in compassion. Thank you.

You are invited!! Come to the Project 680 community finale BBQ on Wednesday May 11, 2011 from 5:00-7:00pm at Rancho Cordova City Hall at 2729 Prospect Park Drive Rancho Cordova CA 95670. Enjoy free chips, drinks and hot dogs for the first 100 attendees!!!

We’ll be counting underwear, having conversations and celebrating a successful underwear drive. Bring the whole family and some of your friends too. If anyone is available to help set up, manage some logistics or tear-down, feel free to let us know. Food for the first 100 only. If you have any donations of new underwear, please get them to us by tomorrow if possible.

You can RSVP on Facebook too if you wish. Call 916.595.3735 or email info@project680.org with any questions.

Thank you to Rancho Cordova City Hall employees and staff for their support of the Project 680 Underwear Drive. Thank you also to Shannan Loveless at City Hall for her constant efforts to muster the troops. 

This image to the right is the Underwear-o-Meter at City Hall so everyone can gauge progress for the goal of collecting 68 packages of underwear drive aka “knickers” drive (thanks to Kerry Simpson for that one). A package of underwear usually has 5 or so pairs.

Way to go City Hall!!! Thank you for caring about kids in your city – seriously!!!

Meet Anabelle. Her Mom sent us this video and we’re excited about what Anabelle is doing. She’ll be turning nine next month and she’s asked her family and friends to support the Project 680 underwear drive instead of buying her birthday presents. Pretty cool, huh?

Way to go, Anabelle. We’re so glad you’re learning to care for others while you’re young. Keep going strong. We appreciate you so much and we are so excited to partner with you to take care of local kids in need.

Thank you to Celina for working to get kids at an elementary school in Gold River involved in the underwear drive. Celina had a flyer designed to cater toward Gold River kids and she’s doing a great job networking.

Thank you also to Emmy for getting others involved at Rancho Cordova Elementary School. We look forward to seeing how the Rancho Cordova Elementary Site Council will be involved.

Thank you so much Celina, Emmy and all who will partner together with you!!!

Thank you to Jen Tartaglia for designing the underwear drive flyer. We appreciate you, Jen. Download a color flyer (pdf) or black and white flyer (pdf) and feel free to email, re-post and get the message out. It’s all about the grassroots power here. Nobody is paid to do anything here. We’re just a bunch of locals making a difference. Keep up the great work everyone!!!

We just learned that the Good Karma Club and Tom’s Club at Folsom High School collected a total of 786 pairs of socks and $400 for Project 680. They called us a couple months ago (thank you Allie) to find out about getting involved. Apparently students in both clubs collected donations and asked other to donate a dollar if they could not donate socks.

A very special thank you to Mrs. Julie Devore (health teacher at Folsom High School) for putting this together and Allie of the Tom’s Club for your hard work and leadership to help get this off the ground. Thank you to so many generous students for your kind donations. This is a great blessing and we are so excited. Thank you!!!

This idea came from Lundquist Appraisal and we LOVE it. Who wants to sign up on the list?

What can it look like for local businesses and households to network together for the sake of homeless students? I wanted to share a vision with you and ask you to consider getting involved.

Project 680 is doing an underwear drive for homeless students, so I figured a group of us could team up to help this important effort by pitching in. If 17 local businesses or familes each donate 25 pairs of underwear and my company donates 100, we’ll hit 500 pairs with ease. This team-approach will help us maximize results and put a big dent in Project 680′s goal to collect nearly 3000 pairs of new underwear by May 11, 2011.

If you do join the team, you’ll get a link below, links on the Project 680 website and SacTube, recognition on the P680 Facebook page, kudos on Twitter (and some other stuff too). Of course, the best thing you’ll get is the knowledge you did something good.

The All-Star Project 680 Donor Team
1. Orange County Cellular
2. JanMac Appraisals (Janice McNally)
3. RosevilleandRocklin.com: Coldwell Banker Steve Ostrom & Team
4. CTP Business & Personal Development Coaching
5. Jenny Lundquist – Author
6. Market Small
7. Body Investment Studio
8. Soroptimist Organization in Rancho Cordova
9. Mitchell Middle School in Rancho Cordova PTSA
10. Vice-Mayor David Sander City of Rancho Cordova
11. TBA
12. TBA
13. TBA
14. TBA
15. TBA
16. TBA
17. Lundquist Appraisal Company

This is a great way to maximize results and do a little good together. Business isn’t just about making money, but about making a meaningful difference in people’s lives. Let me know if you’re interested in getting involved.