Volunteer Reception Center Training This March 24th & 31st

When disaster strikes many organizations are quick to respond. Fire, police, and other emergency services are the first to arrive and provide vital services to help people and communities affected by the disaster.  Significant disasters often bring individuals, sometimes from all over the country, to communities affected to offer their assistance. A Disaster Volunteer Reception Center organizes and screens these volunteers and disperses them throughout the disaster area to help rebuild these communities.

Marshfield Area United Way will be holding two-day training (March 24^th and March 31^st) for individuals interested in joining the Disaster Volunteer Reception Center Response Team for North Wood County. On Tuesday, March 24, 2015, participants will learn about a Volunteer Reception Center and all of the duties and responsibilities of the response team who are called upon to build and maintain a center in the wake of a disaster. The following Tuesday, March 31, 2015, will be a trial run of a plausible disaster scenario and the building of a Volunteer Reception Center with members of the North Wood County response team. Both sessions will begin at 5:00 pm and will be held in the back of the United Way office (106 W 1st Street).

Dinner will be provided on the evening of March 24, 2015, and snacks will be provided on the evening of March 31, 2015.  Please register for the training by calling 715-384-9992 or by sending an email to unitedway@tznet.com. For more information, please call Marshfield Area United Way or visit www.marshfieldareaunitedway.org.

Hygiene Drive Feb 22nd - March 15!

88.5 The Family's "Help for the Homeless" hygiene drive will be collecting new personal care and cleaning products for area crisis agencies, including Soup Or Socks, The Hannah Center, Mary's Place, and St. Vincent de Paul. The goal of Help for the Homeless is to provide a year's worth of hygiene supplies to each agency to help stretch the agencies' limited financial resources. ALL Donations will remain here in Marshfield!
 
 

Please donate generously. Donations can be dropped off at any of the following public locations: Festival Foods, Shopko, Pick 'N Save or Walgreens from Feb. 22 - March 15. We are also accepting donations here in our office.

List of Items Needed

 

Cleaning Supplies:
Laundry Soap Dish Soap
Garbage Bags Floor Cleaner
Bleach Cleansers
Sponges Disinfectant Cleaner
Toilet Bowl Cleaner Dryer Sheets
Dishwashing Gloves

 

Paper Products:
Toilet Tissue Facial Tissue
Paper Towels Feminine Care
Pads Tampons

 

Baby Care:
Diapers Wipes
Baby Bottles Sip Cups
Baby Lotion Baby Shampoo
Rash Ointment

 

Hair Care:
Shampoo Conditioner
Hair Brushes Combs
Clips & Elastics Styling Products - for all types of races & ethnicity

 

Personal Care:
Soft Soap Bar Soap
Deodorant Razors
Shaving Cream Nail Clippers
Cotton Balls Q-tips Moisturizer/Lotions
Contact Solution Lip Balm

 

First Aid:
Children’s Pain Meds Pedialyte
Band Aids Rubbing Alcohol
Hydrogen Peroxide Anti-Diarrheal Meds
Antacids Antibiotic Ointment
Cold Meds Liquid Benadryl
Sun Screen Head Lice Treatment

 

Dental Care:
SOFT Toothbrushes Toothpaste
Dental Floss Denture Care
NO mouthwash please (contains alcohol)

Join Community-wide SNAP Challenge October 6th - 10th

Food insecurity and hunger are real issues and they are issues that people are dealing with right here

in our community. Over the past ten years in Wood County, participation in Wisconsin’s FoodShare program has nearly tripled. In 2003, 6195 (3229 adults, 2966 children) individuals where receiving FoodShare benefits. Last year, 18,322 (11,307 adults, 7025 children) were enrolled in the program. Children, age 4 and under are the largest age grouping of individuals receiving FoodShare benefits, making up 13% of the recipients. Fifty percent of FoodShare recipients are age 23 and younger.

Another staggering statistic is children enrolled in the free and reduced meal program in Marshfield public schools. The percentage of students participating has more than doubled over the past decade going from 15% in 2003 to 34.5% in 2013. In 2012, one out of every five students from the Marshfield Middle and High Schools indicated that he or she had gone to bed hungry in the past 30 days because there was not enough food in the home.

In an attempt to bring awareness to the hunger issues facing many of our community members, Marshfield Area United Way is inviting the entire community to take the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Challenge. The SNAP Challenge gives participants a view of the struggle to obtain adequate food that is faced by millions of low-income Americans receiving FoodShare benefits. From October 6th through October 10th individuals participating in the SNAP Challenge will be allowed to spend $4 per day to eat. For a family of four, this would mean feeding all four family members three meals for the day on just $16. By living on the average food stamp benefit, Challenge participants will find themselves forced to make food shopping choices on a limited budget, and learn how difficult it is to avoid hunger, afford nutritious foods, and stay healthy without adequate resources.

To join the community SNAP Challenge and receive a Challenge toolkit that explains your role as a participant, please contact Marshfield Area United Way at 715-384-9992 or unitedway@tznet.com. More information about the SNAP Challenge is also available at www.marshfieldareaunitedway.org.

Join Us For Campaign Kick-off September 8th

What:  2014 United Way Campaign Kick-off
When:  Monday, September 8, 2014, @ 5:00 p.m.
Where:  RiverEdge
             10191 County Highway B
             Marshfield, WI 54449
Cost:  Suggested $5 donation

Please join us Monday, September 8, 2014, at RiverEdge to help us kick-off our annual fall campaign. A cash bar and food sampling will begin at 5:00 pm. Dinner will begin at 5:20 pm with a program to follow. 2014 United Way Campaign Drive Chairs, Beth & Brian Kief will lead the program and there will be a guest speaker to talk about her experience on Wisconsin’s FoodShare program. The kick-off will also serve as an
introduction to a community-wide invitation to take the SNAP Challenge this October.

Join us for the United Way Experience!

Come see us in action!!

Attend one, two, or more of the events listed above and experience United Way dollars at work!

Below is a comment from an individual who attended visits last year...

"Thank you so much for inviting us to take a look at what United Way is all about. It is a great way to see first hand what we support. I had no idea that we had so many people in need from our community. It just breaks your heart. I am so grateful for United Way. That we are able to reach out and help the less fortunate."

Schedule of Events

Wednesday, August 13, 2014, 12:00pm-1:00pm

• Learn first-hand about the annual backpack and school supply drive by attending the distribution day at Washington Elementary School, 1112 W 11th Street, Marshfield.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014, 7:30am, 12:00pm, or 5:30pm

• Visit Personal Development Center, 214 W 2nd Street, Marshfield, and learn about their Supervised Visitation program.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014, 7:30am, 12:00pm, or 5:30pm

• Visit Kiddie Kaboose located in the Child Care Center of St. Joseph's Hospital and Marshfield Clinic, 601 N Pine Ave, Marshfield.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014, 7:30am or 12:00pm

• Visit the Frederic Oranam transitional shelter at 505 E Depot Street, Marshfield.

Thursday, September 11, 2014, 12:00pm

• Pack lunches for the Nutrition On Weekends program at United Way office, 156 S Central Avenue (use back entrance).

Please direct any questions and RSVP to 715-384-9992 or email unitedway@tznet.com which site visit(s) you're able to attend so we can accommodate all participants. Thank you!

The Annual Backpack & School Supply Drive Begins Monday

It’s that time of year again for Marshfield Area United Way’s Backpack and School Supply drive. For the

last nine years, United Way has worked with Marshfield Clinic to organize this community-wide collection that helps provide hundreds of area children with school supplies. United Way became involved with this project because every child deserves to start the school year with everything they need to be successful.

As Marshfield Area United Way’s intern again this summer, I am more than thrilled to be part of this project. This project means a great deal to me for many reasons. When the backpack and school supply drive first started in 2005, it was organized by Marshfield Clinic’s Employee Assistance Program. My mom, Jeanine Breu, who was an administrative secretary in that department, spear-head the program by organizing, collecting and distributing school supplies to families in need. I am proud to be able to work on the same project that my mom helped create.

As a recent graduate from UWSP with a degree in education, I have experienced first-hand how important it is for students to have all the needed school supplies in order to succeed. Students’ main focus while they are in school should be on the course-work at hand. They shouldn’t need worry about having all the proper tools to participate in class. Providing children with school supplies not only allows them to walk into their classroom on the first day of school prepared, but more confident as well. Imagine what it would feel like to be a child entering a new classroom and new school year where everyone else around you has proper supplies and you don’t.

As a teacher, it is important for me to do all that I can to make a difference in the lives of children and to be a part of their academic success.  You, too, can make a difference by doing something as simple as donating a few supplies. Please consider participating in United Way’s annual backpack and school supply drive from July 28^th until August 10th. For a comprehensive list of school supplies needed and to find out where you can drop-off your donations, please visit marshfieldareunitedway.org.

Alyssa Breu, Summer Intern

Marshfield Area United Way

Food For Thought...Expired Food Donations Are Costly

All donated food in these boxes expired in 2013 or before.

Did you participate in this month’s Post Office Food Drive?  If you did, Thank You!  If you didn’t donate expired food, I thank you even more.  The Post Office Food Drive, also known as the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive collected 16,202 pounds of food on Saturday, May 10^th in Marshfield.  Sounds wonderful, right?  Unfortunately, 13% or 2106 pounds of the food had expiration dates that required the pantries to throw out those items and an additional 4600 pounds or 28% of the donations had expiration dates of the first 6 months of 2014.  The food that is recently expired can be offered to individuals and families on a take on your own risk basis, but can’t be used to fill food orders at the pantries.  As a result, 41% of the food is unusable by the pantries. 

Expired food is a part of every food drive, and instead of helping it creates a new problem, a 2100 pound problem to be exact.   As I am writing this I have a few ”visuals” sitting on my desk: a box of Macaroni and Cheese that expired on December 17^th 1999; a dust covered can of Cream of Broccoli soup that expired in February of 1997; and the big winner (drumroll please) a can of Refried Beans that expired the year after I graduated from high school – hint, I graduated from high school in 1978!  These “winning” food items and their 2100 pound brethren have been hauled and carried and sorted.  They have consumed manpower, gasoline costs and will cost the food pantries yet again for a garbage dumpster as they now have to dispose of these items.  

Expired food also costs in perception since the food panties will report on the amount of pounds of food collected and 16,202 pounds sounds pretty awesome right?  It sounds like the food pantries are well stocked?  This year’s Boy Scout Food Drive brought in half of the amount of food then the previous year’s drive and 25% of that food was expired.  End result, our pantries will need donations to help them through to the next major community collection which is Winter Wonderland in November.  So please consider donating to your favorite food pantry this summer.  And while you are at it, could you be sure it’s not an expired donation?

Paula Jero, Executive Director

Marshfield Area United Way

How Did I Get Myself Into This??!!

Ever wonder how you got talked into something?  I have to admit over the years as the Director of United Way I have worked in every imaginable weather, at all times of the day and night, hauled books, furniture, food, boxes and more.  I have even had a request to get a LIVE UNITED tattoo (haven’t done THAT one yet).  Still the latest request has me pausing, and wondering what did I sign up for?  

I am signed up to participate in United Way’s couch to 5K training program that begins May 12, 2014.  Only problem, I am NOT a runner, I am not young and I don’t exercise.  Period.  End of discussion.  So how did I end up signed up to participate? 

United Way has as its focus Education, Income and Health.  Health, as in promotion of both community health and individual health.  Quite frankly, I could really improve in the individual health area.  I have always been one of those individuals that could eat whatever and not gain weight, but now that I am comfortably in my 50’s, not so much anymore.  I also live on a small farm and wrestling with 60 pound bales of hay is not getting easier.  The old adage of use it or lose it really is at work in my life.  And so, I shall run.  

I invite you to consider joining me.  Is running a 5K something you’ve always wanted to try?  What about exercising or improving your physical health?  If so, this may be just what you are looking for.  There is no cost to participate in the 5K training. The only thing required is a desire to work toward a goal of improved physical health and an interest in gaining new friendships with a built-in support system! The training will conclude at this year’s 5K for United Way on July 12, 2014.  Last year’s participants were rightfully proud of their accomplishment of completing the 5K. 

Interested participants should attend the organizational meeting for the 5K group on Monday, April 28, 2014, at 5:30 p.m. at the Marshfield Area United Way office (156 S Central Ave). Please call United Way at 715-384-9992 with any questions or to RSVP to the meeting on the 28^th.

Paula Jero, Executive Director
Marshfield Area United Way