Area Director Bonnie Lenneman shares an email from Kandace Arens, a current JV in Seattle, telling of the recent work of spreading the Christmas spirit at her placement, Wintonia, and of the FJV community partnering together to serve others.
16 December, 2011
Hi Bonnie!
We received the donations from Seattle Prep today, and wow! They donated over 2,000 items to Urban Rest Stop and Wintonia – awesome!
This all started back at the Supervisor Meeting from your Area Visit, when Sarah and Ronni (supervisors for the Wintonia and Urban Rest Stop) met and took your idea of JVs working together to a new level. They wanted us to create a sock drive together. When we called FJV Brian Mack at Seattle Prep, he immediately got us involved in their annual Winter Holiday Drive, sponsoring both of our organizations. The coolest part about this, of course, is that Brian was a JV in the Seattle Mercy House community back in his day as well, plus went to my alma mater of Santa Clara University!
Caitlin [Lanigan, current Seattle JV] and I were so excited to be part of the drive, and even got a chance to speak in front of the entire student body about our organizations and tell the story of how much the donations were needed. It was so cool to be able to share the story of our clients to the larger community!
The drive ran for 3 weeks, and we just picked everything up today, and let me tell you, it is going to be an AMAZING Christmas thanks to these folks! We were overjoyed to see the amount of socks, personal hygiene supplies, cleaning supplies and blankets that we will be able to give out to our clients.
I just wanted to share this story with the JVC Northwest office, so go ahead and spread it around! Attached is a picture of Caitlin and me at the Urban Rest Stop, sorting through our socks!
Yippee!!!!!
Love,
Kandace
I sure am glad for the JV Kandace Helping the poor who need help. Keep up the good work Kandace. Whising you well and happiness Gabe Elachikf Seattle Wash.