District Twelve
Altrusa International
Make A Difference Day Projects
 

Albany
Our project was a Children’s Book Drive which would aid over 1,000 children in various agencies including nine Head Start classes, a Child Development Center at a local High School, the Boys & Girls Club, three low-income housing community room libraries, and a Child Welfare Book Walk held for foster and adoptive children at a Halloween party. Members distributed collection book bags throughout the city, targeting friends, coworkers and neighbors, each bag containing a flyer explaining the project and location to drop off donated books. Colorful collection boxes were placed in seven busy locations with local businesses helping with the collection. We exceeded the 1,000 collected the previous year and received good publicity from the local newspaper and radio stations.

We feel we are impacting the children who are not always able to purchase their very own books thus following Altrusa’s focus on literacy and children.

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 Centralia - Chehalis

We launched a book drive to support literacy in the community. Donations of new or gently used books, especially children's books, are being solicited. Altrusa placed book collection boxes in local businesses such as Thorbecke's Fit Life Center and the Book 'n Brush bookstore. Signs publicizing the book donation project featured a photo of a young girl reading. A publicity article was submitted to the local newspaper. The book drive was also announced at a Centralia City Council meeting, during the Public Comments portion of the agenda.

The donated books will be distributed through social service organizations and public service agencies to support family literacy. This is the sixth year that Altrusa has focused on eliminating illiteracy. Over 1 million Washington state adults have low-level literacy skills. Literacy (or lack of it) touches every community in the world. Introducing children to books at a very young age has a significant impact on their literacy skills as they grow older. The National Commission on Reading concluded that "the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."

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 Clark County
Altrusa International of Clark County made and took to the Seafarer's Center 20+ dozen of cookies. These cookies were placed in the freezer for dispensing at a later date. We also took 3 batches of cookie dough and baked them there, of which we also froze. These cookies are then delivered to Seafarer's on the international ships which come into our docks.

We also took several magazines and some clothing for their Clothing Closet. When the Seafarer's are in port they are allowed to come ashore and select from the books, magazines, and clothes, free of charge, to take back on board with them.

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Cowlitz County

Altrusa of Cowlitz County deliver ed over 100 bath towels to the Emergency Support Shelter for Make a Difference Day. We found a need because they were down to using wash cloths for bath towels and we started to address the need with over 100 towels this month.

The towels leave with the family leaving the facility so there is an ongoing need to keep these supplied. This is our first month. However, we have it set up to deliver towels each month for the next 6 months. Every member of our club is involved with this project.

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Eugene
Altrusa International of Eugene Oregon selected "Womenspace" as its Make A Difference Day project for 2004. Womenspace is a local service agency that provides a safe shelter for women and children to escape domestic violence. The Eugene Club focused its assistance on the Womenspace Youth Program and a selection of  books, for children pre-school through teen, was provided for the shelter.

The Club also contributed other literacy based items needed by the shelter. Those items included school supplies for the older children and educational play items for the pre-school children. The books and other educational items provided for the shelter totaled 470. The members of the Altrusa Club of Eugene were pleased to "make a difference" in the lives of the children who were forced to leave their homes to seek a safe environment.

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Gig Harbor
Twelve members participated with a cumulative of 36 hours, collecting children books, women and children's clothing plus household items. Saturday, October 23, 2004 members met to sort items and box up items for delivery the following week. The following week items were delivered to Washington Women's Employment & Education Division, Key Peninsula Home Society and In His Hands Learning Center. Members are currently delivering over 200 children books to families.

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Greater Gresham
Our club distributed 12 boxes of books (approximately 1,500) at the Gresham Public Library on October 23rd in honor of Make a Difference Day. The books came from past club book drives and an on-going partnership with a local recycling company. The books were stamped with our club program donation stamp

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Kitsap
To celebrate Make a Difference Day Altrusans of Kitsap purchased two quality park benches for placement in two parks in the city of Bremerton. The benches have plaques affixed to them that indicate they are donated by Altrusa International of Kitsap. One of the park benches is dedicated to a special K-9 officer, Buddy, who Altrusa of Kitsap helped get trained through a donation of money. Buddy was killed by a criminal at Lion's Field/Park in Bremerton and we wanted to honor his service.

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Lake Washington East
For several years the Lake Washington East club has provided a dinner meal at the Issaquah Senior Center on 5th Mondays. Many other Eastside groups do the same on a regular basis 5 days a week. We have all said, "What we really need is a new stove". The idea finally took root and we voted to fund the stove in our special projects budget. It was installed in early Oct.

As we looked around for a Make a Difference Day project, it made sense to give the whole kitchen and dining room some much needed attention. Ann Peterson had done the leg work to get the stove and agreed to chair the rest of the project. Ann recruited ten members and we arrived at the center on "the day" with our favorite cleaning tools. By lunch time we had given the cupboards, drawers, refrigerator, tables and chairs a good scrub down. We stayed within our budget so the kitchen got new towels and the dining room got new oilcloth table covers and a new garbage can. The stove now has a placque indicating an Altrusa donation. The people we serve at the Center are very appreciative of our efforts and we take pride in contributing to a good community spirit.

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Lebannon

During 2003, Elaine Simpson, president for the 2003-04 Altrusa year became aware of a fund raiser for the Mario Pastega House in Corvallis. The Mario Pastega House has been constructed on the campus of Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center as a home away from home for out-of-area patients receiving treatment and their families. A raffle basket was donated at that time.

The Lebannon Altrusans visited the house during construction and offered to
provide a bookcase, glide rocker and new and gently used children's books for the family room. A lap quilt was donated to Altrusa to complete the project. Subscriptions to Readers Digest, Sunset and Woman's Day are being sent to the House and a monthly review is being done to update periodicals and books.

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Longview - Kelso
On October 23, 2004, Make a Difference Day Altrusa International, of Longview-Kelso members participated in a shower for the STARS program providing clients with much needed personal care items. The STARS program was created by the Drug Abuse Prevention Center (DAPC) in response to an article in the Daily News, in September 2003, that quoted State Child Protective Workers as saying that they were encountering an "epidemic" of babies born in Cowlitz County with drugs in their system. STARS stands for Sharing, Talking, Achieving, Recovery, Sisterhood and provides assessment, referrals and outpatient treatment services to pregnant and postpartum women (up to one year post delivery). DAPC was able to do this because Cowlitz County United Way funded the program and Altrusa International of Longview-Kelso  provided funding to purchase materials.

According to Gus Nolte, DAPC Director, the program has exceeded expectations. During the past year, ten children were returned to STARS mothers saving taxpayers over $138,000 in foster care costs a year. The program is realizing a $6 return on every dollar spent. In addition to foster care costs, a March 2002 report by the United States Department of Justice reported that the total medical costs associated with caring for a child prenatally exposed to drugs and/or alcohol range from $750,000 to $1.4 million during the first 18 years of life. To date two babies have been born to STARS mothers drug free. Thanks to the concerned people of Cowlitz County who fund the United Way and the members of Altrusa International, Inc. of Longview-Kelso, DAPC has a treatment program for pregnant and postpartum mothers.

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Olympia

To promote strong family ties, literacy and Make a Difference Day, forty-seven Altrusans joined together to gather 200 children's books for the Washington State Corrections Center's "Read to Me, Daddy!" program. Books included a label which read "Take and Enjoy!" Donated as a community service by Altrusa International of Olympia." Two hundred dollars worth of cassette tape recorders, a tape eraser and batteries were also given.

The project will allow more than 100 families this year to enjoy new books and Dad's voice on tape. The stories are old favorites from when Dad was a kid to new stories and tales from around the world.
Books not used for taping aloud and going home to the child, are used to stock a bookcase in the prison visitation room so families can read together during visits. Books are also available for the choosing at special family events once a quarter. The "Read to Me Daddy!" program focuses on that special bond that is built between dads and their kids when they share time spent reading. Altrusa International of Olympia is proud this year to be a part of such a unique and worthwhile program that makes a difference in the lives of so many

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Pendleton
Altrusa International of Pendleton, Oregon sponsored their second annual One City One Book on Make a Difference Day. Altrusans handed out 500 copies of the delightful book entitled Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo ( ages 8-11). Families drove their cars past the front steps of the Pendleton Public Library to receive their book. Our local radio station provided a live remote to help promote the distribution. At the same time in the neighboring city of Hermiston,

Altrusans there distributed 400 copies of the book. Celebration of the Family Week started November 6 and our club used the local event to culminate the reading of the book and tabulate how many families were able to read the book and pass it on. Our results equalled that of 2003 and from the comments received from families, our One City One Book is a literacy project embraced by our community.

Altrusa participation in the Celebration of the Family event in 2003 helped make the event one of the largest celebrations in the state according to the Commission on Children and Families of Oregon. Altrusans had fun promoting literacy and families dining together!

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Roseburg

The 2004 Make a Difference Day Boo-oo-ok Festival was held in the Douglas County Library Ford Room on October 23, from 1 to 4 p.m. We gave out 220 free age-appropriate books, laminated 344 personalized bookmarks, and face painted 128 children. In addition, most of the children's parents participated in making the bookmarks and listening to stories. This was truly a family entertainment day at the library.

For the festival, we decorated with a Halloween theme making it fun for all. Our storyteller appeared in costume as a very scary witch, including her outrageous shoes. This year we had Job Corp students help the children choose their own free book. The children enjoyed making their personalized bookmarks, listening to stories, eating candy, having their faces painted, and watching a great juggling act, but the highlight of the day was getting their own book. Many smiles were shared this day.
We had twenty-two members, two family members and eight young people from the Job Corp participate for a total of 60.25 hours of cumulative service. Making a difference in these children's lives by sharing literacy was fun for all involved.

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South Pierce County
Because literacy is such an important part of our Altrusa Club we again took on the task of furnishing basic school supplies to three of the schools in our area. We are located in a low income part of Pierce County with schools that come up short each year in finding enough supplies for the disadvantaged children so they will have what they need. Spanaway Grade School, Keithley Middle School and Harvard Grade School send us lists of the items they need and we, in turn, raise the money and use our volunteers to fill the lists.

One of the most needy was Harvard Grade School...located in the middle of a transient neighborhood. We found that as these families come and go, sometimes with no jobs, the children’s school supplies take a back seat to housing and groceries.

Our members, some of whom were teachers themselves, realize the necessity of providing pencils, paper, backpacks, scissors, markers, etc. We can see a child’s self-esteem raised because he or she can be “like the other kids” with the new supplies.

Sale shopping and personally delivering were essential in order for us to assemble the items. Supplies were sorted by school. We don’t furnish everything for each child so the paper and pencil, etc., are kept in a storage area at the school and passed out as needed.

Our cost for all of the supplies along with items donated by individual members came to approximately $300. We also gave the Middle School a check for $150 to buy P.E. uniforms so the children could participate in physical activities. Time volunteered added up to 50 hours and we loved it.

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Tacoma
Altrusa International of Tacoma presented a basket of books for women and children at the Tacoma YWCA Women's shelter. Previously we have given a monetary sum to this group, but preferred to place an emphasis on reading this year.