Project Profile: Basic Necessities

Imagine sending your child to school after the first snow fall of the year without gloves or a hat. This is an unfortunate possibility for one out of every four children in Green Bay who live below the poverty level (per U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2007).  These children must live without many things our families consider basics. Service League of Green Bay's Basic Necessites program strives to fill the gap left by poverty to provide elementary school children in need with daily essentials.
 
 The Basic Necessities program provides hats, waterproof gloves, sweatshirts and sweatpants to the Green Bay School District. In years past, the program took "special orders", which meant that each school could call on the Basic Necessities committee whenever they had a child in need of these or other items. Last year, after discussions with the social workers in the school district, the program was changed to provide a supply of these four items to the school district to be distributed among the elementary schools as needed.
  
The two-person Basic Necessities Committee is in charge of gathering the inventory for the next school year. These bargain-shopping Service League women scout for the best deals on clearance items so we can maximize the number of items we provide to the schools. They then go through the long process of inventorying the items to make it easier for the school district to access and distribute to the individual schools. In May 2012, we were able to deliver hundreds of items to the school district to prepare them to meet the day to day needs of the students for the entire 2012-2013 school year. The Basic Necessities program is just

one of the ways Service League quietly enhances the lives of hundreds of local children each year.  

Associate Corner - Amy Rader

Service League Class of 2000

A question and answer with Amy Rader

Q: What years were you in Service League? 

A: 2000-2005, president 2004-2005

 
Q: What was/were your favorite project(s)?  

A: My favorite project was Back To School Store. I loved seeing the smiles on the faces of the children and knowing we were helping them start their school years off on a positive note.

 
Q: Do you have any favorite Service League memories you would like to share?

A: It's not really a memory, but more of a take-away. I love that as I am out and about in the community, I often run into people that I know from my time in SL. These are fabulous women that I may not have had the opportunity to know had it not been for SL and after years of being away, it's fun to run into them and catch up. 

Q: What sorts of things have you been doing since you were an active member of Service League? (community based, work, family, etc)

A:  Since I left SL, I went back to school. I had a teaching degree and decided to shift gears. I love the service mentality of nursing and earned a degree in nursing from Bellin College. I graduated in May 2011 and now work part time as a nurse. I sat on the Encompass Board of Directors for 4 years. Encompass always held a special place in my heart after my time in Service League so when I was asked to join, I was honored to say yes.

Finally, I sit on the Site Advisory Council (formerly the School Board) at St. Matthew School in Allouez, where my 5 children attend. My time in SL taught me the importance of being involved and not being afraid to challenge myself with leadership activities.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for getting people involved in community work and or Service League? 

A: Talk up the friendships and the opportunities to meet women from all different avenues- stay home moms, working women, single, married, older, younger. It's as much about the what the organization does to make better women as it is about what the women do for the community. 

**Wondering what your former Service League friends and colleagues are up to now? Send us an email with their name and we will add them to our Associate Corner feature list where they can be highlighted in our newsletter! Feel free to email us directly about yourself too - we'd love to feature YOU!

2012 Back to School Store Wrap -Up

The 20th annual Back to School Store was held on Wednesday August 8, 2012, and it was a huge success!

Here are some interesting facts from this year's store:

• 1,551 K - 5th graders were registered: 796 boys and 755 girls
• 1,352 kids actually came through the store 
• 92% qualified and were signed up for the free-lunch program
• 70% spoke English as their main language
• 15% spoke Spanish as their main language
• 8% spoke Hmong as their main language
• 1500 backpacks were distributed to middle school kids
• The East High School Football team unloaded a whole trailer of clothes, shoes and backpacks in 14 minutes
• The WPS interns raised $1,038.00 by holding a bake sale

New things we did for this year:

• The Girls Scouts held a book drive and collected books for us
• We had celebrity shoppers including: Miss Oneida Indian Princess, Michelle Melby, Cami Ropson, East High Associate Principal Curt Julian, and Major Robin of the Salvation Army, among others
• Churches collected socks and underwear for us instead of school supplies, and we had a GREAT response
• Celebration Church supplied us with 80 pair of tennis shoes with their Soles for Souls Mission

It was a successful year and we are already watching the sales for the 2013 Back to School Store! Thank you to all who volunteered, helped and donated!