Posts Tagged ‘1205news’

Featured Agency: All Things Italian Street Festival

Posted on Monday, May 21st, 2012

All Things Italian Festival in Iowa

The Fairfield Square is transformed into an Italian Piazza. Taste homemade lasagna and fresh-filled cannoli! Visit the large fresh fruit stand. Enjoy an authentic Italian dance troupe, play bocce ball or visit local Madonnari street chalk artists, en plein aire artists and figure drawers or try your hand at hand-carving Italian marble.

The All Things Italian Festival was recently named a “must see event” by the Iowa Tourism Office.

Proceeds from the All Things Italian Street Festival helps support the following causes:

  1. •Fairfield 1st Friday Art Walk
  2. •Young Fairfield Photo Students
  3. •Jefferson County Girl Scouts
  4. •Fairfield Musicians
  5. •MSAE Greenhouse Project
  6. •Ottumwa Women’s Shelter
  7. •Italian Earthquake Relief Fund
  8. •Fairfield Bike Rack Project
Countless volunteer hours make this one of the most exciting events Fairfield hosts during the year!  See the following from volunteer coordinator Julie Stephens:
Dear Fairfield Volunteers,

Thank you for your huge part in making Fairfield great!

We are currently working on the wonderful Italian Festival that volunteers have created for our community and are looking for more help to pull it off.
Our needs for Saturday June 16th are for serving at:
The Lasagna Booth either 4:45-7:00pm or 7:00-9:15pm
or
The Meatball Sandwich Booth either 5:00-7:00 or 6:00 – sold out

Thank you for considering this service and for all past service you have provided,

Julie Stephens
Please contact Julie at 641-233-7773 or jlstphns@gmail.com to help out!

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Fundraising Raffle for the Volunteer Center-$870 worth of Great Prizes!

Posted on Monday, May 21st, 2012

After several successful projects and countless volunteer hours we are back in fundraising mode here at the Fairfield Volunteer Center.  Our fundraising team has created a raffle with some amazing prizes that we hope will encourage you to support us as we continue to make connections between volunteers and needs throughout the community.  Take a look:

  • Apple Store Gift Certificate ($500 value)
  • Dr. Hauschka Facial with Rosemary Gabriel ($105 value)
  • Local Flight with Bob Lyons ($75 value)
  • Two tickets to the Sondheim Artist Series ($60 value)
  • Car repair service at Bob’s Automotive ($35 value)
  • (2) Top of the Rock Grille gift certificate ($25 value each)
  • Hy-Vee gift certificate ($25 value)
  • (4) Bags Cheif Appanoose popcorn ($5 value each)

Tickets $5 each, or 5 for $20 and are available from board members, Michael Halley, Carole Simmons, Melinda Arndt, Jeff Shipley, Manjunath Rao, JoBeth Lewer and Molly Reiff or by visiting the FVC office in the library (641-209-9045).

Winners will be drawn June 2 at noon at the Fairfield Farmers’ Market.

All Proceeds will support the work of the Fairfield Volunteer Center.

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FREE RSVP “Energy Savings Program” Consultation

Posted on Monday, May 21st, 2012

The RSVP (Retired & Senior Volunteer Program) of Fairfield, is offering a free home Energy-Savings consultation service to qualified Fairfield residents.  A trained RSVP volunteer will visit with householders for 1 hour and educate and/or assist residents with a range of basic energy savings measures and install a new furnace filter (leaving extra filters with the householder to install each month following the consultation).   To be eligible for receiving this service, residents must live within Fairfield city limits & meet income qualifications.

See following chart to qualify:

#No. in Household

1       $21,780

2       $29,420

3       $37,060

4       $44,700

5       $52,340

6       $59,980

7       $67,620

8       $75,260

During a scheduled consultation appointment, the RSVP-trained volunteer will inform the resident about measures they can begin taking immediately to reduce their residential energy usage as well as perform other tasks including adjusting the water heater temperature, re-setting refrigerator temperatures, discuss ways to reduce overall water usage, and how to reduce energy consumption by using CFL/LED light bulbs vs. incandescent bulbs.

The intended impact for this volunteer service is increased knowledge of reduced home energy usage for Fairfield residents, as well as savings reflected on their monthly utility bills.

If you are a qualified resident (see chart) and would like to receive the benefit from this free service program or you are age 55+ and would like to be trained to be an RSVP volunteer, call RSVP Director JoBeth Lewer at 641-919-4752 .

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Hundreds of Volunteers Plant Trees for Earth Day & Global Youth Service Day

Posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

For Earth Day and Global Youth Service Day we had lofty goals.  We wanted to create a day of service focused on tree  planting.  The perfect team came together to make those goals a reality.  More than 80 trees were planted at 4 different schools to provide shade, windbreaks and fruit.  More than 150 trees were planted just east of Chautauqua Park along the loop trail creating our community’s first public orchard.  Apples, Pears, Plums, Peaches, Apricots, Mulberries, Persimmons, Paw Paws, Walnuts, Chestnuts and Hazelnuts make up the diverse planting that will serve as a community gathering place and educational station for  years to come.

Project Partners that made this vision a reality: Alliant Energy, Trees Forever, Hometown Rewards, City of Fairfield, IA State University Extension, Ideal Energy, Fairfield Volunteer Center, Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield Middle School, Washington Elementary School, Singing Cedars Waldorf School, KRUU 100.1 FM, Edible CityScapes, 100 Trees, and more supported this project with time, resources and so much more.

Individuals interested in serving on the orchard advisory board should contact Scott Timm … and keep your eye out for further orchard-related volunteer opportunities coming up.

Thank you Fairfield Volunteers for making this project an incredibly rewarding success for our community!

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Friends of the Library Outdoor Book Sale June 2

Posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Friends of the Library will host an Outdoor Book Sale Saturday, June 2.  Proceeds support the library and all of the

Volunteers helping with the book sale

great programs and services they provide.  There are numerous ways to get involved from set-up, staffing during the sale, post-sale sorting and more!  Many hands, indeed, make light work!

**Friday, June 1: 3-6pm (or partial shift): Set up, phase one (8 people)

Moving books out of storage and the back room…Please note some heavy lifting is required and a few volunteers with trucks would be very much appreciated.

**Saturday, June 2: 7:30am-9:00am: Set up outdoors (6 people)

Setting up tables and books outdoors for the sale

***Saturday, June 2: 9:00am-1:00pm or 1:00pm-4:30pm or any partial shift: Floaters/consolidators during the sale (at least two per shift)

Breaking down empty boxes and consolidating inventory as the sale progresses makes a huge difference in clean up time at the end of the sale.

**Saturday, June 2: 4:00pm-6:00pm: Sale Day Clean up (at least 6 people)

As the sale wraps up, help break down the sale and move left over books into the Community Room for sorting the next day.

Some heavy lifting is required.

**Sunday, June 3: 1:00pm-5:00pm or any partial shift: Book sorters and movers (at least 6 people)

Sorting and stacking what the library will keep for their perpetual indoor sale.
Some heavy lifting required.

Please contact Molly Reiff, Director of the Volunteer Center, at 209.9045 or www.fairfieldvolunteers@gmail.com for more information and to get involved.  As you can see, this is a big project that takes a lot of support to pull off…Let’s show our library how much our community values everything they offer!  If you know a student who has saved their community service hours for the “last minute” this is a great way to get it done and can be done as a group for more fun!

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Our Most Successful Project to Date!

Posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Washington Elementary students planting trees

New Community Orchard at Sunset

MSAE students planting trees for playground shade

Huge Community Effort to Plant the Orchard

Outstanding Project Sponsors

Post-Planting Celebration

FF Middle School Students Planting Trees

Singing Cedars Students Planting

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The Health Benefits of Volunteering for Older Americans

Posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2012

According to data from the Corporation for National and Community Service, 18.7 million older adults – more than a quarter of those 55 and older – contributed on average more than three billion hours of service in their communities

Volunteers Planting Community Orchard on Earth Day

per year between 2008 and 2010. Older volunteers meet a wide range of community needs – helping seniors live independently in their homes, tutoring and mentoring at-risk youth, providing financial education and job training to veterans and their families, and helping communities recover from disasters. In fact, older adults who volunteer typically volunteer more hours in a year than other age groups.

In addition to providing valuable services to individuals and communities, older volunteers are also living active lives through volunteering. A growing body of research shows an association between volunteering and mental and physical health benefits. In particular, older volunteers report lower mortality rates, lower rates of depression, fewer physical limitations, and higher levels of well-being. This issue brief summarizes recent research and suggest implications of the findings.

KEY FINDINGS FROM SELECTED RESEARCH…Read more

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