What is a Virtual Volunteer?

A Virtual Volunteer is anyone, anywhere who wants to help you from afar via the internet, telephone and USPS mail.

Virtual Volunteers can do many wonderful things. RSVP works with Virtual Volunteers in a variety of situations. Some Virtual Volunteers build and maintain websites. Others transcribe oral history interviews. RSVP is currently working to develop Virtual Volunteers to research the Idaho Falls WWII POW camp. We are very thankful for an excited about working with our great Virtual Volunteers. They add a whole new dimension to our volunteer program.

Corvington Comments

The potential new CEO of the CNCS was born in Haiti and grew up in Africa. He immigrated to the USA when he was a teenager. Patrick A. Corvington clearly has a life "backstory" waiting in the wings!

He earned his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his M.A. in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, where he received the National Minority Leadership Fellowship from the Kellogg Foundation. His online resume also lists the Rabat American School.

Following his formal education, Corvington rolled up his sleeves and dived into some tough duty. He began his career traveling the East Coast migrant stream as a case manager working with migrant workers. He has also served as an advocate for adjudicated youth as Interim Director at the Sykesville Group Shelter Home and has worked as a patient advocate in a community-based HIV/AIDS clinic; and has volunteered his time working in an infirmary of a shelter for homeless persons. On his own linkedin profile, Corvington states he "has devoted his life to serving and empowering communities." His profile further states he "is a recognized expert on non-profit sector leadership and capacity issues, new and emerging philanthropy, and volunteerism."

The last sentence above was apparently lifted right out of the linkedin profile to become the first sentence in the White House Press Release!

We turned up quite a few links on Patrick during our preliminary Google Search. Right now, Corvington's linkedin profile has only 200 connections. How much do you want to bet that number increases dramatically within the next 24 hours?

We will continue to revisit this blog post, adding various material as we find it.

One thing of note, Obama's first nominee for the CNCS CEO had to withdraw for personal reasons. We've heard that Obama was looking for someone to shake up the CNCS. He hope he had found a suitable "shaker-upper" in Corvington. And, if so, we hope the nominee can survive the often grueling confirmation process. Meanwhile, here's a thought: the first nominee's was in charge of helping disadvantaged young girls worldwide. Corvington's current employer's website tagline is that they are "dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children." It would certainly seem that Obama has identified disadvantaged youth as a priority for the new head of CNCS.

As you know by now, Corvington currently serves at the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a Senior Associate responsible for guiding the foundation's grantees on issues related to leadership development, next generation leadership, and capacity building. He also acts as Senior Advisor to the Foundation's Executive Vice President, Ralph Smith, who is the Chair of the Council on Foundations. The Annie E. Casey Foundation certainly has an interesting pedigree. It was basically started by the founder of UPS! As near as we can tell, it has assets about $2.392-billion. A year earlier it was $3.442 billion. Looking at their financial statement, it looks like they lost over a billion dollars on their investments between 2007-2008! According to their website, they are distributing about $225-million a year.

Lunch At South Lemhi Senior Center

It's always a pleasure to visit the South Lemhi Senior Center on Hayden Creek alongside the Lewis & Clark Trail 20 miles south of Salmon, Idaho. The folks at the Center are gracious hosts and they make us feel like long lost friends. It's a genuine step back in time there as the building is about 100 years old. The imposing two story wood structure was once the gov't Indian school back in the days when the Lemhi Shoshones lived here.

South Lemhi enjoys a faithful following of folks who come to lunch every Tuesday and Thursday like clockwork. Barbara and Alden have been volunteering there for at least 30 years, probably a lot more but they aren't counting. Other volunteers have been helping for 15 or 20 years. You can feel the kinship at South Lemhi when you drive up in the front lawn. It's a special place, that's for sure. RSVP will be conducting a VRE (Volunteer Recognition Event) for those dedicated helpers on July 18.

We took a few photos June 11 and May 14. They are online in Picasa web albums located at the Center's webpage: http://idahovolunteer.org/southlemhi

Marie Doll: "Beary Special Angel!"

At 95, Marie Doll just might be at the "top of her game." That's right, Marie is more determined than the Energizer Bunny to keep chugging along rehabilitating teddy bears. She's incredible. We're featuring Marie today because she received some well-deserved publicity in the Idaho Falls Post-Register (P-R) newspaper. Marie is "above the fold" on the front page of "The West" section.

The P-R Reporter, Laura Zuckerman once again skillfully wove words to tell Marie's touching story. THANKS, Laura! Laura's story is succinct yet conveys a real feeling for the "how & why" of what Marie does. Ilona McCarty's photo reflects Marie's quiet peace and dignity. With more than 2,000 "rehabbed" teddy bears under her belt, Marie is a genuine inspiration to all who know and cherish her.

Marie's work is spread far and wide across Eastern Idaho. It would be impossible to even estimate how lives her work has touched. Marie's "rehabbed" bears go directly into the hands of people who are hurting in one way or another, whether in an accident or after medical procedures in a hospital. Marie's special bears are also on patrol with police officers and sheriff's deputies, ready to spring into action in the arms of people facing tough situations. Marie's bears are a direct extension of the hands, heart and spirit of this kind and gracious woman. God Bless You, Marie!

If you are interested in helping to get one or more teddy bears delivered to Marie's little home alongside the famous Salmon River, please contact us. Marie could also use help in obtaining the cleaning chemicals and other materials necessary to "rehab" a teddy bear into right and proper shape for their upcoming special assignments. Our email is embedded in a photo at the bottom of this blog. Our distant blog readers can mail bears or other support to RSVP @ 357 Constitution Way, Idaho Falls, ID 83402

Volunteers help brighten Idaho Falls

Dina O. and Susun McC., two of RSVP's many versatile, hard working volunteers, were at it again May 29. Dina and Susun planted the flower bed beneath the Rotary Kiosk on the Idaho Fall Greenbelt eastside pathway. They spent 2.5 hours selecting flowers at the city's greenhouse and carefully putting them into place at the kiosk. There are many awesome flower beds and planters throughout the city. The Rotary Kiosk bed is noticed by a lot of visitors and residents alike.

Next week, Dina, Susun and several other RSVP volunteers will be planting the large Hilda McClure Garden in front of the Red Lion Inn at the city's signature waterfalls. The Mayor's Office is an RSVP Volunteer Station that utilizes many RSVP volunteers in various city functions.

There are few volunteer opportunities more fun that planting flowers!

Doris Olsen: A Happy Volunteer

Doris Olsen seems to be smiling all the time. The more she volunteers, the more she smiles. Doris loves to volunteer. RSVP's records show she has volunteered in at least 16 different Idaho Falls organizations. She has written a 200+ page history of her church and currently volunteers each Friday morning at the Museum of Idaho's Titanic Exhibit. She doesn't know how to slow down!

Doris was born in April 1917 and remembers her first real stint of volunteering with the Campfire Girls back in the late 1920's. After WWII, Doris became a school librarian and devoted her life to helping people share her love of books. Doris hasn't slowed down in her retirement years. She believes volunteering is a great way to stay active and meet new people and make new friends. Doris loves people and it shows. She's perpetually happy. One of her most favorite things to do is to read to children. She has a spark and flame of passion for books that shines forever in her spirit!

Doris serves on our RSVP Advisory Council and her input is always a delight. She doesn't mince words when it's time to give a pointed opinion. Doris always tells it like it is. Debby and I took Doris to lunch yesterday and a fine time was had by all. Afterall, Doris is the life of the party!

Warren Mitchell: Recycling Pioneer

Warren Mitchell is a modest man. Praise makes him blush a little bit. He does what he does because he simply loves to do what he does. Warren Mitchell is a Recycling Pioneer. He has been recycling aluminum cans for the better part of a generation. He started way back in the late 1980's. At the time, Warren was recovering from major surgery. He decided to help his rehab by walking alongside Highway 33 in Mud Lake, Idaho. Soon he saw a discarded can and he picked it up. The rest is history, as they say.

Before long Warren was collecting bags and then piles of cans. And pretty soon, Warren's neighbors and local organizations began bringing cans to Warren's place. Twice each year since 1988, Warren has headed down south to Pacific Recycling in Idaho Falls. As the years went by, each of these semi-annual trips became bigger and biger and BIGGER! What began as a few dollars turned into some real cash flow.
All of the proceeds from Warren's huge efforts have gone to benefit the West Jefferson Senior Center in Mud Lake--more than $20,000 in 20 years!

In April 2008, Warren was honored in front of a packed house with a certificate and a long, loud heartfelt standing ovation from his friends, neighbors and people far, near and dear. Warren loves to volunteer. He can't stop. He's almost always the last person leaving the twice weekly Senior Center lunch. He cleans tables and helps any way he can.

Warren always sports an impish smile and his twinkling eyes tell you he loves life to the fullest, just as he is loved by his small, rural farm community.

Warren will turn 89 years young on June 20! He is an inspiration to all of those who are blessed to know him. We were happy to see Warren again May 27 when we went to West Jeff to honor their World Famous Roast Beef. We asked him if we could take his photo and he graciously consented.

Thank You, Warren, for giving us the gift of your spirit and the happiness of your heart!

Voluntourism Here in Idaho Falls!

I have been reading a lot lately about Voluntourism. It's a growing phenomena on the internet and on the ground. Perhaps 98% of the stories about voluntourism involve some exotic location that costs a bundle to go to.

Rarely do you see any mention of voluntourism possibilities here in the Good Ol' US of A. Yes, you can be engage in voluntourism right there in Idaho Falls, Idaho, or most anywhere else in Idaho, for that matter.

We can connect you and your family with all sorts of truly exciting stuff from tending exotic animals in a world class zoo to spending time near a thundering waterfall and much, much more. You don't have to go overseas to be a voluntourist and engage in voluntourism, you can come to Idaho and enjoy a vacation to nearby Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, too!

Several of RSVP's partners in our 9 county (19,300 sq. mi) service area also have worthy voluntourism opportunities. The Sacajawea Center in Salmon, Idaho, is a truly classic voluntourism destination. The Clayton Area Historical Association offers great voluntourism potential as well. We can custom design a voluntourism opportunity for you tailored to your time, skills, interests and more.

We applaud the concept and practice of voluntourism. It's a wonderful development in the "world of volunteerism." We hope that you take a look at the official Idaho tourism website. They have a most excellent section on voluntourism opportunities all over the Gem State. They also maintain a great Twitter account. We feel they are in the forefront of voluntourism in America.

http://twitter.com/voluntouridaho
http://www.visitidaho.org/voluntourism/

Our email is embedded in a photo down below at the end of this blog page. Type the address into your email program and send us a voluntourism inquiry. We will reply back to you ASAP with all sorts of fun stuff suitable and appealing to YOU and YOUR Family! Whether you have a few hours, a day, week or longer, we can connect you to some awesome voluuntourism opportunities. We are here to help you make it happen.

SALMON VOLUNTEERS! is up & running

(See latest update posted Sunday, May 24 at end of this post.)

Whew. It took a week but we finally got the SALMON VOLUNTEERS! web project up and running. We made single webpages for all of our Salmon area RSVP partners: The Sacajawea Center, Steele Memorial Medical Clinic, Hospice of Salmon Valley, Discovery Care Centre, Pioneer Primary School, Salmon Public Library, Rags & Wags Thrift Store, EICAP and the Salmon-Challis National Forest. We are using the existing webpages for the Salmon Valley and South Lemhi Senior Citizens Centers.

Our goal was to get this project up and running BEFORE Memorial Day weekend. We really came down to the wire as it's 3 pm and time to leave the office for the holiday.

We've noticed on our website statistical monitoring software that action has already picked up to the SALMON VOLUNTEERS! webpages. We will put some stats here on the blog at the end of the month.

We had some real nice comments about this project already so we are encouraged to think in terms of spreading the idea to other areas. We've already set up a page called CUSTER VOLUNTEERS! We eventually hope to create similar projects for the other counties: Butte, Clark, Fremont, Teton, Madison, Jefferson and Bonneville.

We will be continually adding stuff to the SALMON VOLUNTEERS! website. We don't intend for a nano-second to let it get stale and languish. We really have high hopes for this project. The classified ad began running May 21 and this it's a perfect way to generate interest using Old School printed newspaper to bring interest to New School cyberspace. Time will tell and we shall see. Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

OK, here's the latest updates--they're GOOD! For starters, we've clawed our way back to the top of the "Google Game." That's right, the SALMON VOLUNTEERS! project now comes in #2 when using the search string: salmon idaho volunteer. That's impressive! Secondly, we checked our website statistics this morning and the SALMON VOLUNTEERS! project is really getting some traffic. In just a few short days it has muscled its way into three of the top four page rankings on the website. Likewise, it's accounting for a whopping 33% of total May page views already. That's VERY impressive! Stay tuned. (9:22 am, May 24)

More on Old Toby & Goodmans

It was a very special Saturday evening May 16. We spent 7.5 hours driving the Corn Creek Road from North Fork, Idaho to Corn Creek at the edge of the Frank Church Wilderness. It's a 94 mile round trip and it was awesome. We returned to North Fork and checked into the River's Fork Lodge about 5 pm. At 5:30 pm there was a knock at the door and it was John Goodman. He was very happy to learn about the certificates. (See original blog post below.) We grabbed our cameras and went over to the new monument to present John with the certificates. It was a special moment for all of us.
John told us some stories that weren't in the newspaper article. The stories were incredible. They are too long for this blog post. However, we going to make some webpages for this project and put them in our "Salmon Volunteers" website discussed below.

The upshot of the evening is that there will be a formal dedication on August 15. We agreed to help John get this event organized. We will come back here to the River's Fork Inn on August 14 so we can help with the pre-event logistics. There will be a lot of the usual dignitaries and some Lewis & Clark re-enactors. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribe has agreed to give a Native American blessing.

Get this--while talking we realized that Old Toby is almost certainly the very first "retired & senior volunteer" ever to have had documented volunteer service in Area VI! HA!

As we said in our opening line--it was a very special evening and we savored every moment in the fading evening light where the North Fork meets the Main Salmon River.

Salmon Volunteers debuts

We're in Salmon, Idaho, May 14-15 conducting visits to the RSVP Volunteer Station partners here. We plan to buy a classified ad that will run for 16 weeks this summer calling attention to a SALMON VOLUNTEERS website. It's a website we're creating and maintaining for our loyal RSVP partners here. It's a way to show them that we care about them and we're going to work harder to help them this year and in the future.

This morning, we made our first webpage to go along with the main SALMON VOLUNTEERS directory. It's for the Rags & Wags Thrift Store. This beloved store is reminds us of "The Little Engine That Could." Rags & Wags chugs along faithfully raising money to support the Lemhi County Humane Society. It's difficult to imagine Salmon City without either Rags & Wags or the Humane Society. Their contribution to this community is so important. It's a real pleasure to be able to help them with this type of resource.

Click here to see the SALMON VOLUNTEERS webpage.
Click here to visit the Rags & Wags webpage.

Goodman's feted for 'Old Toby' efforts

On April 21, 2009, the Idaho Falls Post-Register newspaper published a story about a father-son team that decided to resurrect the memory of a Shoshone Indian who played a pivotal role during the 1805 Lewis & Clark's Expedition through Lemhi County Idaho.
Reporter Laura Zuckerman crafted an excellent account of Seth and John Goodman's untiring dedication to commemorating Old Tody with an imposing stone highway monument and a plaque. Click here to read a PDF of Ms. Zuckerman's excellent Post-Register story.

RSVP believes that this type of inspired citizen action should be recognized by one and all. As a result, we've prepared two certificates for the Father & Son and will hopefully find them this weekend to make a presentation to them. We will be up in the Salmon vicinity conducting visiting to our 12 partner organizations that use RSVP volunteers. Click here to see a list of our Salmon area partners.
The photo at right in this blog entry was taken by Ilona McCarty and is Copyright 2009 by The Post-Register. Neither the story nor the photo may be reprinted or utilized without permission from The Post-Register.

Voluntourism

Just what exactly is "voluntourism?" We find ourselves explaining this word often. Almost no one we know has ever even heard of the word. We explain it by pointing out the obvious, "It's a combination of the words 'volunteer' and 'tourism'." To anyone who actually KNOWS about voluntourism, it's so much more, of course. However, at least this simple explanation gets people thinking about the topic.

Volunteerism industry observers are fond of saying that voluntourism is the "next big thing." Some wide-eyed commentators say there will be a tsunami of voluntourism. So far, we sure haven't seen it and we wonder if this buzzword is just a passing fancy or a mini-fad.

There are ample resources out there to help assess voluntourism on your own. Most voluntourism opportunities are typically associated with the genre of "volunteer vacations." These types of volunteerism involve an individual, couple or family booking their total vacation around a specific volunteer activity, typically overseas in some exotic location.

Another segment of voluntourism involves spending only a portion of one's vacation time volunteering. As an example, the Jane Doe Family might be motoring West to see the usual sights such as Yellowstone, etc. They might stop off at a pre-arranged location to spend a day or more in a short duration volunteer opportunity.

Some opportunities being billed as voluntourism opportunities are really long-term, multi-month positions that require a length commitment from participants. Most of the voluntourism opportunities on the Take Pride in America website fall into this category. Yes, they are technically voluntourism opportunities but, no, they aren't short duration and you can't squeeze them into your summer vacation.

So, as we approach the 2009 summer vacation season, it's worth pondering the comparative realities of voluntourism. How can a non-profit or governmental agency truly benefit from voluntourism? The first step is to attempt to identify if you actually HAVE something that could qualify as a voluntourism opportunity. Can you describe it? Does it sound appealing and fun? Can you manage the opportunity easily? Will the volunteer's contribution(s) actually make a difference? Then, how are you going to promote your opportunity?

Interestingly and luckily, we think Idaho has the best approach to voluntourism. Idaho tourism officials have crafted a superb strategy to harvesting the energies of potential voluntourists. The official Idaho tourism website has a tab for voluntourism. This tab takes you to a link to a Twitter account that's always updated in real time for the latest opportunities. The management of this strategy is inspired genius! We that Idaho is in the national forefront of voluntourism and we are very proud that they have chosen to highlight some of the current East Idaho RSVP opportunities! You will find a lot of resources on voluntourism there.

Now, the "rest of the story" of voluntourism is up to all of us in this exciting industry. Let's give it some effort and see what we can do and what kind of results we can create. Whether history judges voluntourism as a passing fancy or a major milestone in volunteer opportunity development is going to be determined by how well we meet this challenge.

Congratulations to Roberts Senior Center

We went to the Roberts Senior Center May 6 for their Mother's Day Luncheon. It was another awesome production. Our purpose there today was to award the Center with their "official" World Famous certificate for their Chicken Fried Steak. We took some still photos but not much video as we already have a great YouTube of the meal on their webpage. Click here to see the photos we came home with. The text below was what we passed out to the attendees at the lunch.
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Eastern Idaho Retired & Senior Volunteer Program & Area VI Agency on Aging offer congratulations and kudos to the Roberts Senior Center for their World Famous Chicken Fried Steak and what it means for publicizing the Roberts Senior Center.

Not only is the Roberts World Famous Chicken Fried Steak awesome and tasty in its own right but it’s doing workhorse duty helping draw visitors to the Roberts Senior Center webpage.

In the entire year 2008, there were only 24 recorded visits to the Roberts Senior Center webpage. So far in Year 2009, there have been 118 visits!!!! That’s more than four times as many visits to the webpage in five months as the entire year of 2008.

Also, visitors to the webpage have been clicking through to the video as there have been 99 views recorded of the video. This puts it in the Top Five ranking videos of the 22 that RSVP has produced this year. Clearly, people love looking at your World Famous Chicken Fried Steak. There have even been some overseas visitors from Europe that have viewed the video.

RSVP & AAA are both dedicated to helping the Area VI Senior Centers in any way we can. We believe that fresh new ideas like making a video on the Chicken Fried Steak will help bring fresh faces to the Senior Centers. The videos will help showcase Senior Centers as a fun, lively place to go for food, friends and fellowship.

If you haven’t visited the Roberts Senior Center webpage, why not click here to give it a try?

Knit For Kids

Florence Avery shows off one of the sweaters she has made as a RSVP Volunteer serving the "Knit For Kids" international effort sponsored by Guideposts magazine. Florence has been a RSVP Volunteer for 15 years, serivng mostly with Friends of the Library in Idaho Falls. She works with Carolyn, Rosella and Edith to create beautiful sweaters that are sent all over the world. Several other women in the Idaho Falls area participate in this worthy effort.

Last fall, Zions Bank at Taylor Crossing conducted a Yarn Skein Drive to help benefit a baby cap knitting program in local assisted living facilities. Some of the yarn donated was a heavier weight than is needed for baby caps. This yarn has now found a home with Florence & Friends to benefit the Knit for Kids project.

Since starting in 2006, Knit for Kids volunteers have knitted over 500,000 sweaters for children around the globe! If you wish to donate yarn or join this group, please email us via the address shown at the bottom of this blog page.

Click here to visit the Knit for Kids website.

110 trees in 2 hours!

Volunteers once again showed how a "team effort" can produce startling results. About 2-3 dozen volunteers showed up for the Idaho Falls Arbor Day May 2.

They made super quick work of 110 trees---getting them all planted along Sunnyside in a mere 2 hours.

The City of Idaho Falls is proud to fly its Tree City flag! RSVP Volunteer Photographer Susun McCulla covered the event on behalf of the Mayor's Office.

Click here to view a photo album of the event.

Lone Pine to help Madison Senior Center

Lone Pine Nursery near Rexburg has been a long-term stalwart RSVP supporter. We met with Laurie May 1. Dave K. from the Madison Senior Center was there, too. It looks like Lone Pine is going to help the Madison Center with a landscape project. An Eagle Scout is going to rip out the front lawn and install a low-water-use xeriscape. Various container plantings will add the color highlights. Dave says there will be numerous supporters and partners. We're glad Lone Pine will be one of them!

In Memory of Marge Scott

Marjorie June Scott died April 23. Marge ran Rigby's Philo Farnsworth Museum. Without Marge, it's doubtful that this wonderful museum would have ever come into existence. Marge partnered with RSVP many years ago. We had the pleasure of meeting with Marge in February 2008. She explained how the museum came into existence.
The property had been an old motel that went into bankruptcy. Her husband was Mayor. (He served 5 terms.) The City of Rigby wound up owning the property. She pressured her husband into politicking the donation the property to create a museum. Her genius was in allowing each Jefferson County community to have a "room" in the old motel. The result is one of the most charming and educational small town museums we've ever seen.
Only one month ago, Marge lived to see the debut of yet another gift to her community, a history of Jefferson County she co-authored with her daughter. Here's is the publisher's description of Marge before she passed on: "Mother and daughter team Marjorie and Patricia Scott were both born and raised in Jefferson County. Marjorie is the curator of the Jefferson County Historical Society and Philo T. Farnsworth TV and Pioneer Museum in Rigby. She is the widow of three-term Rigby mayor Keith Scott and the mother of 5, grandmother of 13, and great-grandmother of 10. Pat Scott is a certified archivist and a historian with degrees from Southern Utah University, Wayne State University, and the University of Utah. She retired from the Utah State Archives in 2005 and is currently an executive director of the Mormon History Association."
Click here to read her obituary.
Marge was a strong-willed "I'll do it my way" woman whose untiring volunteer efforts created a lasting legacy for Rigby and Jefferson County. Her unstinting devotion to local history will remain an enduring inspiration for all who knew her.
Click here to visit book publisher's webpage for the Jefferson County history.

Hanging Baskets are History

For many years, RSVP volunteers helped staged a Hanging Basket Sale at the Town & Country and Lone Pine Nurseries. In recent years, RSVP's contribution has tapered off significantly. This year, we met with the mgmt. of both nurseries and mutually decided it was time for the Hanging Basket Sale to become part of history. We truly appreciate the partnership that spawned and sustained the Hanging Basket Sales for so many years. However, times, they are a changin' and it's time to move on to something else.

Staff of both nurseries continue to be very supportive of RSVP and want to continue to provide some level of financial assistance to our organization. We are very grateful for the support of the nurseries! Town & Country Staff is thinking of two possible ideas. One would be an outright cash donation to support a periodical publication showcasing volunteers. The other would be a Volunteer Appreciation Day during which volunteers would receive a discount. The more volunteers to shop there, the greater the contribution would be.

Lone Pine Staff are thinking the best approach would be some sort of a community event that would involve volunteers--perhaps a planting or some landscape project in Rexburg or Madison County. We will be meeting in person with them soon to brainstorm ideas.

Staff from both nurseries used the words "win-win" to describe their hopes for future partnership activities with RSVP volunteers. We wholeheartedly agree. We feel that anything we do on behalf of these fine businesses must produce results that they are pleased to see. Likewise, we feel strongly that any such partnership activities be a fun activity for volunteers--something they will look forward to each year.

We are excited about the many possibilities that are now open to us as a result of the dawn of a new era with Town & Country and the Lone Pine Nurseries. We salute their support for volunteers and we wish them a very successful season!

Hooray for The A-Team

As we begin Year 2009, RSVP wishes to say a Special Thanks to the Legendary A-Team. The incredibly energetic A-Team never backs down from a challenge. One of the famous opening lines from the TV Series A-Team reads, "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team." The RSVP A-Team is all-volunteer, of course, and they delight in tackling daunting tasks and projects. Each month the A-Team helps process the Chamber of Commerce newsletter. They do the EICAP newsletter every quarter. Last fall, the A-Team handled more than 25,000 items for Idaho Falls Power and finished ahead of schedule! They've made quick work of mailings for United Way, Big Brothers-Big Sisters and the Eastside-Westside Conservation Districts. Once a year, the A-Team prepares all of the tax bills for mailing by the Bonneville County Treasurer's Office.

The A-Team is a true delight to work with and we always look forward to their bright spirits and happy hearts. RSVP Program Assistant Debby D. is in charge of booking the A-Team. Juggling everyone's schedule can be a real challenge. Sometimes, when Debby finishes getting all of the A-Team members lined up, she has been known to borrow a famous line from the TV series, "I love it when a plan comes together!" RSVP is so grateful for the A-Team. THANK YOU, Ladies, you're wonderful! In the photo above, we see A-Team members (front row l-r) Martha I., Jane W. and Jean S. (back row l-r) Ruth M., Deloris A., Betty L. and Yvonne T. Not shown are Frances H., Rosalie W., Jenny A., and Carole H.

Additional Comments Added April 30, 2009: Our beloved "A Team" has done it again. They tackled the monster Postal Food Drive job and dispatched it with lots of smiles and chuckles! It took our "A Team" eight days and almost 200 Woman Hours to knock out over 20,000 pieces for the Food Drive. We are so proud of them--they are The Best! Thank You, Ladies!

Food Banks, Soup Kitchen & Scouts saluted!

The Idaho Falls Community Food Bank is one of RSVP's primary partners. Buck Horton is one of the tireless leaders of the Food Bank. He's also one of RSVP's Top Volunteers, amassing over 8,600 hours on our records alone. The Melaleuca Company featured the Food Bank, Soup Kitchen and Boy Scouts with their broadsheet Community Page in the January 4th Sunday Post Register. Buck's smiling face sure looks good on that page! RSVP is very proud of the Food Banks, the Soup Kitchen and The Scouts and all the volunteers who help those organizations function so well. RSVP salutes Frank VanderSloot, Melaleuca CEO, for his dedication to showcasing the incredible community service of these organizations. Demand at the Food Bank is up about 50% from last year. At times in 2008, donated food supplies ran out and the Food Banks had to rely on their cash reserves to buy food at open market prices. Last fall over 12,000 Boy Scouts really went all out on their food drive, collecting nearly 425,000 cans of food! We hope you take time to click on the link above and read The Community Page. It's great to see such kudos for hard working volunteers! (NOTE: Click on the little picture at right to see a larger version of it.)

Virtual Volunteer Podcast

We're experimenting with use of the podcast on this blog. Click here to listen to a one minute audio description of Virtual Volunteers. We have not yet learned how to "syndicate" the podcasts but we are working on it!

The Sound of Music

Nothing brightens a room like the sound of music--especially when it's coming from the talented fingers and spirit of 97-year-old Virginia Laird. Virginia delights in playing the old piano at the Clark County Senior Center in Dubois, Idaho. You'll find her there each week bringing life and joy to the place. On January 2, we were finally able to get a short video of Virginia posted on the Senior Center website. Here's the link to go see Virginia's wonderful talents at work.

Happy New Year!

The RSVP Staff wishes each and every one of our incredible Volunteers a MOST Happy New Year!