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!