We hosted our first build day with Habitat for Humanity. Our volunteers learned a lot and enjoyed the work. We now have a build day every month. See our SignUp Genius for details. Thanks to all our volunteers. You are bringing affordable housing to our community. We have been in contact with the Interfaith Food Shuttle and have been offered an opportunity to provide Creekside Cares volunteers once a month to the Child Food Hub at 2436 S Miami Blvd Durham, NC 27703. We will be limited to 7 volunteers at a time in the open warehouse. Please be reminded to wear a mask, comfortable closed-toe shoes, and comfortable clothing. You will be on your feet for two hours. We will be providing box/bag stuffing as directed by onsite staff members.
If you are interested in registering as a volunteer, please visit our SignUp Genius by clicking here: As John Maxwell said, "Teamwork is at the heart of all great achievement." Today, we received our official volunteer service awards from the Triangle Nonprofit and Leadership Center in a drive-through ceremony. Back in January of this year, we were nominated by Alan Slavin of W.G. Pearson Elementary, and were notified we received one of the Durham County Awards. Each of the 100 counties in North Carolina puts forward one nominee as a Medallion Nominee. This nomination process is done secretly and the County winners do not know who has been nominated for the Medallion Award. Governor Roy Cooper and his team review the nominations from each county and select 20 statewide Medallion winners from the 100 nominees submitted. Creekside Cares was selected as the winner in Durham County. This is a great honor and testimony to the teamwork and dedication of the entire Creekside Community.
Here is Mr. Slavin's nomination: "Creekside Cares is a service club within Creekside at Bethpage, a 55+ residential community. Creekside Cares began serving W.G. Pearson Elementary School in Durham in 2018. Each week, dozens of Creekside volunteers visit the school to help with regular and special events. In 2018 and 2019, Creekside Cares organized a school supply drive through social media and an online signup. When Pearson's food pantry lacked funding, they created a partnership with the Interfaith Food Shuttle to deliver 35 bags of meals. In one school year, they delivered 9,030 meals to at risk students, and in the summer of 2019 hosted a nonperishable food drive, collecting over 1,500 cans of food. Creekside Cares worked with school officials to spearhead a cold-weather clothing drive. With more items received then were immediately needed, they obtained shelving supplies and installed a coat closet. Their volunteers supported our outdoor classroom and the Engineering & Gardening Club by building wheelbarrows, picnic tables and planting beds, and improving our chicken coop. They worked with the district office to install a router at the school to hook the system up to Weather Underground and delivered a lecture to teach students about the weather station and meteorology. For the last two years, they have given holiday gifts to more than 60 children from 29 families and last year volunteers provided a buffet breakfast for 90 members of staff at W.G. Pearson. One volunteer brings a service/therapy dog, Sally, and "Reading to Sally" has become very popular. Over the last year, they logged over 2,000 volunteer hours." Ordinarily, the awards would have been presented at an award ceremony and luncheon with Governor Roy Cooper. The Covid-19 pandemic put those plans on hold and ultimately cancelled them completely. Once it is safe to do so, Creekside Cares will host our own celebration in honor of this achievement. We will frame our certificate, and display it in Hemingway Hall in the near future. Way to go Creekside Cares! Creekside is the most amazing and giving community. We were able to reach and exceed our goal of donating a set of earbuds and dry erase markers for every single student at W.G. Pearson Elementary. It was a lofty goal, but we did it! Each of the 475 students will now have some of the essential tools required for the remote learning.
Our residents' generosity also enabled us to give extra items to another Title I school in the area, Fayetteville Street Elementary. The students, faculty, staff and families of these two schools are very appreciative and thank all who donated. Even though we begin our year with remote learning, the students at W.G. Pearson are always special to us! We hope everyone will stay safe, study hard and remember we love you. #CreeksideCaresAboutWGPearson
We never know where our open hearts will take us. The devoted and caring sewing team has taken us global!
We were contacted by a Creekside resident, Scarlett Wilson who has helped us deliver our masks to the Interfaith Food Shuttle throughout the pandemic. It's been wonderful to think we might be helping reduce or prevent the spread of Covid-19 within our Triangle area. Now we are able to think even bigger! Scarlett's son is the Deputy Director of East Africa USAID, and we are sending a batch of Creekside Cares masks back to Africa with him. How exciting to think that our little effort will help others across the globe. Way to go! It's true, #CreeksideCares. It's nice to share good news during these trying times, not only did our Creekside Cares win the The Governor's Volunteer Service Award in the senior category for Durham County, we have also been notified that we have been awarded the Governor's Medallion Award! Our president and co-founder, Lori College, will pick up the medallion at a luncheon at the Governor's Mansion on May 11, 2020. Here's some info about the award from the North Carolina website.
The Governor's Medallion Award for Volunteer Service was implemented in 2006 to recognize the top 20-25 volunteers in the state. Medallion recipients are nominated at the county level by the county award coordinator. Only one Medallion nomination is permitted per county. A statewide panel reviews and evaluates all these nominations to determine the award recipients. Medallion Award recipients are honored at an annual recognition ceremony. The medallion is placed around the neck to signify the volunteer's great service to the community. We conducted our very first Christmas Cheer Up at WG Pearson Elementary. We hosted a SignUpGenius for students and family members within the WG Pearson Community who were identified by school officials as requiring some Christmas Cheer Up. Many Creekside residents stepped up and purchased clothing items and toys to make the holidays a little brighter. We wrapped and delivered our gifts to the school on December 18 and the families were able to have something special under the tree on Christmas morning.
Thanks to everyone who participated. Your kindness and generosity made a huge difference to 28 families. Way to go Creekside Blue Belles and the greater Creekside at Bethpage Community. #CreeksideCares We want to make a difference in our local community. We have adopted WG Pearson Elementary School. This school is a Title I school and 100% of the student body qualifies for FREE breakfast and lunch. These students have been working hard with our community to improve their test scores and reduce their rates of grade retention. With just a little help and interest from our community, we believe we can make a huge difference to these kids. Let's help them and help our community. We will be collecting these supplies at the Creekside Pokeno Night August 21, 2018 at Hemingway Hall. Click the arrow below to watch our video. Click the School Supply List Button below to see the list of needed supplies. Thanks! We hosted our first fundraiser at Charming Charlie at Park West in Morrisville today. Pre-Christmas and Hanukkah is a perfect time of year to shop and mingle. We served some delicious "pick-ups" and drinks donated by our generous Blue Belles and enjoyed the wonderful staff and merchandise of Charming Charlie. We were overwhelmed with happiness by our excellent turnout of Creekside residents, friends and family. We all shopped 'til we dropped and left with our hearts and bags full. Nothing compares to sharing good times with friends and doing good deeds.
Charming Charlie will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sales of the evening to our favorite charity Camp Carefree in Stokesdale, North Carolina. We are delighted to be a bit closer to our goal of sponsoring a week of Camp Carefree for at least one beneficiary child with a serious illness. |
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