 |
|
|
Or give Us a Call at:
(860) 674-9023
|
|
|
|
The Turro-Scacco family and friends – Blankets4Dialysis
– Care Circle #57
 A core group of 6 teens and their families have been making blankets for dialysis patients since the fall of 2005. 250 blankets have been made and distributed to the UCONN Dialysis Center in Farmington, the Newington Dialysis Center and the Davita Dialysis Unit at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford. The ultimate goal of this Care Circle is to encourage children and teens to find ways to reach out to others. The primary group activity for members is to make warm blankets for the comfort of dialysis patients as they receive their treatment, and they also work to educate us about kidney disease and dialysis treatment.
Ilene Wolf – HEAL (Healing Emotionally Abused Lives)
– Care Circle #31
 HEAL strives to provide understanding, support and a circle of absolute safety to those who’ve endured and are recovering from emotional abuse, as well as those who’ve been victims of any kind of abuse and trauma that results in ongoing emotional consequences. HEAL envisions expanding the conventional perspective of domestic and family violence to include a more comprehensive understanding of emotional abuse. Ilene hopes this reframing will bring significant changes within educational and faith-based settings, clinical interventions, and legal statutes, putting to rest the childhood rhyme: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me. With several support circles under way HEAL has touched many lives.
Rebecca Kuzma – Foodshare
 When Hunger Stops, So Will We. In Hartford and Tolland counties, more than 100,000 of our neighbors are hungry, every day, that’s 1 in 10 people and more than 40% are children. Foodshare works to educate people on the scope of hunger and how we all can contribute to solutions. Foodshare brings together the wholesale grocery industry to reclaim food that would be wasted, and through a network of more than 435 local food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and mobile pantries, food is distributed to hungry families. They also work to encourage our leaders to find more permanent solutions to eliminating hunger.
Polly Hincks and Marilyn Ostreicher – Hope Circle – Care Circle #32
 Begun as the Sierra Leone Task Force, this group became the driving force in building the new elementary school in Sierra Leone, a small country in western Africa, recovering from a brutal civil war. The Hope Day School replaced a small wooden building with a new sturdy, four-story school serving 300 students, with a playground, library, art, science and computer rooms. Solar panels on the roof of the school will bring electricity to an area starved for power. The school has been built and now the Hope Circle is hoping to raise funds to augment teachers' salaries and provide student scholarships.
Victoria Christgau – Peace is Possible Chorus
 The Peace is Possible Chorus founded in 1990 by Victoria Christgau, is a project of the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence A Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute, now co-directed by musician, Fre Atlast. Their mission is to help build a world of mutual understanding among people in which nonviolence processes are used to reconcile conflicts and build community, through education and the arts. The Chorus seeks to study, apply, and teach Kingian approaches to nonviolence to foster harmonious relationships within the family, schools, and community. The Chorus performs at festivals, schools, community gatherings of all sizes and at The United Nations.
2007 Golden Care Circle Award Winner and Recipient of $1,000 to continue her work, Diva Maria Mella Malinowski – Warm Hands, Warm Hearts – Care Circle #49
 There are people in every town who cannot afford necessities such as food, clothing, heat, and medicine. Through Warm Hands, Warm Hearts, local youth are encouraged to help the needy in their own towns. The group has donated thousands of new clothing items and non-perishable food to the town of Newington while teaching kids to love community service. All of the Newington elementary schools have participated in the “Tower of Penny Power” program, which encourages students to help others in exchange for donations to The Tower. Warm Hands, Warm Hearts has raised more than $6,000, and introduced students to the joys of volunteering!
Greg Secord – Rebuilding Together Hartford – Care Circle #51
 Rebuilding Together Hartford is a volunteer driven, non-profit organization, bringing people and communities together to improve the homes and lives of low-income Hartford homeowners, enabling them to live in warmth, safety and independence. Rebuilding Together Hartford provides a unique service in the City of Hartford that is not offered by any other organization. Rebuilding Together Hartford provides its services throughout the year free of charge including critical emergency home repair, energy conservation services, and accessibility modifications to low-income Hartford homeowners, particularly the elderly, people living with disabilities and multi-generational families.
Elaine Story and Tracy Enders - Girl Scout Troup 735
 In 2005, a troop of ten-year-old Girl Scouts faced the terrible loss of their beloved troop leader, and mother of one of the troop members, to breast cancer. Rather then disbanding the troop, they found collective strength and healing in developing community service projects to honor her legacy. The troop planted a memorial garden and conducted public service activities for breast cancer education. This past year, Girl Scout Troop 735 troop produced, wrote, acted, filmed & edited a public service announcement promoting “Mammograms Save Lives” The troop is continuing to conduct more breast cancer awareness activities in 2007-2008.
Willow Bascom – Living Well with Chronic Illness
People are living longer with diseases that once killed quickly. Yet decreased quality of life and a narrowed focus on one’s own ailments are frequently unfortunate side effects of these illnesses. “Living Well with Chronic Illness” is a support group, which helps moderate the sense of isolation and self-absorption. Working together, the participants develop new habits, learn new strategies for dealing with physical/emotional/spiritual issues and establish relationships with others dealing with serious ailments. Topics include journaling, resilience, being a “good” patient, power of prayer, grief, exercise strategies, and feelings about dying with the ultimate goal of becoming empowered to reach others with empathy and practical care.
Awo Quaison-Sackey – Sanchez Vision Project – Care Circle #82
 The Sanchez Vision Project was started by John Hunt who realized that there were many elementary school children who had poor vision and did not have eye glasses and started using his personal funds to fund and support the purchase and maintenance of eye glasses for children at the Sanchez School. After his death, a project team formed to continue John’s legacy. The initial fundraising event in June raised thousands of dollars that will cover eye care for several years, and resulted in a significant corporate contribution that enabled the purchase of optical equipment to be housed at the school.
Donna DeMarest – Sail Connecticut
 With seasonal staff and a fleet of dedicated volunteers, Sail CT provides access to the quintessential Connecticut summer experience for people with disabilities. For a person with disabilities, it’s a unique opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the sound, to observe nesting osprey along harbor channels, to feel a Long Island breeze brush one’s cheek, or to discover a breath-taking new ability. The mission of Sail CT is to offer persons with disability the opportunity to enjoy sailing – not only as passengers, but also as skippers – and to encourage persons with and without a disability to share the experience together.
|
|
|
