Save the date(s) for our Spring Block Builds, and contact Jen Wootten (jenw@rebuildingphilly.org) to get involved:
March 23, 24, 30 and 31 in West Philadelphia
April 21 and April 28 in Germantown
June dates and location to be decided
JANUARY 16, 2012 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY OF SERVICE
Thank you to the volunteers that braved the chilly temperatures to help us get an early start on our Spring Block Builds on MLK Day. Volunteers assembled planters for our Germantown, Mantua and other spring Block Build. In addition to beautifying the neighborhoods where our volunteers will be making critical repairs for homeowners, these planters are stormwater management tools, contributing to the health of Philadelphia's waterways. Volunteers also be helped out with painting and basic repairs at Face to Face, while house captains participating in our Spring Block Build in Germantown visited homes to meet homeowners, select their projects and begin planning. You can find photos from the event here.
Find out how RTP’s repair work has evolved over two decades to incorporate multiple levels of “green” for the benefit of homeowners and communities in the latest print edition of our newsletter.
HONEYWELL VOLUNTEERS SPRUCE UP WILMOT PARK
A group of volunteers from Honeywell helped us improve the facilities at Wilmot Park on a chilly Friday in November. They also honoroed our local veterans by installing a commemorative plaque and flag pole. You can see photos from the event here.
OPERATION REBUILD/SEARS HEROES AT HOME
Thanks to the support of the Sears Heroes at Home program, we know we'll be able to help at least three Philadelphia veterans with critical repairs to their homes this program year. Thank you for helping us make even more extensive repairs for one of these homeowners by participating in Sears online voting contest in October.
2011 DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL
Congratulations for another great year for Team RTP, the Division F bronze medal winners in our 6th Dragon Boat Festival on October 1, 2011. You can see photos from the festival here.
At its annual meeting in June, the Board of Directors of Rebuilding Together Philadelphia approved the nomination of Eric Redline as Board President. Redline, formerly Vice President of the Board, took the baton from Jennifer Shropshire, a long-time RTP volunteer and Board President for the past nine years, effective July 1, 2011. You can read more about this transition here. We also welcomed three new board members: Rachel Cohen, Ron Baldwin, and Andy Gillespie.
MAXWELL HOUSE DROPS OF GOOD CAMPAIGN
WE WON! Thanks to approximately 200 volunteers that joined in over three days at the Community Education Center (CEC) in West Philadelphia for the Maxwell House Drops of Good project. The RTP community and CEC community came together to make some long-term improvements to this vital community center in West Philadelphia, including: air conditioning, resurfaced dance floor, window repairs and painting, building a ticket booth, refurbishing two leasable offices, resurfacing the parking lot and landscaping all around the center. You can learn more here (select "Community Houses"). Thanks to all of the RTP and CEC supporters for your dedication during this campaign! Here are some photos from the project. If you weren't able to volunteer, check out this display we created to thank our many supporters for their dedication during the online voting campaign (and thanks to volunteer Mimi Gallen for her design work!).
In April 2011, Rebuilding Together Philadelphia celebrated the completion of home repairs for our 1,000th homeowner since our founding in 1988! We marked this significant achievement with a celebration on National Rebuilding Day, Saturday April 30. Our theme for the day was "Longevity, Commitment and Dedication." We honored current volunteers and some old friends during special lunch-time festivities. A display of vintage Rebuilding Together Philadelphia (and Christmas in April) t-shirts set the tone for the day, and prizes were given for the oldest t-shirt, most paint-splattered, and the volunteer with the largest t-shirt collection. Thanks to the neighbors on the 3400 block of North Orianna for celebrating with us.
BLESS YOUR HANDS CHALLENGE
A small group of people joined together to create the Bless Your Hands challenge this spring. These challengers matched, dollar for dollar, every cash gift that RTP volunteers made up to $5,000! Thanks to our volunteers for coming through for us again. Read more here.
Morgan Freeman, co-founder of Rebuilding Together's partner organization PLANIt NOW, recently recorded this public service announcement about Rebuilding Together. Look for it on local TV stations. Share a link to the video with your friends and family, to tell them about your involvement with RTP and introduce our organization to them.
To share this video, copy and paste this link into an email, or post it on your Facebook page:
http://www.rebuildingbuildingphilly.org/news.htm
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY OF SERVICE MONDAY JANUARY 17
Thirty volunteers turned their Martin Luther King Jr. holiday into a day of service. Thanks to their hard work, we were able to paint most of the rooms on the second floor of The Veterans Group home in West Philadelphia. The home provides services to up to 48 veterans, many of whom are struggling with substance abuse issues. The home offers a warm and inclusive environment that promotes self-esteem and dignity while seeking to help the clients obtain life and job skills. By sprucing up the living spaces, our volunteers helped create the environment The Veterans Group strives to provide.
Want to volunteer for our next Rebuilding Day? Visit our "Volunteers" page to find out how you can get involved.
THANK YOU!
We wanted one of our last actions in 2010 to be thanking you for your interest in and support of Rebuilding Together Philadelphia. We are delighted to be able to count you as a friend. Enjoy this video. Have fun with your family. Please have a safe and healthy holiday.
GOODSEARCH.COM
GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!
GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 30 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, eBay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you'll be supporting your favorite cause.
To provide a chance for volunteers and other supporters to be together without working on essential home repairs, RTP enters two boats in Philadelphia's Dragon Boat Festival each year. We celebrate the prior year's success and launch the current year with our friendly competition – Gung Ho, Red Oar White and Becky's Beauties – dragon boat teams that not only share tents at the festival, but also provide volunteer support to homeowners in need throughout the year. In addition to being a fun social event, the Dragon Boat Festival has become our signature fund-raiser. Our participation in the 2008 Festival raised more than $10,000; enough to make repairs to three homes in the spring of 2009.
2010 Dragon Boat Festival
Thank you to the 2010 Rebuilding Together Philadelphia Dragon Boat team! It was an unpredictable season, right up to the rescheduled festival day, but your enthusiasm for dragon boat and RTP never waivered. We had a great day on the river on October 23, along with our friendly rival teams (Gung Ho!, Becky's Beauties and Red Oar White) and many fans. Check out the photos here.
We have been fortunate to be the recipient of several fundraisers conducted by RTP fans in order to generate greater resources for our mission to rebuild low-income communities. If you have a fund-raising idea, please contact Executive Director Carrie Rathmann at carrie@rebuildingphilly.org so that she can lend guidance on raising funds on RTP's behalf.
DUCK FOR COVER DODGE BALL TOURNAMENT
For the past several years, RTP has been the beneficiary of consulting support from a team of ten students of the Management 100 class of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Teams take on orchestrating a Duck for Cover Dodge Ball Tournament to raise awareness and funds for RTP. The freshmen learn how to interact with a “client” and build their negotiating, project management, and marketing skills. The 5th annual tournament, held in November 2008, raised more than$1,600 for RTP.
RTP was a recipient of Delaware Investments' second annual Charity Classic held in October 2006, which raised more than $120,000. Half of these funds were directed to RTP. The theme of the event “Your strong drive can make a difference” illustrated the tremendous impact the fund raiser had on low-income communities. RTP directed funds toward three special initiatives in 2006-2007. RTP added funds to our special projects allocation in order to help with homeowners' urgent needs throughout the year. Proceeds also helped pay for an independent contractor to focus on public relations, fund development, and outreach on behalf of RTP. Finally, RTP conducted a special Build Day project in April 2007 sponsored by Delaware Investments.
BIKING BRIGADE/PEDAL FOR THE PEOPLE
After 63 days and 3,385 miles on the road from coast to coast Steve, Justin, and Peter Seweryn arrived to a waiting crowd of family, friends, and beachgoers in July 2004. To honor the Biking Brigade, Sea Isle City Mayor Leonard Desiderio and Tourism Commission Chairman David Farina presented the Seweryns with a Key to the City Award.
Following Lewis and Clark's route (only in reverse) and taking only what they could carry on their bikes, the cyclists averaged 13 miles per hour. They braved 16 states facing extremes in weather, navigating rivers and mountain passes, and sharing the path with grizzly bears, coyotes, and other animals. Despite these obstacles, the Seweryns said the trip was more than worth it. Father and sons bonded. They saw amazing sites and met very supportive people, including the inhabitants of a bar in Mineola, Iowa where they were treated as celebrities. The trip raised nearly $35,000 for RTP.
Justin Seweryn didn't get enough of cycling through tough terrain. Along with Jake Decker, John Ellis, Caleb Morris and Jeremie Schatz, he formed Pedal for the People. They embarked from San Diego in October 2005 intending to do a 10,000-mile bicycle tour through Central America to Tierra del Fuego. Although the tour officially ended in Peru in March 2006, it shaped their worldview and daily travels forever. As “missionaries” for community activism and sustainable travel through grassroots fund raising and promotion, the five friends also raised awareness and funds for three nonprofits, including Rebuilding Together Philadelphia. RTP received more than $8,000 from gifts made via Pedal for the People.
