Semper Vita

Kids Deserve Clothes, Protection and Birthday Parties

With a little time, attention and effort we can change a child's life and future.

Birthdays matter to me

My mother gladly takes the blame for my view on birthdays. She created the situation. Birthdays mattered to her. My sister and I never spent a birthday just getting cake and ice cream with some presents at the end of the day. No way. Birthdays were an event - always. I remember the birthday when the Sound of Music first came out  in the Netherlands (I know this dates me.) My parents allowed me to bring 7 friends to the theater which was a big deal then. We went in our Volkswagen bus and had dinner and a special birthday cake afterward. Another birthday we piled about 20 kids in the bus and other vehicles and went to the dunes in Holland to play the equivalent of "Cowboys and Indians." Afterward we went to a Dutch Pancake house to eat dinner plate-sized pancakes. Yum. Of course before those there were the birthdays at home with games, magic (my dad would do magic tricks), a puppet show (the same dad would put on the performance) and more. After the fun we had dinner and cake. And, we always were allowed to select our favorite dinner. Mine: cooked spinach, mashed potatoes and meatballs. It still is my birthday dinner. (Weird, I know.)

Of course, birthdays are just the icing on the cake. The basics include food, clothes, school supplies, books, and toys. My parents provided those too of course.

Today, I'm writing about three ways to help children and extend Christmas to everyday.

1. All children need clothes, books and toys

Imagine that there are many kids that don't even have the basics. Many foster kids don't have enough for clothes, books and toys. In Washington State, my state, the government pays a maximum of $300 per year for a foster child's clothes. It costs about twice that to clothe them.

If you live in the greater Seattle area you can join Icon Church to help foster kids. On Saturday, December 6, they're going to Seattle to volunteer in the Tree House Wearhouse.  Be part of a team that organizes and distributes books, clothes, and toys to needy foster kids.

They're meeting in Issaquah at 9:00 am and carpooling to Seattle.  RSVP to info@iconchurch.com.

2. Receive Amber Alert texts

Sadly, many children still get abducted each year. The Amber Alert system, named after an abducted child Amber whose parents fought to improve the search process, has helped to locate at least 250 children. The notifications have gone out through radio and television alerts as well as on freeway signs.

Now you can help more quickly and easily. The Amber Alert now uses texts to alert people wirelessly.

"This program is put into place to send text messages to people who sign up in their specific geographic areas when an amber alert is made."

It's easy. Sign up for Wireless Amber Alerts and participate when an alert goes up in your area. Help save more children's lives through receiving a free text message with info of the local Amber Alert.

3. Make birthday gift bags to give a child a birthday

Everyone can do this one. It's a great event for a family, group, church, neighborhood, birthday party or company. I've mentioned Cheerful Givers on this blog before. They provide toy-filled birthday gift bags to food pantries and shelters "so that parents living in poverty can give their child a birthday gift." What a great idea.

Here's how you can help:

• Hold a Birthday Bag Blitz - It's an intense (and fun) campaign. You and your group of volunteers get together to create birthday gift bags, filling each bag with an assortment of ten new toys which include items like books, plush toys, balls, puzzles, stickers, crayons, etc.
  
  If you're in the Minnesota area, Cheerful Givers has a list of local food shelves or shelters. Outside of the Twin Cities it will take one extra step. Find your local food bank and drop off the bags.
  
  Want to plan a Blitz or need more information? Contact Karen@cheerfulgivers.org.
• No time for your personal Blitz? Donate online.
• Let them know what you did. Send photos or a your story to Karen.

Thanks for spreading the cheer. Want to give to Semper Vita? We would love your help. We're working to connect people and organizations to do more good together.

Friends Donate And Volunteer For Friends

Science demonstrates that connections matter and personal relationships impact donations.

As reported in ScienceDaily on September 1, 2008, people tend to be moved to help or give more readily to people who suffer from the same misfortune as a friend - whether that is a long term or new found friend. This according to the authors of a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Friends cause friends to care about their issue. Connections matter.

Now, knowing someone who's suffering does not cause people to become more sympathetic to all and any problems. Sympathy did not increase for all causes, just for victims of the same misfortune as a friend's misfortune.

That seems to makes sense because we can't possibly care about everything out there.

After three studies, authors Deborah A. Small and Uri Simonsohn of the University of Pennsylvania, confirmed that "people are more sympathetic to victims suffering the same misfortune as a loved one than victims of other misfortunes." They conducted the studies to understand the driving forces behind the phenomenon where people become more sympathetic when a friend or loved one falls ill or suffers some other misfortune. "The sympathy inherent to a close relationship with a victim extends to other victims, leading benefactors to prefer charities that help those suffering from the misfortunes that have affected their friends and loved ones," write the authors.

It's why Semper Vita will partner with many charities and causes - because people can't care about everything. Each of us care about the issues that come close to home... When we relate we want to help out. If a parent has Alzheimer's we will raise money to fight the disease. When we know someone who dealt with breast cancer, we're likely to walk for the cure. If a loved one suffered a stroke, we might Train to End Stroke. And we will volunteer to help out the charities that care for those who we care about.

What's your charity of interest? Does it relate to the misfortune of a friend or loved one? We'd love to hear your story.

HT: Professor Jane for sharing the study.

Pastor Tim Jumps In

In  Part 2 of this story, we learn that Pastor Tim chooses to partner with Semper Vita. 

He was intrigued with Semper Vita's concept of partnering—and, he wanted it to work. It helped that Semper Vita wasn’t a church or church-wannabe. They saw themselves as a missional partner—relieving him of the stress and guilt of providing missional opportunities in the community, as well as the pressure of keeping just one more program going. 

The Church Signed Up

So, he signed up his church, created a profile and announced it to his members. He was excited that he could provide the people in his congregation with choices of either community-based volunteer opportunities or those originated through Valley View programs. This arrangement allowed Pastor Tim to give his people choices and allowed the community to ask for help when they needed it...all without adding additional work, staff or programs. 

Brendan Beat Him To It

He felt like he was breathing again. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that Brendan, one of the leaders in his congregation, had been a Semper Vita volunteer and was loving it.  He remembered how after learning about the organization, he had spoken to Brendan in the lobby the following Sunday. He had mentioned that he had just learned about Semper Vita. He noticed how Brendan’s face lit up. Brendan told him how he’d found them through receiving an invitation from a mutual friend to participate in a volunteer opportunity. He explained that he’d been serving ever since, using his executive skills for about six months and loving it. He could still hear Brendan's urging, “We should join with Semper Vita as a church, Pastor.” Now they had! 

He allowed himself to dream for a moment...

Imagine Valley View people volunteering with their neighbors. Impacting the community, being excited about the opportunities and bringing that excitement back on Sundays. 

Over the next few Sundays, Pastor Tim told his Valley View congregation about new ways to be involved in the surrounding community. He had always talked about the value of neighbors and the importance of being part of the community. He encouraged people to sign up for the upcoming training event to find their fit for service. 

Remember John?

After one of his announcements, John Mortins came up to him and thanked him. He told him about his experience and how he’s helping Pam at Harrison House. 

A community connected creating a lasting impact. Now Valley View is part of the network. Can you imagine if we all worked together?

Pastor Tim Meets With Semper Vita

Last week we talked about Pam and her non-profit joining Semper Vita. Today we look at a church that checks us out... 

Valley View Bible Fellowship saw itself as a cutting edge church that enjoyed being involved in the community. They wanted people to volunteer in their neighborhoods, local community or at church. However, they had more choices for people to help out at the church—something they wanted to fix but how? 

On average, the statistics for Valley View were like many other churches: 20% of the people do 80% of the work. The rest seemed to ride the pews mostly—even though their pews were comfortable chairs. Nevertheless, most sat. He knew that many people volunteered in the community, but there was really no way to tell who, how often and in what types of ministries. 

Can We Help? 

One day, a member of the Semper Vita team visited Pastor Tim. He welcomed her and she asked how his day was going. He tried to keep the exhaustion off his face and told her “life is full.” She laughed. “I can understand. I use that euphemism myself when the stuff on my plate is larger than the time in my day.” Now it was Pastor Tim’s time to laugh. 

After a little more polite small talk, the conversation shifted.

“Pastor Tim, I’ve been on your side of the desk. Church work is hard. People mean well, love the Lord and want you to run a perfect church. They expect you to feed them on Sunday, entertain them during the week, take care of the kids, challenge their youth, care for their sick family and friends, and provide meaningful service opportunities, have an active mission program and vital small groups - all without enough staff or enough money. Of course, they want all that without having to donate toward the budget. After all, it’s not sexy to pay for light bulbs.”

Pastor Tim smiled, she continued. “If you could have whatever you wanted, what would it be? Would you want to make a difference in the community without adding to your workload? Provide opportunities for people to volunteer and have a way to know what they are doing in the community? Create greater visibility for your church? Would you want to energize your people so that they are more excited about your church, bring their friends and give more of their money?” 

Pastor Tim smiled and responded, “It all sounds good. I’m sure we all want that.”

Taking his answer, she explained that Semper Vita comes alongside churches to help them achieve their vision by providing easy pathways for volunteering, opportunities for connecting with people in the community, and training to make it happen. She added that the benefits to the church were many, including creating greater visibility in the community, reports that provide feedback on how many people volunteer outside the church, and enhanced commitment to the church through attendance, outreach and giving. 

What do you think: Will Pastor Tim hook up with Semper Vita?

Pam's Non-Profit Partners With Semper Vita

A story of how she discovered that Semper Vita could help her uncover her desk again.

Harrison House, a safe hangout for teens started by a young man who understood the need for safe places, recently received additional funding. Things were going wonderfully. Of course, they could use more volunteers. Interesting how everyone wants to have a safe place for teens, but it seems virtually impossible to find people willing to volunteer, mentor and tutor. How were these teens supposed to find their way, have a safe place if it was just more of the same—a hangout without loving supervision, spiritual and moral guidance, and ways to make sense out of their confusing world?

Pam, the director, sat behind her desk. She’d just walked in and already felt three days behind. The week had just started. She needed a shift supervisor, a doctor, some health counselors, a math tutor, a ‘cool’ science tutor, some grandparents to tell stories and mentor the boys and girls, and some 20-somethings to be cool and provide peer mentoring. The list went on. She could also use a CFO and operations person to give her some advice. She smiled, in spite of her exhaustion. A wry smile. Where would these people come from? Most people didn’t even know they existed. And it really didn't seem like people cared much about these teens—except warehousing them of course. She sat down and started to check her email. She tried to ignore the state of her desk—she’d have to deal with that later. Yeah, an office manager would be nice too. She chuckled to herself, "Sure Pam, dream on!"

An Email Caught Her Eye

She quickly read through her emails. Her eye caught a notice from one of the churches that helped with lunches periodically. The subject line intrigued her: Providing Leaders, Mentors and Volunteers to Community Organizations. She had no time for this but opened the email anyway. Valley View Bible Church had joined with "Semper Vita" to provide tailored opportunities to volunteer in the community. Hmmm, so what is Semper Vita? She knew she’d regret it, but she clicked the link included in the email. It took her to the Semper Vita site. She quickly learned that this was an organization that connected people with opportunities, organizations with people, and provided training. She sent a note via the Contact Us page to learn more. 

Not long after, she received a reply email. The email exchanges were informative. These people understood her needs as a non-profit director. She needed trained, committed people because she had no bandwidth to recruit, train and retrain. Her success and ability to fulfill her vision depended on a team of willing and able volunteers. 

Volunteers Found

Six months later, she had several committed volunteers: some grandparents, a counselor and John. John was a regular, donating a morning a week to help her run operations. He was a CEO of his own small business and understood how to run a business. Pam knew it was working because her own desk looked a lot more peaceful. In fact, she could see the color of the wood again. A good sign!

Are you like Pam or know a Pam? We're looking for partners to provide volunteer opportunities. We encourage you to Contact Us today.

Semper Vita Exists To Partner

Partners help people to experience life through service in community.

At Semper Vita we love our partners. It's through collaboration with other organizations that we can offer a volunteering community connected to help people.

What is a partner?

Semper Vita partners come in all shapes and sizes - from small local non-profits to nationally known organizations, and from small groups to large churches. A partner is any organization, whether non-profit or church, that helps us to connect people to opportunities.

How will we do this?

Through software and connecting people to opportunities. The non-profit and church partners will provide a wide-range of community-based volunteer opportunities that can be accessed through our website. For instance, a non-profit that works with teens might offer volunteer opportunities such as mentoring, chaperoning, and skill training. Whereas a non-profit dedicated to the environment might make opportunities to clean local trails available.

Additionally churches and other organizations (including businesses) can offer their members (or employees) easy access to volunteering that fits their interests and passions by partnering with Semper Vita. For instance, a church might have a ministry to the homeless but not a program to help people learn English as a second language (ESL). Through partnering with Semper Vita, the church can offer those members interested in working in ESL opportunities an easy solution to volunteer according to their interest.

To become a partner, just contact us.

Semper Vita and Doing Life Together

Living a week of meaningful connections and doing life with friends.

Most of us want to do life together with friends and family. Yet, the reality of our lives often determines that there's little time for hanging out or we don't have too many of those kinds of friends - the kind that we can actually do life with. Sometimes we don't know how to make that happen as we spend time with people.

It seems like most often we briefly interact with people over a business lunch, at the mailbox, with another parent at school, in the foyer at church, or in the grocery store. Teenagers seem to hang out with scores of people but none of those connections seem to run deep. So, who do we share life with and how?

Really Doing Life Together

Last week I wrote about training and and finding your fit. The week before I wrote about people connecting. One of the core values of Semper Vita revolves around doing life together in meaningful ways - whether that is through developing deeper friendships or by finding out more about yourself so that you can be more authentic and transparent, or through doing life with others by volunteering in ways that make a difference in the world.

This week I did life together with several friends - some new some friends and some old friends. I connected on the phone with a friend who's moved and we encouraged each other. I walked with a friend and we discussed Semper Vita and life. I coached a person regarding her MBTI and she feels validated and wants to improve her relationships. I also worked with friends at one of our partner churches to discuss training leaders. And there were more of these meaningful times. In all these connections, we did life together, we shared stories, and we prayed for each other.

I just love Semper Vita and how it's all about people - people connecting with people to help people. It really is about experiencing life through service in community. How's your life? How's your community?