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Boeing Retiree Day, and Faces of the Bluebills
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We scheduled a meeting with the chief of Boeing's Community Services organization a few weeks ago to get updates on some of our outstanding issues. It so happened that CEO Harry Stonecipher was in town for some meetings of his own and our meeting got cut short.
But we did get some encouraging news about one of our requests. My vision is to revisit the idea of creating a Boeing Retiree Day. We used to have these types of affairs where families would get together socially. A Boeing Retiree Day might help us draw out a new army of volunteers. More than 22,000 retirees are still living in the Puget Sound region. Boeing management had a very positive reaction to the proposal.
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Faces of our Volunteers -- Because our website has great potential to recognize the contributions of individual volunteers, we are initiating a special Bluebill Faces page. Here's where each chapter can snap a close up picture of their volunteer's face and send it to our webmaster, Mike Yanega. In addition to the face, we'd like a very short (3 lines will do) description of who they are and what they like doing within Bluebills. The photos can be digital or hard copies that can be scanned. And don't send a picture of just one individual. The more faces the merrier.
Digital pictures and captions can be sent directly to Mike at myanega@bowfinprintworks.com. Hard copies and captions can be sent to the Bluebills office in care of BLUEBILL FACES, Box 3707, MC 2T-04, Seattle 98124
We hope in future months you will see your own smiling face on your computer monitor.
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| Nominating Committee Assignments: -- I am heading the nominating committee for Central Leadership Council. Elections will be held in November. My committee includes Jeanette Fields, Bob Lambert and Jim Beasley. If you know of some good candidates for our leadership team, please let me know. |
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Recruitment Video Moves Forward --Recruiting more volunteers is always high on our list of open items. We think that one of the ways to meet our needs might be to make a 7-minute video that could be shown at meetings and open houses to demonstrate the rewards of being a volunteer. Our friends at Catholic Community Services think so too. But such an endeavor is very costly and requires a professional touch. We have begun meeting with Bellevue Community College to discuss the possibilities of help from their outstanding Audio Visual Dept. The administration has agreed to take this project on.
Right now we are exploring our ideas and defining goals for the finished product. We know that we need a presentation that will appeal to the emotions and motivate individuals. We will depend on high imagery, creativity, and input from our own force of volunteers to weave this production together. We are also asking for the college's Marketing students to help us make sure we get the video into the appropriate venues.
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Big KCTS Turnout: -- Our KCTS fund raising event was very successful. There were 45 of us who showed up to answer phones and take pledges. I had a chance to get an on-air plug for Bluebills and for the Kids in Need Program.
(Maybe you can notice the faces of a number of your friends. Your Chairman is in the very back row, in the middle, apparently surveying the turnout.)
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Kids in Need Resource Center Reopens -- Although Kids in Need Resource Center is now serving 155 schools, the facility is still maintaining its three-days-a-week schedule. To help the teachers new to the school supplies program, they were the first invited to visit during the first two weeks of the school year. This gave them a chance to get acquainted with the process before fitting into the regular routine.
To accommodate the additional schools, each school will now get just three visits per school year. As you remember, when the resource center opened in 1999 teachers were able to visit every two months. We would have had a hard time staffing the facility with the additional workload of the 40 new schools and it seems to be working, reports Howard Syder. The teachers are coping well.
Syder reports that Sterling Savings Bank recently "adopted KIN" as a community service project and has donated $15000 in cash to the program. Cash donations are a wonderful resource. With cash, the staff can purchase high demand items that don't regularly show up in the truckloads of donations the center takes in, like crayons and scissors. Sterling Savings has indicated that this relationship will be long term. Recently they brought 300 of their people to the resource center for a gala work party, where they consumed lots of food and met volunteers and the visiting teachers.
KIN is getting increased recognition now, as the program matures. As a signature program for World Vision, it is serving as a role model for other communities around the country. And our KIN works best, thanks to our staff of 40 or so hard working, dedicated volunteers and the facility provided by Boeing. World Vision's long term goal is to get so much support from the community, such as Sterling Savings, that it can rent its own facility. Boeing has been pretty patient, but is getting out of the business of leasing warehouses.
By the way, the resource center is always in need of new volunteers. Its staff has several stalwart souls who travel south when the weather dictates. To learn more, contact Howard Syder at handjsyder@comcast.net
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Save the dates: October 4-7. Bluebills and retirees from Mesa have been invited to join the St. Louis Sages at their annual social. This year it will be at Missouri's Trout Lake near Potosi, Mo., a YMCA lodge in the Eastern Ozarks.
The planned events are numerous, offering something for everyone. Those who have been to Sages events know how well they are planned, designed to take full advantage of the opportunity to mix and mingle. The cost for this Ozark Rendezvous is $242 per person, which includes three nights lodging and all meals from Monday through Thursday. Such a deal.
See More information and a picture of the Lodge at our Bluebills Voyagers page.
To check out the Trout Lodge website see www.ymcaoftheozarks.org/Family/Activities
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| Elsewhere in this site you can see:
Mighty Movers. A group from our Sno-King chapter has been helping people move for years. It's time to tell their unsung story.
Create Your Own Reality Show. Bob Lee's piece about getting involved in High School senior projects ("Culminating Exhibitions") as a panelist. He talks about the SnoKing schools, but this will be a statewide mandate by 2008.
Chapter meetings and information programs for the members.
Volunteer opportunities.
Bluebill Voyagers
including our newst feature, Nancy Wright's moving account and pictures of her visit to China in October 2003.
Reference information sites for seniors.
We are always ready to publicize Bluebills. Please, if you come away from a volunteer assignment that leaves you with an unusually warm fuzzy feeling, think about sharing that experience with all of us. It's worth its weight in gold, recruitment-wise. It will also help us get recognition from Boeing executive offices. Alert your chapter chair, or email Nancy Wright (nancylwright@earthlink.net) or Mike Yanega (myanega@bowfinprintworks.com). And don't forget good pictures.
And finally, let me ask you to critique our efforts. Tell us what you want, what interests you and how you use the information we provide or could provide. The unique age of electronic communication offers us the ability to make rapid updates and changes
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