Before we welcome our newest staff member, we would like to share a bit of news. Maureen Pfeifer, our Office and Fund Development Coordinator for the past two years, has decided to take more time to be with her family and we wish her all the best. She has been an intricate part of the H4H team, as well as many fundraising events including the 2015 and 2016 benefit dinners.
In her place, we would like to welcome Caroline Taylor. Caroline and her family have been involved with Hands4Hope for multiple years and she is excited to now be apart of our staff. Caroline will oversee clerical and administrative tasks to help our organization run well, as well as assist with fundraising events. Learn more about Caroline and her family below:
My name is Caroline Taylor, and I am married with three boys, a junior in college, and a senior and freshman at Oak Ridge High School. I have been a freelance writer for Village Life for a few years, as well as a Marketing Coordinator for a Painting and Design company in Roseville. I worked in advertising and sales for many years and am very connected in the EDH community through sports and my own work.
I love to hike, run, swim, and watch my boys play water polo and swim at their meets. I am in 3 book clubs, and love reading when I have time. I am very involved in the ORHS High School aquatics program and do a lot of volunteering with them. As a family, we adopt a few families in need each year at Christmas through Rolling Hills Church and other organizations, and enjoy giving back as much as possible.
I got involved with H4H through my kids, and them working at various events and outreach programs.
My goals are to learn more about the organization and also to become more involved in helping in the community. I am really looking forward to getting to know the staff, as well as the Board members at H4H, and looking forward to making a difference in any way I can.
We recently interviewed adult mentor, Madeleine Vadenais (pictured right) and asked about her experience with Hands4Hope. Here's what she had to say...
How long have you been participating with Hands4Hope?
I have been participating for over 3 years.
What were the reasons you joined Hands4Hope?
I joined H4H because I wanted to give back to the community with an organization separate from my son's activities. Previously all my volunteer work centered around my son - from school activities to Scouts. I wanted my own place to volunteer. Ironically, I chose an organization where most of the adult volunteers are volunteering with their kids! I love working with youth of all ages so H4H was a great fit.
What outreaches do you usually volunteer with and enjoy the most? And why?
I originally began volunteering for the Haunted House 3 years ago. Jennifer needed someone to create processes and manage ticket sales for the Haunted House. I'm an organizational geek so it was fun to create the process. I love working with the public so that was an amazing experience too. Many of the people visiting the Haunted House didn't know anything about Hands4Hope so it was an opportunity to do some community outreach for an amazing organization.
Later I started volunteering for Sister Nora’s with another amazing adult volunteer Gen Walk. Each month we and 4 youth make a dinner and share it with the ladies who reside at Sister Nora’s Place. Sister Nora's Place provides long-term shelter and case management for women with a history of homelessness, trauma, and serious mental and physical illness. These women are often times society’s most vulnerable and forgotten people.
As much as I love the Haunted House, Sister Nora’s gives me more pleasure than I can even express. When I get down on myself or am feeling ungrateful for all the amazing things in my life, I see these amazing ladies and how much they have overcome. It gives me a shot of reality and another reason to be thankful for all the gifts I have been given. We cooked them cheeseburgers a few months back and you would've thought we served them filet mignon! They were incredibly grateful.
What is your impression/experience with the H4H youth?
My impression of the Hands4Hope youth is that they are amazing and incredibly high achieving young people! I'm continuously amazed that even with AP or advanced classes they still put in many hours volunteering. Many of them far beyond what they need for community service hours.
Overall, what has your experience been like since joining?
My experience has been incredibly positive since joining. I'm continuously impressed with the organization's mission and values. They're not just words, they are put into practice and modeled by the Executive Director. These youth are continually learning through their experiences both good and bad. My job is to advise them and keep them safe. Sometimes that means I allow them to make mistakes, and hopefully they learn from them. The youth don't always do what I would do as an adult but often times I'm surprised at the positive outcomes from a different approach. Volunteering for Hands4Hope has helped me learn there is more than one way to do things and my way isn't always the best way (but don't tell my husband that).
We have revamped our Sacramento Homeless Outreach so that it will touch even more lives...at least 500 people living on the streets or lacking access to sufficient food!
We have partnered with Loaves and Fishes to serve those in need. Loaves and Fishes serves between 400-600 homeless people every day. Hands4Hope volunteers will make and provide 500 take-away meals, including sandwiches, fruit, snacks, as well as toiletries and other needed items to pass out as the clients leave the dining hall. Many of these people only get one meal a day, so providing them with extra food will no doubt be appreciated! We are very excited to begin working with Sister Libby at Loaves and Fishes to serve these men, women, and children seeking survival services.
We are partnering with Loaves and Fishes going forward as a result of new guidelines implemented by the City of Sacramento that require organizations serving meals to partner with an established agency that provides a full range of services.Through this partnership, we are able to reach more of the homeless community on a consistent basis.
Loaves and Fishes was founded in 1983 and is a private charity located in Sacramento. It is not a government funded program. Loaves and Fishes is run entirely on private funding and provides 15 survival services such as medical clinic, advocacy, meals, wash house, just to name a few. Sister Libby, the executive director, and her staff work tirelessly to serve each person with compassion and without judgment.
To all of you who joined us for “A Night In The Vineyard”, our annual benefit dinner and auction, our deepest thanks! We are still running the final numbers, but it is already clear that this event was a HUGE success!
Your contributions made Saturday night will have an immediate, direct impact on Hands4Hope and our youth. Your funds will support current you, as well as allow up to open up the program to new youth and new schools. More youth will have the opportunity to explore areas of need in their communities; create, develop, and implement projects that support their chosen causes; have opportunities and hands-on experience to act on their values and beliefs; all while, developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
We’ve got a lot of people to thank…
First, we’d like to give a special thank you to our Platinum Sponsors and Supporters:
Blue Shield of California, The Busch Family, The Spriggs Family, Wells Fargo and USBank. Our Gold Sponsors: El Dorado Disposal, Gift of Kids and El Dorado Town Center, A Mansour-Nagle Company. Thank you for your continued support!
In addition, we would like to thank our Night In the Vineyard Event Sponsors: Morris Law Group, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Romo Incentives Group and Western Sign Company. Our Table Sponsors: Elliott-Schmitt Group, Robert W Baird, Marshall Medical, Serrano Associates, and Shingle Springs Subaru.
And thank you to our Featured Wine Sponsors: Amador Cellars Winery, Cielo Estate, Fenton Herriott, Findleton Estate Winery, Gwinllan Estate Winery, Holly's Hills Winery, Mt. Aukum Winery, Sierra Vista Winery and Smokey Ridge Winery. Thank you also to our loyal brewery who has been with us year after year, Placerville Brewing Company.
We’d also like to thank the providers of every element that made the experience so special: our emcee Eileen Javora, KCRA-3, and lively auctioneer, Eric Johnson of KLM Auctions. And to our night’s entertainment Nathan Grimenstein and Rock Monsterz. Thank you also to Diane Wilkinson Catering and to wine donors Boeger Winery, Madrona Vineyards, and Gold Hill Winery.
Thank you to our live auction donors: Sac Republic FC, Morris Law Group, The Bassett Family, Tom & Andrea Howard, Granite Bay Country Club, The Busch Family, Bleu Rosemary, NASCAR, The Giacomini Family, The Wiener Family, The Purple Place, Wells Fargo, and Bill Wild.
Thank you to our many silent auction donors:
Thank you also to our Fund-a-Need donors. The Fund-a-Need donors were engaged at all levels of giving and their generous contributions are greatly appreciated and will help fund the expansion of Hands4Hope’s school based service learning club program. Each of these donors will be added to our new Tree of Hope, displayed at the Hands4Hope Youth Center. For more information on the Tree of Hope, visit http://www.hands4hopeyouth.org/tree-of-hope.html.
We also have many other individuals and businesses supporting this event, including our wonderful committee who pulled out all the stops to make this a fun night for you and a beneficial night for Hands4Hope – Jessie Baratta, Julie Busch, Cam Francis, Laura Leszinske, Lourdes Lewis, Gwen McCullough, and Maureen Pfeifer; as well as SJ Media Productions, Ray Jensen, Monica Tamagri, Tom Wucher, District Church, Becky Davis Majewski, and our Hands4Hope Youth & Adults participants.
Thank you all for your generosity of time, talent, and treasures.
Thank you to our youth participants, past and present, as well as parents of Hands4Hope alumni for sharing their inspiring stories. These stories really brought home what our organization is about. Our two videos included Brayden Kono, Doug Shupe (Camerado Springs Middle School principal), Fran Spero, Andrew Bassett, Ameshah Prabaharan, Dave Phillips, Jen Barry, and Inga Buckendorf. (To see our videos that were shown at the dinner, see below.) And, thank you to Madeline Simko for sharing her story during our Fund-A-Need presentation.
Thank you to Sarah Connor, our Youth Board President, for capturing so many great pictures from that night. To see these pictures as well as download any, click on this link: https://hands4hope.shutterfly.com/28
We are truly touched by the way our community came together to support Hands4Hope and our mission. Video 1:
The El Dorado Hills Town Center has been a Hands4Hope Platinum Sponsor since 2009, partnering with Hands4Hope on our Haunted House and more recently, the July 3 Kid’s Zone. We recently interviewed Natalie Buerki, Marketing Director, about why they chose to support Hands4Hope. Learn what she had to say...
"All of us here at Town Center believe our youth are the future and respect how Hands4Hope works and mentors the young people in our region. It is a pleasure to see them work together on events like the July 3rd Kid’s Zone and the Haunted House from beginning to end. Hands4Hope is helping sculpt the up and coming leaders of our community in a fun, creative way that really makes an impact on the kids and our community. Not only through these events but all the outreach projects they do. The kids involved with Hands4Hope, that we have worked with, have been awesome. They are very intelligent and have a real drive to do well. I have seen great growth from them as they accomplish their projects. We are proud to be partnering with Hands4Hope and look forward to their future success in events, outreach projects and making our community and region a better place. We are excited to have the Haunted House here at Town Center again this year and can’t wait to see the Twisted Fairytale!"
The El Dorado Hills Town Center was built by a family for families who believe that creating beautiful, safe spaces for people to gather is key to building a strong community. The all-new mixed-use project, a development of The Mansour Company, has successfully pulled together a great mix of uses – local and national retailers, cafés, restaurants and bars, movie theater, hotel, gourmet market, fitness club, day spa, luxury car dealership, professional and medical offices, public amphitheatre, dramatic fountains and waterways, and broad public plazas. Occupying 100 acres of land and, at completion, one million square feet of buildings, it is the center of town and of the region – a place where the community can gather to shop, dine, work, go to the movies, enjoy a concert, and relax on public plazas.
Town Center is built like a traditional downtown, a main street where people gather, work, stroll along broad sidewalks, enjoy lakeside dining and quality accommodations. The Town Center buildings are each unique architectural statements, by different architects, for different purposes: schoolhouse, boathouse, historic hotel, water tower, to name a few. Perched on the hill to the east, elements of an old town hall can be seen in the theater, evoking emotions from the past: a downtown with its theatre at the end of the street. Mature landscaping, accented by 130 year old olive trees, complete the timeless quality of the project and its environment. Town Center is El Dorado Hills’ downtown district, unique in the region, a destination not only for El Dorado Hills, but for its neighboring communities and the greater Sacramento Region.
Every October, for the last 6 years, Hands4Hope and El Dorado Hills Town Center have partnered to host a haunted house. For the second year, Scare4Hope, a youth led production company under the umbrella organization Hands4Hope - Youth Making A Difference, is planning, implementing, and operating the Hands4Hope Haunted House. The Scare4Hope organizational structure is designed to mimic a functioning production company, with the end product being an incredibly scary and entertaining haunted house.
Scare4Hope Finance and Legal Team adult mentor Mike Goldsby noted, “I am extremely impressed by the youth involved in the haunted house. This is a youth run event that involves coordinating, planning, and running all aspects of the event. Seeing these youth leaders in action gives evidence to why this event has been so successful in years past and those years to come.” Goldsby is a Senior Manager of Finance/Project Finance at Blue Shield of California.
This year, the theme for Scare4Hope’s Haunted House is "Twisted Fairytale" and it opens in one week. The Haunted House will again be located next to Hop House and Bistro 33 in El Dorado Hills Town Center and will be open 6-10pm, Fridays and Saturdays, from October 7-31. Prepare for a night of horror and terror as you are taken on a trip through your favorite fairytales and worst nightmares. Each year, the Haunted House scares an average of 2,200 visitors.
Scare4Hope committees started their planning in May, with true dedication to creating something incredible for the community to enjoy. There are six committees involved: Construction/Engineering, Marketing, Creative, Finance/Legal, Front of House, and Volunteer Coordination. Each committee is led by a youth lead with an adult mentor. In total, there are 30 youth actively involved with 13 adult mentors.
Youth Project Manager Madeline Simko, an Oak Ridge High School Senior, shared, “The Scare4Hope team includes some of the most passionate and hard working people I have met, who are all hard workers, and come up with inventive solutions to challenges we face.” She added, “This has absolutely provided real life experience. I’ve learned how to manage a timeline, keep people motivated, and coordinate with other organizations,"
The youth work closely with their mentors and are challenged often. “It's been a real pleasure watching youth leaders for the Haunted House Project emerge. The Haunted House Project is a terrific opportunity for our youth volunteers to learn and practice a whole variety of skills that will be valuable in school and future jobs,” shared Scare4Hope Tech and Engineering adult mentor, Doug Busch. Busch is a mechanical engineer and retired Chief Operating Officer from Intel-GE Care Innovations LLC.
“The adult mentors all do an amazing job of letting the youth take the lead, helping steer the committees in the right direction, while letting participants gain leadership experience. The Haunted House is a very unique project. It is not very often where youth are given the opportunity to lead a project of this magnitude,” said Simko
Additional Quotes from Our Scare4Hope Team Mentors:
Kimberly Rumph, Scare4Hope’s Creative adult mentor, says, “I'm very happy with the way things are progressing this year! We were thrown for a bit of a loop with our move in time frame, so it's been a little bit more hectic than I think it would've been if we had more time. But, all the teens have rallied and I think it will be a fantastic haunt this year. In addition, more youth are shouldering the responsibility than any other year. I'm super proud of all of them!”
Andrea Howard, Principal Planner at Parker Development Company, and Scare4Hope’s Marketing adult mentor shares, “The youth involved with the Haunted House are so talented and have far more real life experience than I did when I was their age. One thing they all have in common is their ability to unite for a common goal and work in a team environment to achieve that goal. It is comforting to know that our youth are developing leadership qualities that will guide them in their future endeavors and it is exciting to imagine how they will one day become mentors to a whole new generation of leaders.”
Maddy Gorrell is our Youth Development Program Assistant will work with Nicole Craine, our Youth Development Coordinator, by mentoring and providing support to the overall Youth Development Program.
Learn more about Maddy:
I am a local, and attended Camerado and Union Mine when I was growing up. For college I went to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where I majored in English and minored in Linguistics and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language). I love being outdoors, and will do anything that involves hiking, backpacking, camping, or swimming. I also love taking road trips and traveling. I have traveled through Europe and Southeast Asia, and have been to Japan, Australia, Mexico, Morocco, and Tanzania. I love baking, spending time with friends and family, and writing.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, and acted as an English teacher, but also taught Biology and Algebra on and off. I lived and worked at an all-girls secondary school in the Njombe region (fun fact: Njombe is 6,000 ft. up in elevation, and incredibly cold year round!) While I was at my school, I worked on projects that included improving English speaking skills, educating students on HIV/AIDS prevention, and empowering women. The teachers at my school could speak English well enough, but a majority of the time preferred to speak Swahili, so I had to hone my Swahili skills in order to communicate with them, and now can speak it fairly fluently.
The best experience I had during my service was just being in my classroom with the students. I tried to make the classroom feel as welcoming and fun as possible, so acted pretty dorky all the time to take the pressure off of learning the material. We played games and sang, and the students taught me how to Dougie (which I then had to do after almost every lesson while they chanted "Maddy dougie!"). On the other hand, the hardest experiences I had were just in seeing and hearing about how hard the students work to stay in school. Given the dedication they hold for performing well, and the external limitations that might keep them from school, I have so much respect and admiration for what those girls do in order to learn and succeed.
My goals with Hands4Hope are to help promote the organization's mission through the work I do, and assist in expanding the programs and groups available to Hands4Hope's members and other youth in the area. I also hope to learn about how a nonprofit organization operates, and develop my skills in business communications and grant writing, because I hope to continue working with nonprofit organizations in the future.
I am happy to be a part of Hands4Hope, and excited to start working with the clubs and committees as they develop their ideas and projects!
Claudia Lytle is joining Hands4Hope as part of Intel’s Encore Fellowship and will assist us with many administrative duties and training materials.
Learn more about Claudia:
I recently retired from Intel after working there for 23 years. During that time, I worked in three different training organizations: Intel University, IT Training and SMG University working as a training coordinator/project manager. Some of my responsibilities included coordination of class arrangements and deployment of skills training, working with vendors and instructors around content development as well as managing and tracking the training budget.
I have a beautiful 1 1/2-year-old Springer Doodle pup (Sophie) that I adore. She keeps me on my toes and so full of energy that she literally runs circles around me. I enjoy outdoor activities such as camping/hiking/kayaking in the summer; skiing and snowshoeing in the winter. Also enjoy playing board games and hanging out with friends. I lead a Small Group/Bible study (primarily for Singles) in conjunction with my church. I enjoy working with children as well as participating in service projects including helping to feed and clothe the homeless and less fortunate in my community.
My goals are to 1) get a better understanding of the H4H organization and how it works, 2) to assist and support where needed using the skills and experience acquired throughout my career, and 3) have the opportunity to work with youth in helping them to make a difference in our communities.
The Encore Fellowship is a program offered to Intel retirees providing an opportunity to take a temporary position with a nonprofit organization upon retirement from Intel, thus helping employees transition into retirement. The application process includes matching skills and interests against the needs of nonprofit organizations. When meeting with the Encore program manager, we discussed my skills and interests against the needs of many nonprofit organizations. As soon as she mentioned Hands4Hope and their mission to help youth make a positive difference in their world, I knew this was where I wanted to be involved.
I’m excited to be a part of Hands 4 Hope and look forward to working with the team during the year ahead.
