Hands4Hope Sponsor Spotlight - El Dorado Hills Town Center

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.

Scare4Hope Team Is Gearing Up for Scares at the 2016 Haunted House!

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.”

Welcome our newest additions to the Hands4Hope staff, Maddy and Claudia!

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.

Hands4Hope collects over 2,700 pounds of food to help those in need

On Sunday, September 18, Hands4Hope held their annual Fall Food Blitz For The hungry to collect food and monetary donations from community members. The goal of this event was to support the continued efforts of local food banks and programs supporting the hungry, including the El Dorado County Food Bank and Twin Lakes Food Bank (Folsom).

The Food Blitz was a one-day drive, based at Safeway Placerville and Grocery Outlet Folsom, where Hands4Hope youth and adult volunteers handed out flyers on current community needs and collected donations from store patrons. The result was over 2,700 pounds of food and $1,183.99 in contributions that were later delivered to the benefiting food banks.

Yoko Kono, the Hands4Hope Outreach Coordinator, along with Hands4Hope youth volunteers, were touched by all of the community support the event received, but especially by one donor in particular.  “The best part of the event,” Kono explained, “was when a man who appeared homeless came up and donated $1, describing that he wanted to help.  He then quietly resumed what he had been doing before: sifting through the trash for cans.  It was such an amazing gesture to witness, and a great learning experience for the youth volunteers. The value of the $1 that the man gave was truly priceless!”

Hands4Hope would like to thank all of those who donated to the Food Blitz, as well as the participating grocery stores, Safeway Placerville and Grocery Outlet Folsom. The day would not have been a success without the overwhelming community support that Hands4Hope received.