Adult Mentor Spotlight - Madeleine Vadenais

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 are reaching more in need in Sacramento’s Homeless community

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.

For more information on Loaves and Fishes, go to http://www.sacloaves.org/.  To sign up to participate in our homeless outreaches, click http://www.hands4hopeyouth.org/register-for-upcoming-events.html.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING A NIGHT IN THE VINEYARD A HUGE SUCCESS!

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:



Video 2: