Fiscal year 2006 income total

Sorry that I have not posted many messages lately. We have been SO BUSY in the office with all of the holiday gfits that people have been giving! It is so wonderful to see the tremendous support that our donors give us this time of year. Response to the gift catalogue has been great again this holiday season. I just got a report on the income totals for FR 2006 (our FY ends June 30). This past year the midwest region raised $19,851,088! This is $2.6 M more than last year!!!! Totals for the entire organization were just over $95M! Thanks to all the volunteers who helped make it possible.
A very blessed and joyous Holiday season to you all!!!

Celebrity support

Some celebrity news you may want to get out to your donors, volunteers, groups etc. during the holidays. (This email was sparked by an inquiry from Rosemary Larson – she was looking for this sort of news for a newsletter she does).
Musician Dan Zanes writes "Holiday Time in Brooklyn" to benefit Heifer, with music video – see www.heifer.org – it is posted on the home page. People can also buy the song at iTunes, all proceeds benefit Heifer.
Susan Sarandon had agreed to appear live on The View December 14.
Susan Sarandon is now a featured gift registry user.
Mary-Louise Parker has agreed to appear on Martha Live December 20.
Ed Asner, Joe Mantegna and TV producer Thomas Schlamme recently appeared at Pamela Stone's Ark in the Park in Beverly Hills. We shot photos and video of both of them that can be seen on youtube.com (search under their names or Heifer).
Patricia Heaton has made us the beneficiary of a designer jewelry auction that launches December 1 – the auction is hosted at charityfolks.com. See the attached media alert for all details, and descriptions of jewelry in email below from auction publicist. The Jewelry designer is Sonya Ooten. Patricia Heaton and several other celebrities are involved. Bidding begins December 1.
An interview with Mary Steenbergen about Heifer will appear in the February issue of Delicious Living magazine.
Faith Hill continues to be a public supporter of Heifer's honor gifts, and a frequent giver.
Rachel Ray will include Heifer honor gifts in an upcoming gift segment on her talk show (Date TBA)
So, plenty of celebrity "buzz." Call any time if you would like details on any of these developments. Regards,Chris Talbott

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Heifer volunteer family!!! Dave, Rowena and Margaret, your Midwest office staff in Goshen

Heifer Wins Phoenix Award

Heifer International Wins EPA’s Phoenix Award For Its New ‘Green’ World Headquarters
World Hunger Organization Builds Environmentally Innovative Office Building

BOSTON, Nov. 14, 2006 – Heifer International, the world hunger organization that provides livestock to impoverished people in more than 50 countries around the world, today received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 6 Phoenix Award for cleaning up a contaminated industrial site and building a new “green” building on it.

The Heifer International Center at 1World Avenue in Little Rock is adjacent to the Clinton Presidential Library in the River Market area. The Phoenix Awards honor organizations that redevelop contaminated industrial brownfields.

Heifer’s $17.5 million headquarters, built on the site of abandoned rail and trucking facilities, features many “green” elements – recycled and recyclable materials, insulation made from soybeans and cotton, solar lighting and heating for energy efficiency, an innovative parking lot that collects water for a constructed wetlands surrounding the building that cleans and purifies rainwater falling on the site, and a 25,000-gallon municipal water tower that collects water from the roof for flushing toilets and in the building’s supplemental radiant heating system.

The four-story, 94,000-square-foot building is a narrow 62 feet wide at its widest point, so the large windows bring indirect sunlight to every workstation in the building. The building materials include recycled steel and brick, bamboo flooring, recyclable tile carpeting, and raised floors.

Heifer partnered with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality in reclaiming the property where it built the center.

The building was honored at an awards ceremony during a national environmental conference, Brownfields 2006, in Boston, Mass. Phoenix Award winners will showcase their projects with case study presentations and exhibits for the more than 7,500 participants.
Erik Swindle, Heifer’s facilities manager, and Eileen Oldag, a development officer, spoke Monday at the conference, describing how Heifer had transformed the polluted site into a clean, healthy environment or its work force in line with its environmental work around the world. Donna Jared, vice president of development, accepted the award for Heifer

COWS AND CASH DONATED AT MISSOURI FESTIVAL OF SHARING

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The 25th annual Missouri Festival of Sharing culminated in its statewaide ingathering at the Missouri state fairgrounds in Sedelia, Missouri on Saturday, October 21st. Hundreds of people, representing Church congregations from around the state gathered to provide funds and commodities for relief and development programs both locally and world wide. Heifer has been one of the recipients of donations since the Festival's beginning and each year one overseas project and one domestic project are chosen for support, This year funds were raised for the OKI Fish and Water Buffalo project in Indonesia and beef cattle were donated for the Washington Parish Small-Scale Farmer project in Franklington, Louisiana . Jesse Strassburg, Heifer's Field coordinator for the South Central Region of the US attended the event and expressed his thanks on behalf of Heifer for the years of support the Festival has provided to our program. Donated Heifers (seen in the above picture) have been transported by volunteers to the project site. Income to support Heifer's projects is still being tabulated and will come to us in the near future. Thanks to all our Missouri Volunteers for their efforts!

GREAT VOLUNTEER WORKSHOP IN BRIGHTON, MI

A very successful volunteer workshop was held in Brighton, MI last Saturday ((oct 28). Phil and Jeanne Smith hosted the event at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brighton and 21 people attended. Six new volunteers "signed on" and Phil and Jeanne accepted the role of Area Volunteer Coordinators for Southeast Michigan. Dave Boothby led the session assisted by Alyson Sowers our new Chicago Community Relations Coordinator. Lots of good ideas were shared and Phil's Chili really hit the spot at lunchtime!

BLOG particpant list slowly growing

Our BLOG participant list is slowly growing. 60 new invitations were sent out last week and several have accepted the invitation. My busy travel schedule has prevented me from posting new messages very often but I hope the ones that have appeared are interesting and informative to you. Your feedback is helpful so don't be afraid to respond!

Next Newsletter

We are working on the next issue of our Midwest Volunteer newsletter. I'm hoping to get it out by Nov. 1. This issue has more articles from other volunteers (smile). I'll be out of the office most of the rest of this week (going to Florida to celebrate my mom's 90th birday with the family.) Rowena is back in the office from her 3 week vacation in London (her home town) and we are certainly glad to have her back. I sent 60 more invitations to Midwest volunteers to join our BLOG so we should be having increasing activity. If anyone wants to post an article, just send it to me and I'll get it on.

AVC Meeting in Chicago is Huge Success!!

32 Volunteers and staff from the 11-state Midwest Region met at Techny Towers retreat Center (northwest of Chicago) this past weekend to discuss new ways of organizing and supporting our Midwest volunteer network. The idea of creating volunteer "communities" of volunteers led by Area Volunteer coordinators received strong support from the group and many new and innovative ideas on how to recruit, train, motivate, and support volunteers were generated. Rex Enoch and Jan West Schrock from Heifer's education department assisted Midwest staff members, Dave Boothby, Jason Bergmann, Alyson Sowers and Rosemary Larson during the weekend. Kelly Doppelhammer from the Africa program team did a presentation on Heifer's HPI/Aids initiative. Everyone went away from the weekend with new enthousiasm for Heifer and the Midwest Volunteer program.

Wisconsin Volunteer Workshop

A very successful volunteer workshop was held in Stevens Point, WI on Sept. 29th and 30th. 15 attendees were present to hear Midwest Regional Director, David Boothby, update people on the work of Heifer International. Thanks to Jack Curtis and his wife Joan Honl for hosting the event. 5 new volunteers "signed on" following the meeting. Rich and Mary Alice Rubach were presented with 10 year volunteer service pins and Diane Burkholter receivced her 5 yr service pin. The Wisconsin "Read to Feed challenge" was highlighted at the meeting along with presentations about Heifer's field and education programs. Wisconsin Volunteer Coordinator, Mary Alice Rubach talked about the statewide volunteer network and the many events and presntations that volunteers do during the year.

Upcoming workshops

Oct. 6-8 Lead volunteer workshop, Techny, IL

Oct 14 Springfield, IL

Oct 28 Brighton, MI

Oct 28 Nov 12 Georgetown, KY

for more information, contact the Midwest Regional office.

Hog Roast Update!

The final figures are in....the profit from our annual Hog Roast was $4,198.73...that's more than $2,000 more than last year!!!!! Thanks to all the sponsors, volunteers and staff for helping make it the best Hog Roast ever. All of the money will go to support Heifer projects around the world.

please note

I will be away all of next week and a great part of the following week. You will probably not see any more BLOG entries until Oct 2.

Hog Roast huge success!!!

The Midwest Annual Hog Roast held on Sunday was a huge success! Nearly 400 people attended and all enjoyed the meal of roast pork, baked beans, fresh fruit, rolls, chips and cookies. Corporate sponsorships payed the total cost of the event so all ticket money will go to Heifer projects. We are still counting the money so the final total is not yet determined. Pictured above is Esther Criag (on the right) and her friends who each year bring their homemade pickles, jams, jellies and crafts to the event with all proceeds going to Heifer. Our Corporate sponsorhsip banner (above right) lists sponsors who each donated $250 (or it's equivalent in services) to support the event. Midwest volunteers helped set up, serve, and clean up.

news announcement

Media Alert:
Heifer International Featured on “CNN Presents”
“CNN Presents: The Poverty Trap,” an hour-long cable news special report to air Saturday, September 2, and Sunday, September 3, will focus on the plight of America’s poor, highlighting Heifer International’s work in sustainable development as a practical solution to poverty.

CNN correspondent Rusty Dornan and a camera crew visited the Eastern Arkansas farms of James Fingers of Palestine and Roscoe Albert of Marvell to learn about the farmers’ involvement as members of the Pioneers of Eastern Arkansas and ALFDC Livestock Demonstration Farm projects through Heifer International.

Air times are Saturday, September 2, at 8 p.m., 11 p.m., 2 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and Sunday, September 3, at 8 p.m., 11 p.m., 2 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Annual Hog Roast

The Annual Midwest Heifer Hog Roast will be held at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds on Sunday, Sept. 17th from 11:30-2:00. More than 400 people are expected to attend this event that has been held each year for the past 26 years! Tickets are $7 for adults and $4 for childre (12 and under). Corporate sponsorships for the event will allow all the ticket money to go for Heifer projects around the world.

Welcome

Welcome to the new MW Volunteer Blog site! I hope that this new communications tool will help us better communicate what is happening in the MW region. We hope to Post upcoming volunteer training events, fund-raising events being held in the region, opportunities to volunteer at various events, and important information about Heifer International activities. I will be adding people to our participation list as time goes on and in the meantime, please check the Blog regularly and feel free to add comments and suggestions to help make it better.

Dave Boothby