Chase Givings and Rebuilding Together Omaha

Chase Bank is holding a contest for 501(c)(3) non profit organizations on Facebook.  Chase will be awarding $25,000 for the top 100 vote earners between November 15th to December 11th.

Rebuilding Together Omaha will be able to use $25,000 for low-income elderly and disable home-owners for  in these ways:

• 8,333 Compact Flourescent Bulbs
• 37 Energy Star Rated Natural Gas Water Heaters
• 862 Energy Star Rated Programmable Thermostats
• 1,545 Door Weather Stripping Kits
• 39 Energy Star Rated Top Mount Refrigerators
• 5,000 Bath Grab Bars
• 104 High Rise Low Flow Toilets

Just a few things we can just GET with this kind of award for those we serve…

And it would not only further our purchasing ability, but would increase our ability to get tradesman to do the repairs for low-income elderly and disabled homes in Omaha, NE.

So vote for Rebuilding Together Omaha here!

On Being Burgled

As funny as the word “burgled” is, my fiancee, and maybe myself, was a victim of theft. This Sunday, November 15, while on a long hike, my fiancee’s car had her rear passenger window smashed in and her was purse stolen.

Not our car but you get the idea of a broken car window.

I remember the moments leading up to finding out about the vandalism and theft. We had explored the Standing Bear Lake hiking areas for around 2 hours. We were on the last leg of the hike when I saw the window smashed out. We ran over to the car to see what had happened and found Andi’s, my fiancee, purse missing.

We called the cops and left a message on the crime reporting hotline voicemail: a rather lackluster system of crime fighting, but on the other hand, we are in a city with a pretty busy police department. We then called up her bank and her main credit card company to shut down her credit card.

Throughout the first few hours of regaining some of the bearings on her missing finances, we both had to push down and anger and tears to get the important things done. To be fair to my lady, I couldn’t be anywhere near as fearful or angry as she could, since it was not my identity missing or my car broken into.

We finished up closing the rest of her accounts and card services that evening and that following Monday morning.

We finally recieved a call from the police on Tuesday night, and the best we can get is a report filed. The Omaha Police Department is overwhelmed by many other issues and understaffed/overworked to be fair.  On our end, Andi and I are used to small town law-enforcement with a little more time to spend on these issues.

We still wait to see if anything will go missing or change from her accounts and we are lucky nothing else has happened, but until then, we are comforted by Facebook comments:

Comments from status update of the theft.

Edit: To be fair, the purse was left in plain sight in the back seat. Not exactly the safest thing, but it still feels rotten though. :/

Continuing the Wii Bowling Experience

As old news as elder care places having Wii Sports tournaments is, I still enjoy reading and hearing stories about it.

Via Interim HealthCare of Omaha:

“Wii sports have become a staple mark in retirement communities all over the country, and none more so then at Seven Oaks of Florence. Of the sports themed games, residents find bowling to be the most fun and entertaining. Residents try to gather at least once a week to have fun and test their bowling skills.”

Read more about it here: http://interimhealthcareomaha.blogspot.com/2009/11/wii-bowling-tounament-at-seven-oaks-of.html

A Volunteer Experience: Part 1

I came to Omaha, NE on August 1st, 2009, preparing myself for the endeavor of being an AmeriCorps member for 11 months with Rebuilding Together Omaha.

Rebuilding Together Omaha is an affiliate of the national non-profit Rebuilding Together. The mission for Rebuilding Together across the U.S.  is to repair and rehabilitate the homes of low-income elderly and disabled. (Rebuilding Together does have other repair standards beyond this for special things, but we mainly focus on low income elderly and disabled)

My reasons for being an AmeriCorps member is from my family. My parents have been a part of neighborhood volunteer service for years, with my mom running an AmeriCorps Literacy Council in Madison, SD for two years and continuing to volunteer with this group to this day with my father. My fiancee also has been a member with AmeriCorps last year, working with the American Lung Association of Utah. I’m surrounded by civil service.

The start to my experience began not in Omaha, but in New Orleans for the first week of training with 35 other new and returnings AmeriCorps members. We fall under a different group of AmeriCorps volunteers known as the CapacityCorps, a specialty member group for Rebuilding Together.

We are a fancy bunch due to this distinction.
(No sarcasm here, true fanciness.)

CapacityCorps members in a the New Orleans HandsOn volunteer home

We learned about the need for the service we provide to low-income communities around the country, and how we 36 members are supposed to help expand the abilities of Rebuilding Together at local affiliate levels. We all have a specific role to serve in the affiliates we serve.
My role is an Energy Efficiency Coordinator and I try to enhance the environmentally friendly capabilities of Rebuilding Together Omaha at an office and home repair level.

A daunting task. It hasn’t stopped being daunting either.

After training in New Orleans for a week, I came back to Omaha as prepared as I possibly could to work with Rebuilding Together Omaha in building up their abilities to serve the city of Omaha. I would like to save my thoughts for now on my service so far for a later post.

I just wanted to make known the task that has been laid out in front of me and my peers, and that is trying to improve the conditions of low-income elderly and disabled.

For a look into my peers perspective on their new(-ish) membership with AmeriCorps Rebuilding Together program, check out the embedded video to hear it in their own words.

Re-Launch with purpose.

I can’t seem to quite hold on to this blog thing for very long.

Ugh.

I am relaunching my blog with updates on my time as an AmeriCorps member with Rebuilding Together Omaha, my video works, my video game hobby, and finally, the preparation for the eventual wedding between me and my significant other, Andi.
Other topics will also come up when they are prevalent.

So to re-cap:
Wedding Business
AmeriCorps things
Video productions
Video games
… and other various things

Stay tuned for future updates!

Listening to:
NPR Morning Edition