l. Upcoming Events
California
State Employees Charitable Campaign (CSECC) and Federal Combined Campaign (CFC)
To volunteer
for charitable campaign events or check for new requests, go to Heifer’s Google
docs. As of September most dates were staffed but because new opportunities
keep coming in, please continue checking
for new posts.
Jill
Kilty-Newburn suggested that we keep it simple by providing brochures with
contact information, World Arks and one or two annual reports for reference
material. We were also asked to make
available brochures and other items from Jim Hill, local representative for
Global Impact. Global Impact is the charitable federation umbrella group for
international health and welfare agencies participating in employee
fund-raising campaigns; Heifer is among its non-profits.
A photo and
a short write up about your event can be e-mailed to Teresa Fung for posting on
our blog.
Susan
Sundell will be out of town from October 5th -14th. If you need materials
contact her before then. As a back up, Judy Grimshaw will have a key to the
materials garage. Call on her if you need something, while Susan is gone.
ll. Team
Heifer section of heifer.org
Jill
reported that the Team Heifer site is being revamped and she will have more
information in the near future. Since that site is not yet functioning, it was
suggested that we keep track of our progress toward meeting our goal of raising
$10,000 this year on our own Heifer blog.
Jill will be
tracking the contributions made to Heifer through the state and federal
charitable giving campaigns we have been working on and supporting this fall.
That should give us an idea of the impact of our efforts.
lll.
Outreach to Donors
New Read to Feed materials and an Alternative Gift Giving mailer may be helpful in reaching
some of our gift-giving donors. Jill is currently concentrating on
congregations, focusing on the top 40 gift-giving congregations in the
Sacramento area. She is working to discover ways to connect with church leaders
and missions or youth group directors who are familiar with Heifer and would be
interested in using these materials for fundraising events with their
congregations. She will be tracking the past and present activities of local
congregations and will ask us to do some further outreach in our community.
lV. Study
Tours
Heifer
headquarters recognizes the value of study tours, especially for their dedicated
volunteers and big donors. More information will be coming out soon about
countries with Heifer projects that volunteers may be able to visit.
Possibilities are Honduras, Nepal and Ecuador. Haiti will probably not be on
the list. There will be a 6 to 12 month lead-up time and volunteers will commit
to share their experiences from the study tour and further promote at home
Heifer’s work.
V. Other
Items
Read to Feed
website and Global Education Resource Kits (GERK) materials
The GERK
materials are now available only on line, except for limited situations, and
easily downloadable for use by anyone interested in them. Materials are
downloadable and available on Heifer’s newly revamped Read To Feed website.
Check it out.
Visitor to Next Meeting
Beth
Erikson, Professor at CSU Sacramento in Recreation, Parks and Tourism will
visit our meeting in October. She will explain her program so we can discuss
some ways we might want to partner with her students for event planning.
Davis
Farmers Market
We have the
Heifer table in Davis fairly well staffed for September and October. In
November, our volunteers will evaluate our impact there and decide whether to
continue in the coming year.
Golden
Talent Award
Laurie
Heller has been invited by Heifer HQ to be on the nomination committee for the
Golden Talent Awards. She will give us updates on countries, groups or
individuals being considered.
Soil Born
Equinox Event
Susan
Sundell reminded volunteers to support Soil Born Farms by attending their 10th
Annual Fundraiser Autumn Equinox Celebration on September 22nd. Information and
tickets are available on line at www.soilborn.org.
Proposition
37
Suellen
Rowlison discussed and handed out information, flyers and buttons promoting a
“yes” vote on Proposition 37. Proposition 37 would require the labeling of
genetically engineered food. More information is available on the website: www.carighttoknow.org.
Vl. Jill
Kilty-Newburn’s study tour to Kenya
Jill
recently toured country programs in Kenya with a group from the AKA sorority.
She described a hilly, lush land with horrific roads that took hours to travel
even short distances. Her group visited a school where children nearly blind
from some unknown cause were being educated before they lost their eyesight
entirely. Especially interesting were examples of Heifer’s East Africa Dairy Development project. Jill explained that Heifer is working to empower dairy
farmers to double their milk production and develop refrigeration cooperatives
so that farmers can get more milk to market. This is being made possible with a
$42.8 million grant from the Gates Foundation. Heifer, as lead NGO, is working
with nearly 180,000 farmers in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, providing training and
facilitating the connections. Project partners are able to move beyond the
limitations of subsistence farming by connecting to larger markets and better
opportunities. Our thanks go out to Jill for sharing her beautiful slides,
latest information and personal experiences on this study tour.
Vll. Next
meeting
Monday, October 1, 2012, Campus Commons Board Room 6:00 pm.
