National VOAD Conference 2023 Call for Workshop Proposals
| |
National VOAD is excited to announce the theme for the 2023 National VOAD Conference being held May 8-11 in St. Louis, Missouri is "Gateway to Collaboration".
Please consider submitting a proposal to present a workshop at the 2023 National VOAD Conference. Deadline is Friday, December 9th.
Have a question regarding the request for proposals or the selection process? Contact the National VOAD Conference Office by sending an email to conference@nvoad.org.
| |
The Healing Power of BBQ delivered to Sanibel Island
| |
Team Rubicon: In Rural Puerto Rico, a Drive for Clean Water
| |
Just a few months after responding to Hurricane Fiona In Puerto Rico, Team Rubicon is delivering a different kind of disaster relief to the island: Access to clean water.
While much of the country’s urban water system survived Fiona or was restored quickly after the hurricane, rural systems—where families typically draw their water from wells or cisterns—fared less well.
“The issue here is that Hurricane Fiona came over and knocked a whole bunch of nasty stuff into wells and put in junk into cisterns, and now those water sources are polluted,” says Francois de la Roche, a Team Rubicon volunteer in Puerto Rico. “There’s only so long people can live on, or access, bottled water delivered by the office of emergency management.”
To help remedy the problem, de la Roche and other Team Rubicon volunteers—or Greyshirts—are distributing hundreds of water filters across the island, much as they did in Honduras after Hurricane Eta and Iota in 2020.
While many water and sanitation,hygiene (WASH) initiatives rely on short-term solutions such as chlorine tabs, this clean water initiative in Puerto Rico is meant to provide at least one year’s worth of clean water and take advantage of gravity-fed water filtration systems, instead. (Read More...)
| |
Direct Relief: Hurricane Fiona Update:
Puerto Rico
| |
Hurricane Fiona response, by the numbers:
More than $400,000 worth of requested medical supplies and medications were delivered to Puerto Rico.
7,146 lbs of requested medications were donated.
600+ personal care kits were delivered to displaced people.
400+ families have received healthcare services.
200+ volunteers deployed to community health fairs.
126 emergency medical backpacks were distributed to first responders in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras.
Nine power generators were delivered to patients relying on life-sustaining medical equipment.
| |
How the Internet Saved Florida - 2 Days with the ITDRC
| |
|
“It’s one thing to see it on TV, but when you’re face-to-face, handing someone food after they’ve lost everything, and they begin to cry—well that really brings it home,” said American Red Cross volunteer Doug Isanhart of Conway, Arkansas.
Doug has been a Red Cross volunteer for several years, but the Hurricane Ian disaster relief operation was his first national deployment. The University of Central Arkansas professor has been active in his local chapter as a Disaster Action Team responder for several years and was looking forward to becoming a disaster Emergency Response Vehicle driver, but the pandemic delayed things. Finally able to take the driving test in February of 2022, he became certified and waited for the opportunity to respond to a large-scale disaster. When Hurricane Ian hit Florida as one of the worst hurricanes in American history, he received the call and served in Florida from October 11th through the 24th, 2022.
He described the typical day of an Emergency Response Vehicle driver as rising before the sun comes up and driving the ERV to the staging area where thousands of meals are prepared each day. The long line of ERVs—120 of them at the peak of the operation—snake along in a long line to be loaded with bulk hot food containers. From there the ERV teams make their way through devastated neighborhoods providing hot meals. One particular recipient remains etched in Doug’s memory. (Read More...)
| |
Donate responsibly! Cash is best!
| |
Tammy Davies is a lifelong dog lover. Volunteering at the Guide Dog Foundation was something she always wanted to do “someday” but as is the case with many people, life got in the way for years. However, the dream stayed at the back of Tammy’s mind. In 2018, Tammy’s husband surprised her on Valentine’s Day by driving to the Guide Dog Foundation campus in Smithtown, New York, and encouraged her to take the first step — to go inside and find out how to apply.
Tammy began as a level one kennel volunteer, visiting with dogs that were boarded at the kennel. She noticed that every member of the staff was – and continues to be – kind, grateful and appreciative of their volunteers, and she realized that this was a perfect situation for her.
For 75 years, The Guide Dog Foundation has trained guide dogs and service dogs and placed them with visually impaired, blind and otherwise disabled individuals. Guide and service dogs offer a chance for increased independence and mobility. (Read More...)
| |
|
