Category Archives: charity

Fellowes GIVE Program Brings Holiday Cheer Through its Employees

Fellowes charitable giving

 

The employees of Fellowes achieved greatness this holiday season with numerous acts of giving and support for several of our charity partners.Their efforts created life-changing opportunities for many local and global families in need.

Operation Christmas has been able to provide 79 girls and boys with warm clothing and toys to wear and enjoy…

Hanover Park Adopt-A-Senior was able to provide 150 gifts to 15 seniors who would otherwise not have a present under the tree…

People’s Resource Center in Aurora IL will be able to distribute 10 large boxes of food and other essentials to families to enjoy a nice holiday season.

Feed My Starving Children will be able to deliver 165,000 meals to hungry children throughout the world.

Thanks to all the Fellowes employees who participated.

Fellowes Launches GIVE Mission to Dominican Republic with Opportunity International

The U.S. Fellowes team of Jim Lewis, Jenny Schenck, DeAnna Krejci, Jim Absolon, and Juan Aguinaga visited Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where they joined Opportunity International for the week visiting schools and communities afflicted with poverty, but who are also being given opportunities for a brighter future through Microfinance, Educational, and Agricultural initiatives.  Follow their journey on their  Blog

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More About Opportunity International

Opportunity International is working to end global poverty by creating/sustaining 20 million jobs by 2020. We believe that enabling individuals to create dignified and sustainable work is the foundation for transforming their lives, their children’s futures and their communities.

Opportunity International was founded in 1971 by two visionary leaders who were inspired to take action by their experiences with people living in extreme poverty.

Al Whittaker, former president of Bristol Myers International Corporation in the U.S., and Australian entrepreneur David Bussau sought a solution that would help people transform their lives. They entered unchartered territory when they launched what we know now as Opportunity International, which was one of the first non-profit organizations to recognize the benefits of offering financial services for people living in poverty in developing countries.

Today, Opportunity International serves 14.3 million hardworking entrepreneurs in 24 countries around the world. We have big plans for the world: a world without poverty where people can live with dignity and purpose. Our clients have ambitious dreams for their futures, but lack the opportunities needed to make those dreams a reality.

We go where others won’t to give these inspiring people access to financial services including loans, savings, insurance and other financial services and training—all which empower these entrepreneurs to work their way out of poverty and build a new sustainable future for themselves and their families.

To date, we have created or sustained nearly 16 million jobs by giving entrepreneurs the tools they need to thrive. With your support, we will reach millions more clients—and those clients will change the world.

Fellowes Raises Funds for City of Hope with Walk & Run Event

On September 23rd the last GIVE event benefiting the City of Hope  for 2016 took place. As in past years a nice turnout was experienced which raised $1,400 for life threatening disease research. There were 12 runners and 21 walkers who participated.

Through the generous support of the 2016 “Hope Is Essential” campaign, Fellowes employees helped the National Business Products Industry raise an all-time record $14.3 million for life-saving research and treatment of cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases at City of Hope!

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Fellowes Employees Lend a Hand at Paint a Thon 2016

For the fourth consecutive year, a team of Fellowes employee volunteers have participated in the Hands-On Suburban Chicago Paint a Thon. The Hands-On Suburban Chicago Paint-A-Thon is a unique local community event that GIVE continues to participate in annually.

The community partnership is designed to paint the exterior of homes owned and occupied by persons with limited financial resources, who are at least 60 years of age, a veteran, or have a permanent disability, making them unable to do the work themselves. Only the exterior of the house may be painted as part of Paint-A-Thon. The house must be a single-family residence, occupied by its owner(s) and in need of paint.

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More About Chicago Paint A Thon

Once houses have been identified, inspected and the residents qualified, a team of volunteers from the community will be assigned to scrape, prime and paint each house. All homes are painted on the same day. Team leaders must visit the home site the week before Paint Day to do prep work such as scrape peeling paint, caulking and spot priming. On Paint Day, teams are expected to meet in the morning and complete the project by the end of the day.

Catholic Charities serves as the Intake Agency and is responsible for screening applications, verifying income and determining financial eligibility. Catholic Charities does not discriminate on the basis of religion, sex, race, national origin, sexual preference or economic status. Valspar Coatings® is the paint partner.

 

 

The Fellowes Human Resources Department Teams Up For Feed My Starving Children Charity

The Human Resources Department at Fellowes used their annual team outing as an opportunity for giving. Supporting Feed My Starving Children, the HR team got together to help pack 27,000 meals for children in Jamaica valued at approximately $6,000. In addition, a check for $500 was presented to FMSC on behalf of Fellowes GIVE and the HR team.

Feed My Starving Children offers volunteers a one-of-a-kind experience. They hand-pack rice, soy, dried vegetables and a nutritionally complete blend of vitamins and minerals into bags which are then sealed, boxed, placed on pallets and shipped to our incredible partners working hard to reach the neediest children around the world.

Through volunteering at FMSC, participants get the chance to impact hundreds of kids in just two hours per packing shift.

Feed My Starving Children meals are produced by volunteers in Minnesota, Illinois, Arizona and all over the United States.

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Fellowes Golf Outings Raise Money for City of Hope

Fellowes sponsored both an employee and a vendor golf outing to raise funds for City of Hope. As a world leader in the research and treatment of cancer, diabetes, and other serious diseases, City of Hope  is one of only 47 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute.

GIVE Employee Golf Outing

This year’s GIVE Employee Golf Outing benefiting City of Hope was held at Maple Meadows Golf Course in Wood Dale, IL. Despite the threat of rain, 56 golfers started out braving the elements. After nine holes, Mother Nature won. In the end, after much laughter, cheering, and golf winners, $1500 was raised for cancer research.

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GIVE Vendor Golf Outing 

For the second year in a row, The Grove Country Club in Long Grove, IL was the site of the GIVE Vendor Golf Outing benefiting City of Hope. Sponsors, ninety-six golfers, and 30 plus guests joined to raise over $100,000 for City of Hope.

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Fellowes GIVE Employee Golf Outing Raises Funds for City of Hope

On July 28th,  The Fellowes GIVE Employee Golf Outing raised $2000 for City of Hope. Fifty-six golfers and 10 volunteers comprised of Fellowes retirees, vendors, employees, family and friends participated in the event.

Though the golf outing was cut short due to the storms that rolled in, all said they had a great time. Thanks to all those who supported!

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City of Hope is a leading research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Designated as a comprehensive cancer center, the highest recognition bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, City of Hope is also a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, with research and treatment protocols that advance care throughout the nation.

 

Fellowes Assists with Water Project in Mozambique

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As part of their W.A.S.H. (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Project,  World Vision works in impoverished areas globally to provide potable water and adequate sanitation to decrease illnesses, improve health, and lessen the burden on women and children by reducing the distance to water collection points. World Vision works to drill new wells and repair existing wells, provide water storage, build community filtration systems, among many other projects all with the goal of providing adequate sanitation and safe water to those in need.

Fellowes recognizes the importance of this work, and has chosen World Vision and the W.A.S.H. Project in Mozambique, Africa to be a focus of our GIVE Program.

 

Follow the journey of John Fellowes and several Fellowes employees as they travel to Africa to help the villages. Give Africa

Read an except from the online journal:

“Day 1”

Yesterday was a first full day in Mozambique starting in Maputo, its capital, and ending about 200 miles north in Xai-Xai which will be our base camp for the next three days. In Maputo, we met at the World Vision headquarters for Mozambique, first joining them for their morning devotions. We entered the room as their discussion was in progress.  There were about 10 Africans in the room reading and discussing Matthew 21:12-17. The discussion was in Portuguese but we were able to track a little of the conversation in pieces through our interpreter.  After about 5-6 minutes the team mentioned that they had some devotional questions that they wanted to address and that they would like their guests to answer the question first (! Think quick :)!) Blas and I were able to piece a response together and then we had a nice short discussion between our two groups. We ended the time with a prayer from both sides. While we could not fully connect with this team verbally (except for Blas who is clearly fluent in Portuguese), it was neat to experience greetings and smiles that transcend a verbal dialog.

We then met with the National Director of WVMoz, Graham Strong. When I asked Graham where he was from he responded with, “Well, that’s complicated…I hold a Canadian passport.” Graham then went on to describe his background as a MK (Missionary Kid) growing up in Africa with Canadian missionary parents.  He later engaged in NGO (Non-Government Organization) work in many different areas of the globe, but mostly in Asia and Africa. Graham has been running the Mozambique area for about 3 years. He had a warm personality and clearly the vision and strategy in MZ for the next 5-7 years. He shared this with us which was interesting. The thing that stuck out to me was how WV is collaborating with the local government to help them realize their national objectives through their capabilities and support. WV has learned over time that it is ineffective to try to pursue their agenda and strategy, if it is not aligned with the national government. Clearly, there is a very strong connection between the “State Departments” and WVMoz senior leadership. Graham talked specifically about how they are currently working closely with the Ministry of Education to bring the structure of the school system to a more effective approach. Currently there are so many children and not enough teachers that there are three, two hour sessions of school per day where children are rotated in and out of the school.

Another key focus of World Vision is to break the cycle of youth marriage, which pulls ‘women’ out of school at an early age and saddles them with the responsibility of being a mother…while they are still a child themselves. Generational traditions have ceremonially made girls of 11 years old “ready for marriage”, most are married by 15. This tradition is not only perpetuated through tradition, but it is also lucrative for families as each marriage brings income to the parents of the daughter. Breaking this custom will clearly be difficult, but it appears to be one way to help a contributors to cyclical poverty, which limits the abilities for new families to start their marriage and life on the “the right foot”. Overall, we spent about 45 minutes with Graham.  We learned a lot about Mozambique, its needs, and how WV is continuing to work for progress through love and support in local communities.

We then traveled about 3.5 hours to a local community where we visited the Chongoene ADP (Active Development Project). It was a very remote village and the roads that brought us there turned from pavement, to dirt, to wide open fields over the course of an hour. As we drove to the village I was struck by the children (7-8 years old) who were along this desolate road alone…they waved to us with an enthusiasm and smile that penetrated to your heart right away. The response of a reciprocal wave and smile was met with indescribable exuberance and sometimes dancing. When we arrived at the “village” we were squarely in the middle of an enormous flood plain (5 miles in all directions) and there were only 3-4 huts visible. The local men and women (4-5) who were working the fields approached us and we started to learn about their community. We learned that there were about 400 huts throughout the flood plain that made up the community; we estimated that there were at least 2000 people. The community has been together for generations, but struggled with no access to clean water and challenging circumstances as flood and drought plagued their area. We then walked over to a river, which is their current source of water. It was not a long walk for these families; however the most remote huts have to walk about an hour in each direction for water. We learned that women primarily do this work and need to “fetch water” 3 times a day. The water is carried on their heads and holds about 40 lbs of water. This means that the women in these communities are carrying 40 lbs. of water, 6 hours a day. Further, we witnessed that the water is not clean, nor safe to retrieve.

 

You can see a picture which shows the “chocolate milk” colored water which can lead to cholera, diarrhea, and other diseases for the community. We also learned that the river which the water is taken from is infested with crocodiles; the community has lost 4 women to crocodiles. When we asked about how the retrieval of dirty water plagues their everyday life it was overwhelming. It is also important, however, to call out the strength that I saw, particularly in the women’s eyes and demeanor….these women were tough and also upbeat, exchanging smiles frequently. When watching the women stand we could actually see that their spines were bowed backwards from the weight of the water over time, one woman’s back challenges were the most pronounced. Her back could only be described as forming a backwards “c”. We learned a lot as we stood by the river and talked; the group turned from 3-5 people to 20 by the end of the discussion. We watched one woman retrieve water. I found myself extremely nervous for her safety and praying as she cast the bucket into dirty water and quickly ran up the bank hoping to return unscathed from her retrieval.

I am running out of time and need to bring this to a close, but I lastly need to comment that this woman later invited us into her home (actually rather we invited ourselves, but she agreed :)). There are pictures of this hut where she and her husband and their 6 children live. It is a 10×20 ft hut with mud floors. Her husband and she sleep on straw mats and the 6 children sleep in a make-shift loft no more than 10 x 5 ft. It was humbling to see how this family lives, cooks, and survives. That said, they always had a genuine smile for us which was heartfelt. They are content people living a life with many challenges, experiencing heart break in many shapes and sizes. The people we met are beautiful people who embody and do justice to “the human spirit” in the best possible way. I have a lot of admiration and respect for these people. There is so much that is lacking in this community, but so much “present” at the same time.

 

 

 

Fellowes Selects Four Give Charity Choices for 2016

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Fellowes has selected four charities to support for 2016 through their GIVE program. Through employee donation and volunteerism, Fellowes looks forward to helping these organizations help others.

City of Hope – Medical Research

City of Hope is a leading research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Designated as a comprehensive cancer center, the highest recognition bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, City of Hope is also a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, with research and treatment protocols that advance care throughout the nation.

Feed My Starving Children – World Development

Feed My Starving Children® is a 501(c) 3 non-profit Christian organization committed to feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit. A single meal costs only 22 cents to produce, and 92 percent of all donation dollars goes directly toward the food program.

Volunteers hand-pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children and adults and are then shipped to various distribution partners throughout the world. To date, FMSC meals have reached nearly 70 countries.

Junior Achievement – Education

JA’s volunteer-delivered, kindergarten-12th grade programs foster work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills, and use experiential learning to inspire students to dream big and reach their potential.

With the help of more than 218,000 volunteers, JA students develop the skills they need to experience the realities and opportunities of work and entrepreneurship in the global marketplace.

American Red Cross – Social Services

The American Red Cross exists to provide compassionate care to those in need. Its mission is the prevention and suffering relief here at home and around the world.