Farmers Life Group

On Wednesday, June 5th, we had the wonderful Farmers Life team in from Farmers Insurance for a day of caring!  They helped us with clothes sorting, baby food organization and other fun tasks around the warehouse!  They were a fantastic group and we loved having them in!

After the event we received an email from Dano Lewis, the coordinator and organizer of this day of service who shared his thoughts on Eastside Baby Corner:

It was truly our pleasure to be able to help out. What a great operation you have there I couldn’t believe how organized everything seems to be. I can appreciate the effort on your part that it must take to keep it that way. You guys provide a HUGE service to the community and it’s great to be able to spend a little bit of time helping your efforts.

Thanks again to the Farmers Life team!  You were a fantastic group to work with!

Our Amazing Core Volunteers

Welcome to the final day of National Volunteer Appreciation Week!

As Volunteer Appreciation Week comes to a close, we have one group left to spotlight, our core volunteers. We have more than 70 regular volunteers who come in week after week and help Eastside Baby Corner run smoothly. Our core volunteers are absolutely amazing, the hours they donate each week is astounding. We have volunteers who spend upwards of 20 hours a week working in the hub preparing the donated goods to be given out to children who need it. EBC COULD NOT achieve its mission of helping children thrive without the selfless time and energy put in by these amazing individuals.

In honor of each one of our core volunteers we created the Eastside Baby Corner Wall of Fame. Every core volunteer that has been with us for at least one year got an award hung up on the Wall of Fame. When the idea was tossed around about creating awards and possibly some sort of display, never did we think it would become a fun destination and tour stop within the hub. We welcome you to stop by and take a peek at the all the amazing volunteers and years of service they have given to EBC.

Speaking of years of service, we thought it would be fun to add up all the years volunteers have served and get a grand total. By adding up ALL the volunteers’ years, Eastside Baby Corner has over 518 years’ worth of volunteer service! WOW!

Throughout the week we have spotlighted volunteers who have donated between 1 and 19 years of service. Today we will spotlight five amazing women who have been with Eastside Baby Corner for more than 20 years. Yes, I said more than 20 years of volunteer at EBC. One of those volunteers is Eastside Baby Corner’s Founder and Executive Director Emeritus, Karen Rildon.

Karen Ridlon founded Eastside Baby Corner in April, 1990. With a few small items, a broken playpen for shelves and an unheated donated storage unit from Rowley Properties, Eastside Baby Corner was born. She is a lifetime member of the EBC Board of Directors. Karen has been recognized for her efforts with many volunteer awards, including Issaquah Hall of Fame, Best of Bellevue: Volunteer, and UCSF Distinguished Alumni. Karen was a key player in the development of the Issaquah Community Center and has been a tireless contributor to many volunteer efforts over the years, including scouting, the public schools, and her church. Karen is the mother of three children and a proud resident of Issaquah, where she lives with her husband.

Core Volunteer Shout-Outs!

• 23 YEARS of volunteering
  • Karen Ridlon
  • Helen Scott
  • Margo Shute
  • Mary Steele
• 21 YEARS of volunteering
  • Kay Lehus

Be sure you check-out each of our posts from this week spotlighting our amazing EBC volunteers!

• Monday- Introduction of Volunteer Appreciation Week
• Tuesday- Community Volunteers
• Wednesday- Groups
• Thursday- The Men of Eastside Baby Corner

Once again, THANK YOU to everyone of our volunteers who have helped Eastside Baby Corner over the years.  YOU are the reason EBC is able to continue to serve over 500 children in need every single week.  We wouldn’t be able to do nearly what we do with out each one of you.  So THANK YOU!

Happy Volunteer Appreciation Week!

The Men Of Eastside Baby Corner

Welcome to Day 4 of National Volunteer Appreciation Week!

Be sure you check-out each of our posts from this week spotlighting our amazing EBC volunteers!

· Monday- Introduction of Volunteer Appreciation Week

· Tuesday- Community Volunteers

· Wednesday- Groups

Did you know that we have several MEN who volunteer at Eastside Baby Corner on a weekly basis? Most people are under the assumption that our volunteers are all women and that couldn’t be further from the truth! We are lucky to have men also working to help EBC serve kids in need. Below you’ll learn about the different ways men are brightening the warehouse and sharing their skills:

Workshop Team
             Dick Scott, Greg Wineland, Tom Koeneman & Pete Kraetsch

Have you ever donated a stroller, crib, or another hard good to Eastside Baby Corner? Our Workshop Team checks EVERY single hard good and equipment donated to EBC! They check all strollers, high chairs, pack ‘n plays, cribs & more, to make sure they are safe, complete and ready to give out. They also check the Consumer Product Safety Commission for recalls and order and install kits as needed to fix any safety flaws, and refurbish children’s bikes by fixing chains and pumping tires. These guys help make it possible for us to give out hundreds of ‘like new’ high needs baby and child equipment each month!

Car Seat Team
             Sid Rubin & Tom Koeneman

Each month Eastside Baby Corner distributes over 100 car seats to keep little ones safe and secure while they ride in the car. Sid & Tom check EVERY single car seat that is donated to EBC to make sure it falls within the accepted time frame (must have been manufactured within the last six years), has all the appropriate safety straps and instruction manuals to ensure safety!

Intake Team
             George Vanni, Kevin Brown, Will Hess, Bob Nersveen & Tom Young

Eastside Baby Corner is open to collect donations from the community three times a week: Monday nights, Thursday and Saturday mornings. Donors are greeted by our amazing intake team who help unload cars, carry in donations, add them to our donation station, provide tax receipts, answer basic questions and begin the sorting process to get the goods ready to be distributed. This team is often the only interaction many of our donors have with Eastside Baby Corner and the attention they provide each person is vital to the continuing growth of EBC.

Renovation Team
             Greg Wineland, Pete Kraetsch, Dick Scott & Tim Sullivan

During the past few months, the EBC hub has been undergoing some amazing physical changes. Walls have been knocked down, new offices have been built, shelving has been moved and new offices have been erected. It’s absolutely amazing to see the changes that have occurred! NONE of this could have been done without our dedicated Renovation Crew, who volunteered their time to help make EBC more efficient! Last month alone, the Renovation Team put in over 138 hours of volunteer time working on this massive project. The changes occurring are absolutely wonderful, not to mention changing every single day.

IT / Computers / Online Ordering Program
             Dave Herb

The majority of Eastside Baby Corner’s IT department falls on the shoulders of one very patient man, Dave Herb. Dave is our go-to-guy for all things computers, whether it’s email problems or computers that randomly turn themselves off. In addition, our amazing ordering website was designed entirely by Dave, which improves our productivity, eases the job of care providers and helps us track high demand items. It’s a tool that should be shared and become the standard for all organizations similar to EBC across the country. It is truly amazing!

Facilities Manager
             Tim Sullivan

Did you know that the light bulbs and smoke detectors don’t change themselves? Our volunteer Facilities Manager, Tim Sullivan, keeps the warehouse and all its units in tip-top, organized shape! He helps in all aspects of operations, from figuring out how many pallets of diapers fit in a storage unit, to mapping out how to efficiently move inventory around the warehouse.

Monday Night Organizer
             Steve Tochko

Monday nights are a BUSY bustling night in the warehouse. We fill clothing bags, maternity bags and other miscellaneous orders and prepare everything for Thursday morning’s provider pick-up. As each request is filled it is brought to the distribution aisle where Steve Tochko makes sure the orders are put away in the correct providers’ bin and ready for pick-up.

Issaquah Highlands Self-Storage – EBC Contact
             Bob Angrisano

Eastside Baby Corner loves having a drop-off location in the Issaquah Highlands, and the helping hands of local Cub Scouts assist in moving the donations to the warehouse. But there is one special EBC volunteer who helps us facilitate the monthly excursions by checking out a donated truck from Evergreen Ford and being onsite to help load-up the storage unit, transport the donations and unload the items at the warehouse. It has been a tremendous help to have an EBC volunteer follow the donations from the storage unit to the Hub, help load/un-load and answer any questions people have on either end of the project.

Red Truck Bob
             Bob Hinchberger

Red Truck Bob is a long-time faithful Thursday volunteer. He manages our cardboard recycling inventory and helps facilitate communication with our outlets on the other side of the state. The sight of his red truck rolling into the lot always brings a smile to our faces!

 

 

Core Volunteer Shout-Outs!

• 18 YEARS of volunteering
• Charlie Anderson
• Jane Anderson
• 15 YEARS of volunteering
• Lorna Bonner
• Angela Kennedy

Thanks again to all of our awesome volunteers!

Volunteer GROUPS

Welcome to Day 3 of National Volunteer Appreciation Week!

If you missed out on Monday’s introduction to National Volunteer Appreciation Week, make sure you pop over and check it out HERE.  Yesterday, we discussed community volunteers; if you missed that post make sure you check it out HERE.   

Each month Eastside Baby Corner welcomes a number of groups through the hub doors.  These groups range from corporate groups, girl, boy and cub scout troops, school groups and many different churches.  We love getting groups in to volunteer because they bring great camaraderie and fun to the volunteer shift!

Unlike our community volunteers who mainly sort and organize the clothing donations, our groups that come in often get a special project!  Recent favorites include: reorganizing our clothing inventory, cleaning out storage units, checking and labeling expiration dates on baby food, moving inventory and much, much more!

Volunteers from Sagemont Church, sorting and labeling expiration dates on baby food jars.

Students from Eastside Prep came to volunteer during their Service Learning Day!

This Cub Scout Troop helped us pick-up donations from the Issaquah Highlands Self-Storage Unit and deliver them to the EBC hub!

We were so thankful to have a group from Expeditors and a group from the University of Washington help us tear up carpet!

Microsoft employees came to volunteer during the Microsoft Day of Caring! These guys are helping us sort, organize and edit our excess clothing inventory!

As was mentioned yesterday for safety and task accuracy reasons, we cannot have children under the age of 7 working in the warehouse.  (Remember 7-13 with direct adult supervision and 14+ can come alone!).  However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have special projects for them to do at home and then bring us their final product!

For instance, we get a lot of Daisy and Brownie Girl Scout Troops who want to volunteer at EBC, but because they’re too young they often either host a community drive or put together hair accessories or toothbrush & toothpaste kits.  We will welcome the younger kids into the warehouse to deliver their goods and for a tour!  So if you have a younger one who is interested in helping at EBC, you might think about one of these ideas!

The Kindergarten classes from St. Louise School collected items for EBC and then brought them to the Hub for a tour!

This young girl scout troop helped EBC by sorting socks!

If you are interested in bringing a group in to volunteer, please contact our Program/Volunteer Manager Madeline Fish (madelinef@babycorner.org).

If you are interested in hosting a community drive or participating in another activity with younger children, please contact Cori Benson (corib@babycorner.org).

 

Core Volunteer Shout-Outs!

• 14 YEARS of volunteering
  • Tracy Bury
  • Joy McMains
• 13 YEARS of volunteering
  • Teresa Lindo
  • Nancy Tochko
• 12 YEARS of volunteering
  • Tom Koeneman
• 11 YEARS of volunteering
  • Karen Rubin
  • Steve Tochko
• 10 YEARS of volunteering
  • Dave Herb
  • Edie Herb
  • Lanni Litsjo
  • Dick Scott

Thanks again to all of our awesome volunteers!

Community Volunteers: Come volunteer on your own!

Welcome to Day 2 of National Volunteer Appreciation Week!

If you missed out on yesterday’s introduction to National Volunteer Appreciation Week, make sure you pop over and check it out HERE.   

Over the last year, nearly 1,000 community members have come and volunteered at the hub!  We rely on our community volunteers to do the bulk of our clothes sorting.  Each week EBC gives out more than 150 clothing bags containing a week’s worth of clothing for a child in need.  In order to be able to fulfill all the requests we need to keep our clothing bins topped off and edited!  There is no way EBC would be able to keep the bins filled with size and seasonal appropriate items without the generous time donated by the community!

In addition to sorting clothes and filling clothing bags, our community members help do a variety of other tasks.  They are always ready and willing to lend a hand to help complete a project.  We cannot thank them enough for helping us in many different aspects and jobs within the hub!

Are you interested in volunteering?  It’s fun and easy to sign-up to volunteer at Eastside Baby Corner.  All you need to do is visit our website (www.babycorner.org) and click the “Volunteer Time” button on the right-hand side.  You will be taken to our online calendar and volunteer registration system; based on openings, your schedule pick a time that works for you and sign-up!  Below I’ve included some common questions about volunteering:

How old do you have to be to volunteer at Eastside Baby Corner?

• Ages 7-13: Volunteers can come as young as 7, but we do require a 1:1 ration of child to adult for students between the ages of 7 – 13.  The main reason we cannot have children under the age of 7 is for safety reasons.  Furthermore, we have found that children under the age of 14 are not able to discern the sizes are correct, matching, and seasonally appropriate.  Volunteering at EBC is a great project for a younger student in partnership with an adult.
  
• Ages 14+: Volunteers fourteen or older are welcome to come and volunteer on their own!

 

Core Volunteer Shout-Outs!

• 9 YEARS of volunteering
  • Vivian Berger
  • Bob Hinchberger
  • Sid Rubin
• 8 YEARS of volunteering
  • Kevin Brown
  • Will Hess
  • Betsy Komarnitsky
  • Lisa Kraetsch
  • Penny Lewis
  • Bob Nersveen
  • Laura Tochko
  • George Vanni
• 6 YEARS of volunteering
  • Sue Tank
• 5 YEARS of volunteering
  • Katie Milne

Thanks again to all of our awesome volunteers!

FOUND!

FOUND: An awesome assortment of goodies from a successful collection drive by Seattle Reproductive Medicine – Fertility!

ALSO FOUND: A blank checkbook! If you are missing checks contact madelinef@babycorner.org and if they match we will find a way to get them to you! http://ow.ly/i/1J16K

Can you make this with your scrap pieces?

Can you make this with your scrap pieces of wood? Just another day at the hub, where we realize just how amazingly talented our volunteers are! Dick Scott crafted this gorgeous shelf out of scrap wood lying around his house for our newly renovated bathroom (which he also helped renovate)! http://ow.ly/i/1Gao9

Office Renovations

It is amazing what some dedicated volunteers and a lot of elbow grease can do! If you haven’t been by the warehouse in a while, prepare yourself for new wall paint, brand new carpet squares, and soon…a new office for our Executive Director, Renee Zimmerman! As Renee stated, “These changes are exciting and ones that will help give our team a better home and a more professional feel of an office space.”

Stay tuned for continued updates to our front office space (yes, it really does look like an office space now!) with photo updates and more!

A very special thanks to our volunteer renovation crew:

Greg Wineland

Dick Scott

Tim Sullivan

Pete Kraetsch

And thank you to our Project Manager, Madeline Fish, for keeping everything running so smoothly!

EBC’s SAMMI Award Winners!

Every year, the Sammamish Acknowledging Magnificent Moments of Inspiration (SAMMI Awards Foundation) recognizes passionate people who show leadership, commitment, compassion, and strong sense of community.

This year, EBC nominated 3 youth volunteers that undeniably met the outstanding traits of SAMMI awards nominees. We’d like to take a few minutes for you to meet these inspiring young people that are making a positive difference in our local community, and here at EBC.

Meet Lauren Christian

I am 14 years old and I am a freshman at Skyline High School. I live in Issaquah and I am in girl scouts and I play violin. I have been volunteering at EBC since 2005!

When I volunteer at EBC I usually do special project like relabeling the bins in the warehouse. I volunteer at Eastside Baby Corner because it is where I found my love for volunteering. Being nominated for a Sammi Award makes me feel accomplished. I heard of the Sammi awards for the first time two years ago and felt like it was something I could never was going to be able to achieve. Now that I was nominated felt like hard work has payed off!

 

Meet Arjun Kumar

I’m 14 years old and a freshman at Skyline High School. I live in Issaquah at the border with Sammamish. I’m a member of the Skyline Key Club, JSA club, and Biology Club, and I am involved with the recently created service organization Charity Circle.

I’ve been doing a lot of volunteering since the beginning of the summer, and started working at EBC since the beginning of June. Since then, I have done a lot of different kinds of work, from the usual sorting clothes to editing bins to sorting books, and even the Poker Rally that was held over the summer.

I volunteer at EBC because I feel like I am really helping local people in need when doing so, and it gives a sense of fulfillment as well.

I’m really honored to have been nominated for this, and I hope that I can continue to make a positive contribution to EBC in the future!

Meet Amanda Levenson

 

I’m 17 years old and I’m a junior at Issaquah High School. I’m really dedicated to my school work, I love playing soccer year-round, running track in the spring, spending time with friends, and I’m also kept busy as the junior class council vice president, National Honor Society secretary, and as a member of National Charity League. And of course, I volunteer at Eastside Baby Corner, doing a myriad of things! I’ve grown up donating to and volunteering at EBC, but I really started getting involved just a couple of years ago. I’m an event-planning intern for Eastside Baby Corner’s “Pants Party”, so I help to get sponsors and procurements from surrounding businesses prior to the event, and I distribute flyers and postcards as well (which I had the honor of designing last summer)!

My mom and I love working the EBC booth at events such as Salmon Days and Issaquah Highlands’ Green Halloween, and I spend time sorting in the warehouse too. I also enjoy doing small projects outside of the warehouse, like organizing news clippings or picking up donations from other organizations and dropping them off.

I volunteer at Eastside Baby Corner because the organization supports such an incredible cause, and working there has really put my life in perspective – it makes me realize how fortunate I am to live the way I do, and it’s heart-warming to know that I can contribute to helping so many kids in the eastside area. I also love the employees and regular volunteers at EBC. Their hard work, dedication, love, and passion for helping others is beyond words, and inspiring. I’m very excited, thankful, and honored to have been nominated for a SAMMI Award. I think it’s really special to be recognized for my volunteer work, but I love that the Youth Spirit Award itself encourages teenage involvement in the community.

*And a special thanks to our Program/Volunteer Manager extraordinaire, Madeline Fish, who nominated our fantastic youth volunteers! 

#Giving Tuesday a Huge Success!

The first ever #GivingTuesday held Tuesday, November 27, was a huge success, and EBC was proud to be a part of the national campaign to give back!

A big thanks to our fabulous volunteers that spent the day at the hub sorting and organizing donations and clothing bins.

Check out some photos from the day, and we hope to see many of you at next year’s #GivingTuesday at EBC!