Today's Quote

Here is the quote read today on our VISTA call:

"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship. "

-President Obama

I'd love to hear what you guys think about this quote! Please hit the "post" link below.


~Holly Kalemeris

Diary of a Single Mom

Do you ever have one of those weeks were you feel like you put almost everything on hold to focus your energy to helping a project pull together in the nick of time?

Last week was one of those weeks for the North Carolina One Economy office. One Economy’s new webisode on pic.tv, A Diary of a Single Mom, had its East Coast premier in Atlanta last Thursday. The North Carolina office became the call-in point for all RSVP’s to this event and everyone in the office came together to answer the calls that never seemed to stop coming in. We answered 1000s of questions and took an equally large number of RSVP’s on the preparation end of One Economy’s largest event to date. In those few days, I know everyone had a couple things on their to-do list that didn’t get done on the day they were planning on getting to them, but everyone kept truckin’ and working together, even though the calls didn’t slow down until after the event was over.

We all got to attend the event and see the fruits of our labors. Sadly, there aren’t any pictures or flip videos from the event (to my knowledge) to put up on the blog; all the VISTA’s that attended were stationed to help the event run smoothly through the night. About 4000 people showed up to see the premier and the response that was heard as people were ushered out of the church was very positive.

It was a great event that got a lot of people excited about what One Economy’s doing right now and hopefully will keep them excited enough to check out pic.tv. Pic.tv is a great resource that I’m finally bringing to really understand after seeing the webisodes and people respond to them in a group setting. I’m excited to see where this leads for One Economy over the next couple years.

-Laura

VISTA Projects

Greetings!

I'd love an update on what all you have been doing in your VISTA projects. It's Friday, and I'm in the mood to hear about some of the things we've been able to accomplish this week. Do you have any success stories to share with the group? 

My highlight this week was going to the Bertie County Hive in Windsor, NC. I helped coordinate a meeting for a group there who is trying to start a teen court program for the youth. The program is called Resolutions, and it is just in the installment phase. I'm excited to update you all over the next few months on the success of this program.

Hit me with your week's best story!

~Holly

Do I just need to give it some time??

I came in so excited full of visions and ideas, and now I am very confused about my project.
I have not had the training I was told I was going to have weeks ago now. I feel as if I have some idea about the goal of my project but I have no real training or education in regards to the sites I am supposed to share/ market through out my community. Even worse my contact person is not communicating with me as to what is going on. So for the past few weeks I 've come in everyday and sat in an office and tried to familiarize my self with the web sites, my workplace environment and culture, which has been helpful. The organization I am serving at is great, as well as My Supervisor I feel very supported and and welcomed.

Welcome new VISTA's!

Hey guys!

I get a little bit nostalgic every time we get a new class of VISTA's. Service through One Economy's Americorps*VISTA program is a unique one, and I'm so excited to see what all of you are able to accomplish in the *VERY* short time of 12 months. Good luck, and please be in touch with me if there is ANYTHING at all that you need :)

~Holly Kalemeris~