Motivational Mondays

Good morning Team!

I hope you all had great weekends.

"Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand."
–– Bruce Barton


--Laura; Durham, NC

Midwest Philanthropy Conference

Great post by Tina a couple days ago! This post is seriously out-dated, but I thought I'd throw it up here anyway. This is video from me and Tina at last November's Midwest Philanthropy Conference. LINC has given me some good video-editing software (Premiere Elements) so I can finally use and edit some of the newer flip camera footage I've taken. The new flips save in MP4 files, which have been a huge pain since those don't work with Windows Movie Maker.

So take a look. I added some cheesy effects and credits, with at least two spelling errors. See if you can find them! This event was attended by higher-ups from different K.C area non-profits, and was definitley a good place to raise Beehive awareness. We were disappointed, though, that there wasn't enough time for exhibits considering that it was a pretty steep price just to have a booth.

-Tommy D in K.C

Service to the Youth

As part of our service in Winston-Salem we teamed up with HandsOn of Northwestern North Carolina to participate in a Read-In Day to engage youth in literacy and teach them about social justice. From the "VISTA Hub" Jennifer, Laura, Daniel, and I all volunteered at the event. Plus OE's own Laurie Williams, Ralph Raymond, and our new tax van drivers all came out to serve. 100s of volunteers showed up to help at this community event. I was able to head up the social media team to document the event and put up postings on facebook, twitter, and a town hall forum through Americorps. From all the photos and interviews we conducted I will share two to help you hear directly from the volunteers and youth about how Dr. King's legacy lives on through our work today.

-Adwoa

MLK Day On in KCMO

Warning: the video is using UNSTEADY CAM so you may get queasy watching :-)

Tommy and I spent our MLK Day On service at Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry, a homeless outreach agency in Midtown, Kansas City, Missouri. We joined other AmeriCorps and VISTAs from Washburn University in Topeka. Washburn does something similar to One Economy with their VISTAs where they place up to 60 VISTAs and AmeriCorps workers around the country.

We spent the morning stocking the food pantry, then attended an MLK celebration at the Kansas City Art Institute (we sang happy birthday and had cake!). MLM provided great sack lunches as well.

We returned to MLM after the celebration and during reflection time we wrote cards to homebound seniors. The later afternoon, Tommy and I split up and he went to Blessings Abound Thrift store in Overland Park and I stayed at MLM to help finish up at the food pantry. It was a great full day of service and fellowship! And Domo joined us too :-)

A Day On, On A Day Off

Good morning team,

This morning as I was going through my regular routine of checking emails and the NY Times, an op-ed headline caught my eye: "Our Basic Human Pleasures: Food, Sex and Giving".

As an AmeriCorps*VISTA, volunteering full time for a year (and even on the occasional holiday or weekend) I was curious to see what the author had to say about giving ranking so highly as a human pleasure.

Regardless of your personal views of the top three human pleasures, the article is interesting read...especially today when we, as AmeriCorps*VISTAs, are serving as leaders in our own communities making today a day on, instead of a day off.

Check out the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/opinion/17kristof.html?em

--Laura, VISTA Leader, Durham, NC

See Daniel at Work

Kevin, Daniel's supervisor sent the following in an email to several people at One Economy, thought you all would enjoy seeing it:

Some images of Daniel Jessup from November to now, wearing many hats as One Economy's IT VISTA...from HR (pre-hire screening the Wal-Mart Tax Van drivers) to techie (setting up 55 computers with Verizon Mifi, Skype, projectors, and numerous applications). Lots of hardware! Ralph can be seen in the "boys with toys" pic.


- Meg