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2010 Dragon Boat Festival Registration is Open
We are recruiting members for our 2010 dragon boat team. Paddlers pay a $250 registration fee (which helps cover our costs to participate in the festival), get to participate in two practices this summer, then join us in the day long friendly competition on October 2 at boathouse row. Team members are also encouraged to raise raise awareness and funds for RTP from their friends and family. No experience or even athletic ability is required - the key to success in dragon boat is getting in sync with your team. Visit our Dragon Boat page to learn more. You can read about the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Festival here.
TeamMBA Award Finalists!
Congratulations to our Wharton volunteers for having our joint service project declared a finalist for the TeamMBA Service Award for 2010! This award is presented by GMAC each year to an outstanding community service program for graduate schools of management education. There are six finalist schools, and the winner will be announced at a conference in San Diego in June. You can find more about our partnership with the University of Pennsylvania here.
Spring 2010 Block Builds and Rebuilding Days
Each spring Rebuilding Together Philadelphia invites the Greater Philadelphia community to see us in action as our volunteers complete their repairs to homes in designated Block Build neighborhoods. Volunteers provided essential home repairs, energy efficient upgrades and home modifications for three block build projects this spring!
In Walnut Hill, more than 400 volunteers worked with 21 homeowners at their homes in addition to several exterior projects to clean and green the community.
In Germantown, nearly 150 volunteers worked with 11 homeowners making critical repairs, upgrades and modifications..
Volunteers were back in Germantown on June 5, working on energy efficiency upgrades for 22 neighbors all on one block. You can read more about this project here.
We have one more project to go this program year: our Sears Heroes at Home Rebuilding Day in Germantown on June 30. Volunteers will help this homeowner prepar for her son's return from the Iraq war. While Sears employees will be doing most of the work that day, we can still use some team leaders and hospitality volunteers. Contact Jen Wootten to get involved.
AmeriCorps Partnership Coordinator Position
Rebuilding Together Philadelphia is proud to announce that our first full-time AmeriCorps Member will begin serving as Partnership Coordinator in August (welcome, Eric!). The Rebuilding Together CapacityCorps members (approximately 70 members in 23 states) are dedicated to increasing the capacity of grassroots nonprofit agencies to assist low income homeowners in need of home repair and rehabilitation services. Eric will be focusing on forming relationships with other organizations, city agencies, trade groups, skilled individuals, companies, community liaisons and complimentary service providers that will enhance RTP services and impact on low income homeowners and communities.
Mann Music Center Orchestra Tickets
We have a new way to thank volunteers for their dedication to RTP this summer: free tickets to orchestra performances at the Mann Music Center. Read all about this program here.
MLK Day of Service January 18, 2010
SHARE (Self Help And Resource Exchange) works to make food more affordable for individuals and families (often the same low income homeowners that turn to RTP for help), while encouraging volunteer service in the community. Approximately 30 RTP volunteers spent their MLK Day of Service painting, cleaning, building shelves and organizing. This was all in an effort to prepare a portion of the SHARE warehouse to be a retail food store where people can purchase food at a discount, or redeem volunteer service for groceries. You can see photos from this and other rebuilding days on our Facebook page.
Philadelphia Eagles' Player Brian Westbrook Supports RTP Families
Thanks to the generosity of Philadelphia Eagles' Running Back Brian Westbrook, RTP was able to distribute Thanksgiving dinners to 50 families in West Philadelphia this November. For years Westbrook has distributed meals to the low-income families through his charitable arm, Brian's Blessings, and has been truly amazed by the support of the community. In this philanthropic effort Westbrook seeks to touch the lives of Philadelphia residents who often struggle day-to-day to keep food on the table and come under great stress during the holiday season. With rising energy costs and a slow economy, it means that more people than ever will be depending on local food banks this year. Westbrook wants to make sure no family has to make the difficult decision between heating their home and putting a hot meal on the table this holiday season or throughout the winter.
Thanks also to our friends at Families Are Victims Too in West Philadelphia, for providing the space for this event and helping to identify the families in need of help this holiday season.
We are looking forward to Brian Westbrook's return to West Philadelphia on December 21, when he'll help distribute Christmas gifts to children in Southwest Philadelphia.
Aetna, MossRehab and RTP Team Up on Home Modification Project
Volunteers from Aetna and MossRehab worked with Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, dedicating their time and expertise to improve the homes of three Moss Rehab patients in North Philadelphia. Repairs to the homes focused on modifications to increase safety and mobility throughout the houses (such as the installation of grab bars and other adaptive appliances, and the installation of a Stair-Glide stairway lift to allow one of the homeowners to move freely between floors in her home). This is one of several collaborations between Aetna and Rebuilding Together nationwide. The projects culminated in a volunteer day on October 17. Thanks to the over 40 volunteers that came out for this project, despite the rotten weather.
2009 First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art
Shelter is a featured subject in the 2009 First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art this fall from November 4-December 31 at The Painted Bride. This Festival is the only inter-disciplinary festival in the world focused exclusively on the art of the personal story.
What does shelter mean to each of us? Is it a place or a state of mind where we feel nurtured and protected? At what point does it become home? In Shelter, a multi-media exhibition conceived and curated by Marianne Bernstein, 14 Philadelphia artists consider these questions through drawings, paintings, photography, video, and installations created in collaboration with ten Philadelphia households. These households were helped by RTP volunteers this past spring.
Exhibit highlights include story portraits of veterans by Daniel Heyman, paintings by Joan Wadleigh Curran, a site-specific video installation by Ricardo Rivera, and photographs by Zoe Strauss. Click to see the full listing of artist-homeowner projects.
Learn more by visiting www.firstpersonarts.org and to find out the exhibit hours/details at The Painted Bride.
HGTV's CHANGE THE WORLD FOR AMERICAN HEROES
We did it! The veterans project in Frankford was completed on June 28. Some thanks from our Rebuilding Together National Office:
"Yesterday’s event was a resounding success and the veterans, American Legion, neighborhood, volunteers and HGTV could not have been more pleased at how everything turned out. The in-kind value you brought to the project was huge! I also know this was a major undertaking and stretched everyone to the limit! You did RT Philadelphia and the entire RT network proud with this project!"
Thanks to all the volunteers that contributed to this project.
If you missed the November 11, 2009 for the premiere of HGTV's "Change the World: American Heroes" special , you can start your Thanksgiving morning by tuning in to HGTV at 10:00 am for a rebroadcast. Watch the preview here.
Thanks to the amazing support of the RTP and Philadelphia communities,
led by our ambassador network, Philadelphia was a top city in HGTV's online campaign.
Click here to see our HGTV photo gallery.
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