Casa Partners Update

Posted: Oct 26 2011 05:44:51 PM

What an incredible summer it has been! We had a late start with the weather, but when the sunshine did show up, it stayed! It was just in time for The Bee Kind Garden sessions to start. We had a very successful year with camp, and made a lot of new friends! Here is a note from the Sharell, recapping the great season we had.

The children and volunteers had a fabulous time this year at the Bee Kind Garden. We got to see all kinds of special animals, including our Delta/Hope Dogs, Carol Byrne’s Stanley, our movie star dog, Melaine Sullivan’s baby goats, Kit Jagoda’s River’s Wish Animal Sanctuary’s bunnies and The West Valley Outdoor Learning Center’s turtles and birds of prey. I’m sending a special thank you to all that brought these wonderful companions to play with us.

Our 4 sessions ran concurrently from June 21st to Sept. 1st. We had 38 children attend from the ages of 4 to 14. They were all wonderful and we had the best time. Some of the things we did were go mountain climbing at Mt. Gear and horseback riding at Busy Bee Ranch. We also planted a garden and harvested vegetables to eat during our lunches. We made journey stick s and stepping stones, as well as made strawberry freezer jam to take home and ice cream to eat for dessert. But most of all the children learned to trust and interact with their volunteer and learned kindness, gentleness and empathy for all living things in the Garden, including the animals, bugs and each other. We made friends, laughed and made wonderful memories to carry with us forever.

If you are interested in being a volunteer for 2012 in the Bee Kind Garden, let me know and I will keep in touch with you about out late winter/early spring trainings. Believe me, you will love it! If you would like more information, please give me a call or email me and I will give you further details.

September has come and gone, and with school, came the hustle and bustle of the My School Bag program. Julie has reported a great success for the program this year, with a special thank you going out to The Inland Empire Gardeners. They donated a combination of school supplies and cash, totaling over $1277.00 !! Wow! You guys are amazing! Julie and her team of volunteers were able to serve 217 children in our community, supplying them with school supplies, stuffed animals, blankets, shoes, jeans and t-shirts, giving them everything they needed to start the school year right. Great job to everyone who donated goods, money or time to make this happen!

CASA Partners is currently looking for individuals who can volunteer to help us develop a Transportation Program. We have a great need to provide transportation to a large group of foster children, so that they can be involved with our Bee Kind Garden Program. If you have any ideas, or experience with how to develop or run this sort of program, or if you would like to volunteer to be a driver in the summer months please contact Sharell Horwath.
And lastly, but of course not least…we are getting close to our annual Giving Campaign. We rely solely on donations to keep our organization running. In this troubled economy we understand that everyone is watching their finances more than ever. Any help you may be able to give would be greatly appreciated and will go a long way to help make the lives of the children we serve better. We are excited to tell you all that we have added the ability to donate through our website.


Thank you to everyone who helped make our summer successful! Now on to the holidays!

Casa Partners Update

Posted: May 11 2011 01:40:50 PM

Once again the wonderful guys from the Omega Delta Phi Fraternity came to our Bee Kind Garden site and did an amazing job of "spring cleaning"... trimming, raking, hauling leaves, you name it, they did it! What a great group of young men. Then, after hours of work at the Garden, they went out into the community and raised over $300 for our organization! They were like a force of nature! Our heartfelt thanks go out to you and we so appreciate your
continued support!

• Casa Partners would like to express our gratitude to the "Spokane Mortgage Lenders" for choosing us to be the beneficiaries of their upcoming Golf Tournament on June 2nd. This tournament is an event put on by a great group, representing the Real Estate/Lending industry. We feel priveledged to be chosen by them. Good Luck to everyone playing in the tournament, and we wish sunny weather to you all! Check this site for photos and updates after the event!

 

• Casa Partners was able to donate 25 Teddy Bears for Adoption Day! 25 warm wishes went out with the bears!

 

• A special thank you goes out to the Kappa Alpha Theta Organization. This wonderful group has consistantly given us support over the years, and we apprecitate them so very much!

 

• The Bee Kind Garden is gearing up and will be running sessions starting in June. Please contact Sharell Horwath if you have questions or would like to volunteer. We especially need dedicated people who would be willing to provide transportation for some of our children to the Garden. No matter if you have a lot of time, or a little time to give, we have many areas in need of volunteers!

 

• In 2011, the My Bag program has already delivered over 225 bags to children in Spokane County. Did you know that during the entire life of the My Bag program, including the My School Bag project, they have provided bags for over 10,500 children? Each one of these bags helped make a positive difference in the lives of these children.

 

• The Needs From The Heart program has fufilled over 35 requests in 2011 alone. Requests can be anything from something as simple as basic neccesities to wishes such as Karate lessons, class trips, yearbooks, extracaricular activity fees or a bicycle and helmet. This program touches the lives of children and families in such a special way. Please see an example of some of the letters written by recipeints of these grants below...

Casa Partners Update

Posted: Feb 2 2011 01:26:57 PM

Casa Partners would like to thank everyone for a very successful 2010! We had a wonderful year, thanks to all of our friends, volunteers and sponsors. We were able to touch the lives of hundreds of children due to your time and effort as well as the very generous donations we received in our 2010 campaign. We are looking forward to another year of partnering with YOU to help improve the lives of our children in Spokane County! Thank you for all that you do to make us a successful organization!

The Bee Kind Garden is going to be gearing up for another great year! Watch our web site for updated information on volunteer training sessions coming this spring. Contact Sharell Horwath with any questions.

Linda Barenz of the My Bag Program would like to send out a VERY special thank you to the Gonzaga Blanket Brigade! This amazing group consisting of Gonzaga University employees, students and friends donate beautiful hand made blankets to our My Bag organization. To date, they have donated over 400 blankets! They have a great web site set up to showcase their efforts and have photos of the blankets. The time and effort that they put into these blankets is just amazing. These volunteers make a huge impact on the children who receive these gifts. Please visit their web site at:

http://connect.gonzaga.edu/blanketbrigade

Bee Kind Garden 2010 Conclusion

Posted: Oct 12 2010 11:08:36 AM

Bee Kind Garden concluded our 2010 sessions on August 31st. We had a very diverse group of children ranging in ages from 4 to 14 years old. They came from group, foster, relative placement, pre-adoptive and re-placement with biological parents homes. We also had a variety of volunteers from college students, teachers, bank employees and retired grandparents. What we all had in common was the joy and fun of being together at Bee Kind Garden. We climbed walls at Mt. Gear, received education about horses and then rode them at Busy Bee Ranch, had our special dog friends every week from the Delta Society. Carol Byrnes from SpokAnimal came with Stanley and we learned about positive reinforcement training. We also hammered away building homes for our bird friends and learned how to make strawberry jam and ice cream in a bag. We planted a garden and then enjoyed our harvest at lunch time. We created fun art projects and learned about nature in the process.

But most of all we learned about treating others with kindness and empathy, having patience, being tolerant and making new friends. Our garden site is magical and it is a loving and happy place for all of us to be. What fun we had this year.

Sharell Horwath
Director