Hi Everyone!

This Sunday is going to be great. Family Service Teams are heading throughout Orange County. Here’s a rundown of where everyone’s teams will be:

Incredible Edible Park / Second Harvest: Kenya, Picking vegetables to benefit OC’s hungry families

Someone Cares Soup Kitchen: Thao, Packing sack lunches and decorating cupcakes for children visiting the Soup Kitchen

Regina House: Mark, Hosting a BBQ and day of games and fun with the families of Regina House

Grandma’s House of Hope: Jonathan, packing boxes of food to be given to children living with their families in local motels

YMCA of Orange: Karen, providing more than 10 families to help the YMCA in its support of the community

Sports Gift: Petra, donating used sports equipment and uniforms to be given to children here and abroad

Anaheim Interfaith: Naomi, cleaning, painting and sprucing up the shelter

Thanks to the nearly 90 families who are committed to supporting our county’s non-profits! Have a super fun week!

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the delay everyone; I’ve been busy enjoying the new FST season with our team The Invisible Fuzzy Fat Dogs (chosen by our FST kids). Ours is one of six teams this year! We are cruising toward having 90 families in Family Service Team this year. The growth is due to great work by Shannon at OneOC and due to the terrific parents who have stepped up as Team Leaders. Bette led an awesome training of the leaders and the first outing was a big success.

Some news … we’re working on a new website for FST national, so stay tuned. Also we have a new logo thanks to the creative genius of Dandelion Studio. Check it out …

Thoughts? We love it and will have it incorporated on this blog soon. In the meantime, here are some pictures from our first Sunday of 2011. These pics are from different teams serving all over Orange County. Great job everyone!

I’m on my way to update our facebook page, so check it out and like it or friend it or whatever it is you hipsters do to show your support. Thanks to the nearly 500 adults and children who are part of Family Service Team. And thanks to OneOC for all they do to make FST a reality in Orange County. Visit them at www.oneoc.org!

Well folks, it’s that time again! For all of you with friends who have said, “so what is Family Service Team exactly?”, now’s their chance to find out. This Sunday at 1PM (aka FST Go Time) we’re having our 2nd annual free preview project. Come and learn what Family Service Team is all about without committing to the season. Though, I think that once you start, you’ll be hooked! Remember, this is a RSVP situation, so if you’re not registered, you’ll have to check back here to learn more about FST 2011 and how to register.

See you Sunday! KB

Below is info and where we’re going:

Where: Community Action Partnership of Orange County
11870 Monarch St., Garden Grove, 92841
www.capoc.org

Time:    1:00 – 2:30pm
Parking: Spots are available on the north, east and south side of the building. Volunteers will enter through the freight doors on the south side.

Returning Families: All returning families from previous seasons will be entered into a raffle for wearing their FST t-shirts!

If you are unable to attend, please remove yourself from the RSVP list so other families may sign-up.

**Please note that this program is catered towards families with children. Individuals without children are not encouraged to attend.

One OC Family Service Team Leader, Shannon Reyes will be happy to answer any questions that you or your people have. She can be found at  714.953.5757 x extension 132; sreyes@OneOC.org.

Hi, FST Families! 

My apologies for being so tardy in updating this blog site.  I kept waiting for our kids to post for me, but they just made excuse after excuse …

On December 5th all 4 teams came together to celebrate a terrific 2010 season.  Despite the cloudy skies, we all met at the Back Bay Muth Interpretive Center to join Inside the Outdoors in learning about the Back Bay ecosystem. We planted native plants and learned about bird feeding habits. All that brainy and muscle-y work made us hungry so One OC brought pizza and drinks for everyone.  Families shared their Pay It Forward projects and the kids all got terrific packets including certificates, a personalized journal and other surprises.  Thanks, OneOC and FST families for a great day!

More on the Pay it Forwards to follow. There were som e really creative and thoughtful projects this year.

“We appreciated being able to learn about volunteer opportunities in this area that can include younger children.” —- Family Service Team, Family

Thanks also to all of our great coaches from Century High School. Thank you for supporting our kids this year. 

So the good folks at OneOC were able to put some numbers to the difference Family Service Team made in 2010. Check it:

2010 FST Impact =

65 families

112 children, 240 volunteers total (parents & coaches included)

Visited 13 nonprofits servicing hunger, seniors, literacy, homelessness and the environment

Total of 1,620 volunteer hours

12,000 pounds of fresh vegetables picked for families in OC

360 bags of trash picked up from the beaches

360 treats and snack bags shared with kids in our community …. =

13,760 lives in OC made better!

Thanks, again, all of our FST families. A special thanks to those families, companies and organizations who have supported FST through donations.

What’s Next? How can I make sure to join a FST team next season? What is this all about anyway?  More information to follow, but SAVE the DATE  February 27 for our  free Preview Project. Spread the word to anyone interested in Family Service Team.

Happy New Year! Kenya

Hi Everyone!

I hope your all doing great and in the spirit of the season, that you know how thankful we are for your participation in Family Service Team.

Before I post the info for this month, check out how much fun we had in October. My team,The Incredibles / Team 1, were at Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa. Our kids did a great job decorating lunch bags while the adults made some serious PB&J sandwiches.  This annual visit always ends with the crowd pleasing cupcake decorating for the children visiting Someone Cares during the week.  They don’t look exactly gourmet – but they were definitely made with love.

This Sunday, Teams 1 and 4 (Incredibles and Warriors) will be at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. Their address is 24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive. We’ll be learning about the impact of pollution on the ocean and marine wildlife and will then clean up the beach around the Institute.  Bring sunscreen and water for your family!

24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive; Dana Point, CA 92629
(949) 496-2274 www.ocean-institute.org

Don’t forget your spare change and to wear your FST t-shirts. We’ll have our photographer there to take family and team photos.  See you then!

Teams 2 and 3 … your info will be posted soon.  Sorry for the delay!

Hi Everyone! The info for October’s outings is under the Team Info tab.  But before you read on SAVE THE DATE. We’ve added a bonus outing on December 5th at the Back Bay in Newport Beach.  We’ll have our pizza celebration, certificates, photo distribution and Pay It Forward sharing on that day.  We’ll all be together though divided up at different points during the afternoon. More info to come.

Planting at AFSC

Hi, Family Service Team Families!

I hope you’re having a great season so far. Let us know how the season is going, what your kids are saying about the projects, and any overall comments and suggestions you have about FST. Check out the “Team Info” page for information about this month’s activities.

Everyone going to the beach in August, don’t forget it’s PICTURE DAY. We’ll be taking candids, family photos, and a team pic. If you can’t make it, email Bette and we’ll see about adding you to the next photo session.

Hope this finds you and your families well.

Kenya

Family Service Team 2010 is off to a terrific start! On Sunday, June 27th, more than 50 families worked at non-profit organizations all over Orange County to serve  our “friends we haven’t met yet”.  This year, we’ll have four teams of approximately 14 families per team.  An exciting addition to this season are our coaches from Century High School in Santa Ana.  You’ll learn more about them as the season goes by, but we are already really proud of their growing leadership.

Here’s a break down of last Sunday’s projects:

Team 1 … known from now on as … The Incredibles partnered with

Team 2 … known from now on as … Team Sunshine and visited the outstanding Orange County Rescue Mission’s Village of Hope.  This is truly a beautiful campus that provides services and support to Orange County’s homeless.  If you haven’t connected with them, I strongly encourage you to check out their website www.rescuemission.org.

The Incredibles and Team Sunshine assembled over 300 hygiene kits will be given to new Rescue Mission guests when they arrive.

Team 3 … now known as … Rainbow Rangers visited the Mercy House’s Regina House in Santa Ana. Regina’s House is a wonderful transitional living home for women and their children. FST families and Regina House families came together to have an afternoon party complete with BBQ and games.  Visit Mercy House at www.mercyhouse.net.

Team 4 … now known as … The Warriors began their season at the Incredible Edible Park in Irvine.  A regular FST season opener, everyone was all hands on deck to weed, plant, and harvest vegetables for Second Harvest to distribute to those in need of food in Orange County.  Each team will make it out to the fields to visit Sam and his Giant Garden of Good (not the real name, but I got stuck on G’s).  Check out Second Harvest at www.feedoc.org.

We’ll post pics, reflections, and info about our coaches soon. In the meantime, many thanks for the over 200 parents grandparents, and children who took time out to support our neighbors.

Check back for additional info about July’s projects.

April 5, 2010

Registration is Open - Check out the sign-up page for more info.

Many thanks to Hoag Hospital for becoming a new FST sponsor! Hoag’s gift of $5,000 will support our work with local non-profit organizations, scholarships for our families and coaches (more on that in a minute), and the growth of FST.  If you’d like to support FST by making a tax-deductible gift, please let us know or just add a gift to your registration fee when you sign up. Thanks!

A change for this year … coaches! We thought it would be valuable to our kids to have high school aged coaches to help lead each team. Stay tuned for more information about our new coaches.

March 2, 2010

Thanks to the over 150 moms, dads, kids, grandparents, and friends who joined us for our 1st preview project.  Because of your hard work we put together over 400 boxes of food and 10 crates of oranges for Orange County seniors. We learned about Community Action Partnership and their commitment to providing food and support services throughout our community. Check back for pictures soon (thanks Laura and Eric) .  If you were there, post here or on the Family Service Team facebook page – let us know what you and your kids thought about the day.  A special thank you to Amy our first FST coach, and the Freedman, Yuen, and Passananti Families for speaking to the group about FST. More info about Community Action Partnership here www.capoc.org … Thanks for hosting us, Mark and the entire CAP Team! KB

For photos from Sunday check out http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZtHDFm3csmTCMA