This week is keeping me busy with last minute details: copies of literature for the booth, gift baskets to raffle, arrangements for tent and tables courtesy of the Quad City International Airport and the like.

An article appeared today about the Poetry Street Project, which emphasized the magazine launch on the NDOA at the Unity Festival in The Dispatch newspaper (Moline, Illinois). I’ve sent out final press releases, but the Unity Fest people are on top of it, with spots on local radio and support from local print media.

Still trying to get financing for signs—I think it is important to have our booth clearly marked at the festival, but with the time crunching closer and closer, I may have to resort to simple color copies stapled to a stake…

I’m both excited and nervous, looking forward to the entire experience and nervous that I will forget an important detail.

But all the work of the past four months has been leading up to this and I am happily anticipating the results! Then off for a couple weeks vacation….(sigh).

It looks like everything is in place for our ServiceNation National Day of Action event here in the Quad Cities.  The Unity Festival is more than one day, it is a weekend-long event and celebrates both our diversity and our unity.

Let me tell you about the Quad Cities.

Our metropolitan area straddles the upper Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois, with a foot in each state.  We are just a couple hours south of Wisconsin, three hours west of Chicago, three hours east of Des Moines, and about five hours north of St. Louis.  We are situated exactly where Interstate 80 (the busiest interstate in the nation) crosses the Mississippi River.  Speaking of the Mississippi, we also live on the “river bend,” a place where the river runs east to west, which will really mess you up if you are wedded to the idea that the Mississippi MUST run north and south!

We may be one of the best-kept secrets in the U.S., with affordable housing, jobs, parks, museums, many activities and attractions, and little of the crime and traffic congestion of larger cities.  We host a diverse population of white, black, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans, and a large number of international students. We are also hosts to a variety of wildlife, and celebrate the biological diversity every year with Bald Eagle Days in January, and very visible and highly attended Earth Week events every April. Recycling and green thinking is rapidly becoming the norm and I am proud of our respect for the Earth.

Many people think the “quad” in Quad Cities means the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline in Illinois.  Originally, however, it stood for Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in Illinois and Davenport in Rock Island.  On both sides of the river, service is a part of everyday life, and we employ many Americorps participants and a large voluntary force in all areas of service.

This coming weekend, we will be celebrating all our many talents and cultural backgrounds, as we come together in LeClaire Park in downtown Davenport, right on the Mississippi River between the riverboat casino and the beautiful Centennial Bridge.  The park has all new lawn, thanks to the flooding, and we are the first event of the season to be actually in the park this year.

If you are in or near the Quad Cities next weekend, be sure to come and see us!  Otherwise, find an event near you, and go out to serve and play!

I was unable to attend the ServiceNation Summit in New York this week, but I have been following it closely on MSNBC and watching the videos on MTV.  I was excited to see the enthusiasm with which our message is being received.  The nation is truly ready to serve and I believe that service will be a critical cornerstone value for building a peaceful and sustainable world in the 21st century.  “All Aboard!” for the future!

We draw closer to the NDOA, and I am busy working with the Unity Festival committee, doing last-minute follow-ups with various organizations in our area.

The Quad City International Airport has donated the use of a tent and tables for the Unity Festival, as well as gift bags to raffle off.  This will help to defray the out-of-pocket expenses incurred.  I am still awaiting my video camera and Home Depot card.  The Home Depot card will help me to make signs, create raffle baskets, and obtain waterproof storage containers for the massive amount of literature I have to distribute.

I have received literature from the Peace Corps, Americorps, and Learn & Serve, and have also obtained voter registration forms to encourage folks to vote for change and in favor of candidates who support service.  I have about 6 boxes of flyers, posters, application forms, bookmarks, and other promotional literature for the national services listed above.

My own project, the Poetry Street Project, has arrived from the printer and we are excited to be launching it on the National Day of Action at the Unity Festival 2008.

Personal family issues have kept me from accomplishing much in the last two weeks, but now that the crisis has subsided, I can once again turn my attention to making our Unity Festival Day(s) of Action a big success.

Wow, the last two days have been quite productive. Last evening, I attended the meeting of the peace committee of Progressive Action for the Common Good and got a chance to meet the president of the local chapter of the ACLU, who immediately signed up to participate in the Day of Action. His friend is one of the founders of the local chapter of LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), who also signed up for booth space. I feel like these two are real feathers in our cap!

Today, I came home from work to find three heavy boxes on my front porch: I had received the literature I requested from Americorps. So now I have like a thousand brochures for Americorps, Americorps NCCC, Americorps VISTA in English and Spanish, as well as applications and posters for the booth. Yay! Now I just need to find a tent or three.

My husband, Rick Haskell, should be made an honorary Change Agent for all the work he helps me with. He takes my messages, does research for me, sends faxes and is in general a helpful Guy Friday. Right now, he is on a mission to find us a 20×10 foot tent for free or for very cheap. I have my own RNA chapter poised to cover the cost, if necessary, but free is always preferred!

I just received a phone call from Ruben, with the Unity Festival and we have a meeting tomorrow at the park to look at the venue, discuss promotions and media stuff and cover logistical details in general.

I need to go back through and re-contact everyone I’ve spoken with since June and double-check what their involvement is. The focus is going to shift next week away from recruiting participants to preparing for the festival itself (press releases, tables, chairs, tents, literature, banners, etc.)

Well, there is a big stack of paperwork I need to sift through to keep Boston and others happy….

Wow! So much has happened in the past few days (nearly two weeks) since my last post, I’m not sure where to start.

On the afternoon of the first I met with Kathie Rochau of the Quad City Airport, who promised to sign up as an endorser of the ServiceNation campaign. She is also going to loan us portable tables and chairs for the event, and she is looking into providing a tent. The QC International Airport is also going to donate 2 or 3 gift baskets to be either raffled off or given as a door prize drawing.

The following Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were crazy busy, as I returned to my “day” job teaching at Black Hawk College. On Wednesday, I met with the Quad Cities Earth Day Coalition and was able to distribute literature and give my elevator speech. In fact, I think I gave my elevator speech a dozen times last week, due to time constraints at the events and meetings I attended. On Thursday, I went to orientation and in-service training at my school, where I was able to share literature and the elevator speech with just about everyone I met on breaks, at lunch, and at two meetings, one with our Outreach group and another with the entire Outreach program at large within the college. On Thursday night, I attended an event with the American Association of University Women, where again, I gave the elevator speech to selected individuals during breaks and while mingling. All of these contacts seemed to generate interest, but I am now at the mercy of others who may or may not contact me for further information. Because of the short contact time, I was unable to sound out the others I spoke with to determine what the needs of their organization might be and explain to them how ServiceNation furthers their own causes. Oh, well, sometimes the shotgun approach hits a few targets, we’ll just have to wait and see.

On Friday, I spoke with Mark Ridolfi the op-ed editor of the Quad City Times newspaper. He also responded enthusiastically to our event and over the weekend I sent a three press releases: one announcing that ServiceNation had partnered with the local Unity Festival; a second announcing that the Unity Festival was offering free booth space to non-profits (this was mentioned in the first one, but the second release gives the paper a chance to place this shorter piece in the About Town section, or with meetings and deadlines on a “shorts” page); and a third announcing the official launch of The Poetry Street Project, my literary and arts magazine featuring creative works by people who have experienced homelessness. Since this project was able to find funding, I thought the National Day of Action was the natural day to throw a launch party!

I didn’t get much done after that because on Saturday afternoon, my mother-in-law died and the family was quite pre-occupied with that event, as you can well imagine. I had also gotten a small cut on my finger that became wildly infected and had to go to the emergency room on Sunday, so I missed another meeting that I would have loved to attend. (Sssshhoooot….!) This week I am back to teaching full-time and my goals are to secure literature to distribute at our booth, to make all the necessary follow-up calls for last-minute registration of non-profits, and to get the three press releases to other news outlets (Daily Dispatch and the River-Cities Reader). Today I was able to find the right form to send to Americorps to get brochures, bookmarks, and other recruitment literature, though it wasn’t easy to find and the phone call I made two weeks ago to the national office was unreturned. I would like to get literature on the Peace Corps as well and maybe do some bi-partisan voter registration.

This week has been a productive one. All systems are “go” on the Unity Festival. I met with KJ Rebarcak on Tuesday morning. KJ is a personal friend who is involved with several organizations including the Scott Community College Environmental Club, the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society Beta Zeta Epsilon chapter, the Earth Week Coalition, the Wapsi River Environmental Education Center, the Clinton County Conservation Board, and her own non-profit, the Lower Wapsipinicon River Cleanup Project. She is also contemplating an Americorps position with the Iowa DNR. She will be sharing ServiceNation info with her various groups.

I gave her my complete information packet, which consists of my business card from the Service Nation, my personal business card, the ServiceNation brochure, the FAQ, the cover letter and application for participation in the Unity Festival, the list of our organizing committee members (who supports us), a copy of the Americorps longitudinal study (why support us), 10 Things You Can Do For the National Day of Action, a support pledge sheet for individual signatures, a form letter of support to fill out to pledge organizational support, and a copy of the Service Nation Coalition membership form. I’ve been giving this info packet to every one this week and it really makes a difference in their understanding of our mission, goals and what we are asking from them.

Tuesday evening, I attended a meeting of Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) of the Quad Cities—a progressive non-profit organization working toward legislation on health care reform, social justice, peace, and other related topics. They were very enthusiastic about participating in the Unity Festival and in their support of the ServiceNation campaign. The folks in this organization are far-reaching in our community and consist of business leaders, politicians, media representatives, non-profit workers, religious groups (Islamic, Buddhist, Baptist, Jewish, Neo-pagan, Unitarian, Native American, and others), environmentalists, etc. Connecting with PACG is like connecting with the Who’s Who in the service community! Big feather.

Wednesday I was able to find a way to make photocopies for free (I cannot reveal my secret!) Yesterday, I spoke with Pat McLaughlin from the Quad City Labyrinth Project about setting up a labyrinth walk at the Unity Festival. Today I met with the marketing director (Cathie) for the Quad City Airport and they are going to provide tables for the booth at the festival, as well as gift baskets to be raffled off, or given as door prizes. Cathie also said she was going to try to find some way to help us get a tent for the event.

Our booth at the Unity Festival will have ServiceNation literature (I still need to find a donor for the printing costs), as well as (I am hoping) recruiting materials for the Peace Corps and Americorps. I am also looking into getting voter registration forms to encourage people to vote for candidates that support our goals. I starting to get really excited now, and nervous—so many details to attend to!

My meeting yesterday with Phyllis Thede and Ruben Moore Jr. of the Unity Fest was very productive. They were happy to have ServiceNation on board and asked me to bring as many service organizations as I’d like to the festival—booth space for non-profits is free. So, together, we are going to create this great event exactly where I pictured it, almost the way I pictured it, and the logistics are already being handled. Yay!

Ruben is also the education coordinator for the local Elks Club; Phyllis is a candidate for state house of representatives in Iowa. The Unity Fest is also sponsored by the Davenport Civil Rights Commission, Davenport Sister Cities, and a host of other Quad Cities community groups and businesses.

Inspired by our meeting, I stopped at St. Ambrose University afterwards and met with Elizabeth Loveless. She is the director of graduate student recruitment, and the advisor for the university’s Circle K (Kiwanis) Club. We also had a very productive meeting, and she is going to present ServiceNation information at the first meeting of the semester. She indicated that the Circle K Club would probably participate, acting as useful volunteers at the Unity Fest—playing gopher and staffing any tables or booths that needed help. Elizabeth also gave me the names of SAU’s new director of service learning—a brand new department, and their new Career Center director, who will be interested in the national service (i.e. Americorps) connection.

So, I’m thrilled at the unfolding events. NOW I feel as though it is all beginning to make sense and I have a long list of folks to get to the fair!

Visit the Web site for the Unity Fest:

http://www.unityfestqc.com/

ServiceNation Blog July 17, 2008

These past few weeks have seemed like an uphill struggle but then comes one golden moment when everything gels and suddenly everything is falling into place.

After emailing the Unitarian Universalist Church here in Davenport, I received a call from Caroline Vernon, the co-chair of their Social Justice Committee. Caroline is also a member of Progressive Action for the Common Good and she suggested that I contact two people with PACG. She was going to forward my email onto them—I had sent her a copy of the brochure I created and the ServiceNation FAQ. She was very excited about the ServiceNation campaign.

Later in the day, I called the City of Davenport to discover the availability on the riverfront park where I envisioned a ServiceFest. I learned that the park was already booked for September 27 for an event called the UnityFest—a festival celebrating our cultural diversity. They are having music, a concert to raise scholarship funds for area students, vendors, etc., in a three day event. I was put in touch with the woman who booked the park and discovered I was talking to our local state representative candidate Phyllis Thede. When I told her about ServiceNation, she was very excited and she quickly put together a meeting with other prime movers in the community for next week. They have also agreed to give us free both space for the Festival. So, the original event I had envisioned, while slightly different, has already been created! This saves a lot of work.

So, I expect to get the UnityFest listed as a NDOA event. Following that, I will be contacting other area organizations to see what events they may have planned for that day that involve community action and service and bring them under our umbrella.

At the UnityFest, I plan to distribute literature on national and community service, collect signatures, register voters, and educate the general public on the ServiceNation campaign. I will recruit Americorps members and Americorps Alums to staff the table for at least Saturday, September 27. I have contacted Americorps to request literature on national service opportunities, and I will contact our local Americorps recruiters and placement agencies to provide information on local opportunities.

Once we have solidified our partnership with UnityFest, I will then be able to proceed with press releases about the events, letters to the editor and op-ed pieces on the value of service to our community and our nation. I finally feel like it is all beginning to come together.

In August, I will also be attending the Upper Mississippi River Conference, where I will be able to make contact with all the important local environmental groups, and can invite them to list or create an event for that day.

I also heard from the Peoria Parks Department and they have three events scheduled for Sept. 27, that they are going to list on our Web site. In the meantime, I have a volunteer calling all our local community service agencies and organizations to discover if they have an existing event, community service project, or related activity happening on September 27. Once I have a list of the existing events, I will be following up to encourage them to include their event as part of the National Day of Action. Organizations that do not already have a scheduled event will be contacted about creating one or, barring that, signing a support pledge.

I have also designed a support pledge letter that I hope to post to Google documents, as well as a multiple-signature pledge form for public events.

Links:

The Unitarian Church of Davenport, Iowa: http://www.qcuu.org

Peoria Park District, Peoria, Illinois: http://www.peoriaparks.org

Progressive Action for the Common Good: http://www.qcprogressiveaction.org

Upper Mississippi River Conference: http://www.riveraction.org/riverwayconference/

Well, after being offline for nearly 3 weeks due to two computer crashes (laptop AND a second desktop–the first desktop crashed and died in May), I am finally getting back on track.  You see, after the laptop crashed, I was able to purchase a computer from friend and spent a week putting things back together before it, too, began to have problems.  When Mr. Friend came to fix the computer (while I was at work), he managed to reformat the whole thing and never bothered to warn me or to back up my data, so I had to go back to square one, once again.

My community, too, is recovering from the massive Midwestern floods, as road re-open, disaster victims are getting back into their homes or getting the help they need, and (hopefully) officials will once again be available for meetings.

This week I am rebuilding all my mailing lists, etc., completing the to-do-lists from before the crash, and re-creating documents that were lost, damaged, or destroyed, as well as re-installing all the needed software to do so.

I met with Vickie Sedam of Royal Neighbors of America and gave her all the needed information to persuade her boss to offer national support to our efforts.  Their national headquarters are here in  Rock Island.  I am still seeking ways to get printing done, looking for donors to cover costs like postage, gas, and office supplies, and getting notices out online to potential volunteers to help organize our big event.

So, I have no big news at the moment, but will keep everyone posted.

Blog Post June 29, 2008

Well, I feel as though I have gotten really behind due to severe technical difficulties on my end—my one and only computer suddenly stroked out and died (hard drive failure in my laptop). Data retrieval was out of the question (mostly due to the out-of-pocket cost), so I am now attempting to rebuild my contact lists, notes, etc. Not much fun. Today, I am making friends with my new desktop computer, which I acquired from a friend who rebuilds such things at a fraction of retail. However, it has little to no software and I am downloading and re-installing many necessary programs.  Also, many officials and persons of interest have been too busy with flood response to be available for discussions and 1×1’s.

However, I have not been idle in my contacts. Here, in no particular order, is a brief summary of the Quad Cities’ progress toward the National Day of Action:

• Tricia Rummer with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is very excited about the NDOA. She wants to place her Americorps volunteers in prominent locations on that day, including helping to organize the big ServiceFest I hope to create on Davenport’s riverfront. Her Americorps volunteers are required to do at least one off-site community service project, and she thinks that she can get several of them to serve as part of my organizing committee, or at least as interns to help contact and recruit committee members.

• The Quad Cities Earth Week Coalition, ILiveHere.org, and the Scott County Waste Commission are also expressing interest in participation. More follow-up is needed.

• There is a strong contact with AmericorpsAlums that will hopefully yield more hands, minds and bodies to help create ServiceFest.

• I am now the President of Royal Neighbors of America Chapter #20039 in Davenport, Iowa. The seed money the chapter receives must be spent in the ways that the members vote, and there is not much, but the support of the members with or without cash donation will be very helpful.

I have one more week of teaching before I am done for the summer. By then, the flood waters will have all receded, the cleanup will be well underway and community officials will once again be available for meetings. I will also have my computer and all my documents in order by then and hope to move forward quickly.

I am looking forward to getting a list of the organizations that endorse us and the contact persons at the top. This will help a great deal when contacting local organizations.

This week’s goals:

• Contact and make appointment with the person responsible for booking LeClaire Park.

• Finish up list of to-do-things that were derailed by computer crash.

• Make a list of all contacts and share.

• Follow-up on all neglected emails.

• Re-discover usernames, passwords, etc., for a variety of things like blogs, email, etc.

• Re-construct pre-computer-crash notes and info from Atlanta.

I am looking forward to reading others’ blogs as well!