Monday, January 5, 2009

Karen and Bob Rutledge Family

This year our family decided to change it up a little bit. Instead of doing a project for just Christmas time, we decided to work on one to two projects all year long. So for this year we picked two projects that we felt as a family, improved the community/church and brought our family closer together.
The first project we picked is filled of lots and lots of manual labor. As most of you know we help out with a horsing program at girls camp. Two years ago we had helped move the old corrals to a new area. But there has been some problems with the location that it was moved to. So long story short our family was asked to review all the locations in the camp and come up with a couple of logical areas to move it to. So in June, August and September we all headed up to camp we hiked and rode horses around camp taking video and pictures of different locations. We then in October submitted all the information and were approved to move to a new location. We went back to camp in November and started cutting a new trail which will not only be used for Horses but also for Mt. Biking and Hiking. We are hoping that as soon as the snow melts we will be able to finish the trail and flatten out areas for corrals, trailers, and learning area's. The best thing of all is that we get to go camping while we are serving.

Our second project we decided on was to make cupcakes for different individuals/families either in our ward or in the community. Katelyn has become the lead director in this project, she is our master cupcake maker. We were able to get a couple of names from our Relief Society President of people in our area to take cupcakes to. We at this point have been able to deliver one batch so far, but our true goal is to do at least one delivery a month hopefully two that are holiday themed. This really gives us a chance to get to meet people, make new friends, and share a little bit of yummy goodness with them.
We also had a chance to donate can goods to both the Elementary School and the High School this year which helped make large food baskets for those in need in our local area. The girls really enjoyed this.


Hope all of you have a great Christmas and a successful New Year.
Love the Rutledge Family

Bruce and Ann Van Horn

With Ann being Relief Society President there is some type of service project going on at all times. However, Bruce seems to be her biggest service project.

In preparation for Christmas we were involved with a couple very worth while projects. First off the Cones Family. Joe & Laura Cones and their toddler Van moved into the basement apartment of Rocky Revels' home. Rocky lives at the east end of our street. The Cones have very little in the way of money or temporal things. Prior to their marriage both had a tough go in life. We invited them to Thanksgiving Dinner along with Mark, Amy and the kids. We all had a delightful time and the Cones really enjoyed being with our family. Laura is a member but has only attended Church in the last little while. Joe was raised Catholic on the Arapaho Reservation in Wyoming. However he mentioned to me that he knew alot about the LDS Church because on the Wind Rivers Reservation most of the families were either Catholic or LDS. Joe and Laura were married by a Bishop in Rock Springs, WY.

Joe had been studying about the Church with the missionaries at Thanksgiving time. At our Thanksgiving Dinner he mentioned to me that he was interested in being baptised. The good news is that just before Christmas he was baptised. He asked me to Confirm him the Sunday after his baptism. On Sunday (Jan. 4th) Joe will be blessing his son, Van, in Sacrament Mtg.

Besides the Cones there are a couple of families in the neighborhood that have been struggling with not having adequate income to get by on. These families were asked if neighbors could help with purchasing clothes, food, etc. for them. These families provided lists of things they needed, clothes sizes, etc and the neighbors went to work making donations and purchasing the need items. Ann assisted in the organization of this and I had the opportunity to help shop. This was a great privilege to help provide a meaningful Christmas for some special neighbors.

Dad

Monday, December 22, 2008

Mark and Amy Van Horn 2008 Project


This year we chose to help out with Sara’s 2nd grade class service project and make it ours for this Christmas. Sara’s class was preparing to visit a local nursing home and sing songs, recite poems and bring cheer to the residents that lived there. As part of this project they wanted to give a fleece blanket to all the grandmas and grandpas and asked the families to donate a piece of fleece. As a family we wanted to make sure that all the grandmas and grandpas received a blanket so we bought enough fleece to make 9 blankets. For each blanket we cut fringe around the edges and tied all the pieces to make a beautiful present for the residents. Sara then took all of our finished blankets to school the morning of their field trip. This was something that Sara and Ella had a lot of fun doing. We sat in the living room, each tying an edge of the blanket and talked about different things going on. It was a fun “hands on” service project.

Sara’s comments: Sara thought that making the blankets was fun. Sara’s class got to go all around to hand out the blankets. She said that the grandmas and grandpas were happy, one grandpa even hugged her he was so happy! She was able to sing songs to some of the residents which she thought was tons of fun. Going to the nursing home made Sara feel happy.

Ella’s comments: Ella didn’t think it was any fun making the blankets. But she did make them for the old people because she wanted them to have a blanket and didn’t want anyone to be left out. She felt happy making the blankets even though it wasn’t much fun, because she was serving others.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Jeff and Dana Van Horn Family

Well, the beginning of this year has not been the best. Jeff has been hurt since before Thanksgiving. We went to California to visit my brother and do the Theme Park Thing and Jeff was getting over some broken ribs. Then, when we got back he hurt his knee using his foot/leg to try to stop himself. The knee is bad, but if he didn't stick it out he said it would have been worse. I'm not sure how many of you have been in the backcountry of Moab, but "the penalty for failure" can be death. And that is no joke. Needless to say, our charity project was scaled down significantly. I organized (with some help from the kids), before Thanksgiving, a food drive to help our local food bank. It wasn't huge, but between my co-workers and friends we filled the Durango with good stuff - not just canned peas! That happened before I we even discussed the holiday thing. Our original plan (since Jeff was hurt) was to donate $100 per person in our family to our charity of choice. The only stipulation was that it had to be a local charity. There are so many people here who are not as well off as we are. Needless to say, when the bills started coming in for the MRI and the emergency room etc.. etc... we decided to scale down. WAY DOWN. The kids and I have taken two loads of clothes, shoes, blankets and toys to our local non-profit thrift store. We have another load waiting to go in the basement right now. The store is called Wabi Sabi and it was started by local people to help local charities. It works two ways. People make donations of "stuff" to the store - from building supplies to sleds and then the thrift store sells them at very reasonable prices to the locals. The profits raised from the sale go to help other local charities like Seekhaven Women's Shelter and the New Hope Pregnancy Center. There are many more. The cool thing is that most of the people who need these services are the ones that shop at the store! It is a pretty cool concept. Sorry, I wax philosophical. So, that's what we did for our holiday project. Our dear Jeff spends many hours doing community service by way of bike trail maintenance and he also organized a cleanup project for the loop road last summer. Our community is small and we all try to help out where we see a need.
Jeff had his surgery on Monday. They gave him a femoral block before he left there so he was pretty comfortable the first night. Last night - not so much. I stayed home from wok on Tues and today. Must go back tomorrow though. Jeff will be fine for awhile and I can call him to take his meds. I will also come home for lunch and Ian gets home at 3:30. Jeff has a friend with a bum femur who likes to come over and play video games anyway:) We will have some major bills and have put off getting Ian's braces until next year. Our insurance is good, but not that good! I hope that all of you are happy and well. We are happy at least.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Jen and Rick Endsley Family

We really enjoyed the opportunity to focus more on others this Christmas and not the consumerism that typically comes with Christmas. It seems that every year we try to scale down Christmas as our family grows because it seems like a good time to calm down and focus on just spending time together. This year each child received only 2 presents: one, a set of pajamas; the other a small gift for under $20. This helped them focus on the meaning of Christmas because they weren't worried about what they were getting. We opened our door to one of Ariel's friends whose family is struggling. She needed a welcome place for multiple weeks to eat a good meal and to feel a part of a family. I once apologized to her for the noise of the little kids at the table but she said that she loved coming to our house to eat with our family. Her family never eats together (her parents do not cook but snack) and she missed being at a kitchen table with happy faces, albeit 8 happy and hungry faces. She enjoyed watching the Christmas from Temple Square program and spending time discussing Jesus Christ. Her family is not active in any religion.

For the past 6 years we have done Christmas Mouse, which is where we choose 4 families with young children (mostly non-member families who are either are new to the area or who are struggling financially) and "visit" their home for 10 days, bringing a special gift with a rapping on the door. We've also taken food to The Gospel Lighthouse Mission, a soup kitchen in Dayton. We decided not to do those this year but to give additional money to our Stake for the Dayton Branch unit, which takes care of so many who are struggling in the downtown area. We also gave bills of various denominations to our kids to take to the Salvation Army kettle and to personally thank the bell ringers for the service they are providing. We encouraged our kids to perform acts of kindness for each other and spend time doing something another wants to do like play a board game with someone who is younger. Before and after Christmas we discussed how we are a family of plenty in things and number, so we could bless others with our belongings. The kids were willing to go through their clothing, finding clothes that were in good condition, and donating it to the local Goodwill along with some of family belongings that would directly benefit the local Bellbrook Family Resource Center that works with children and teens living in our city's government housing project.

Like John and Jessica, Rick and I are thankful for the year round services we volunteer for as we see them benefit others. This year ends my 8 years of being on the Bellbrook Soccer Association board and Rick finished his third and last year. We are thrilled when we stand out on the soccer pitch and see the kids laughing, enjoying themselves. It was only 5 short years ago that Rick and I developed a grant program, soliciting money from local businesses to pay for fees and equipment for low-income families. To some, the game of soccer may seem frivolous but we've been told that crime is lower during the soccer season because the kids in the government housing have something to keep them occupied. We've been blessed with 6 great kids who are willing to spend cold and hot Saturdays and evenings helping set up nets and goals (yes, even Thomas helps out). I've also been working on the Family Search Indexing program, transcribing census records so that people can have their Temple work done for them as well as working on our family's genealogy records to provide Temple work for our own loved ones.

This tradition is definitely a keeper. We look forward to doing it again next year and with different projects.


Thanks,

Jen Endsley

Monday, January 7, 2008

John and Jessica Van Horn Family

We had a very hard holiday season this year. It started out full of disappointment, empty promises, car accidents/problems, and surprises of the like around every corner. We were very focused on ourselves and how to get out of and around these messes. When Mark suggested we give service to others as our gifts this year, I was very concerned. We didn't know how to donate what we already needed ourselves. Then things turned around. We started doing our family home evenings on Christmas and Christ's birth. We were teaching Breanna about Jesus and how he is so important in our lives, and we started to see that we were looking at Christmas all wrong. We needed to focus on Christ and his life and the example he was and is for us. We stopped looking at ourselves and started finding ways to serve others. When Amy suggested we also donate to the Road Home, we went through our house and found things that we had that we really didn't need. We found all sorts of things that we had in excess that we could donate to those in need. Focusing on others really helped us to have charity in our hearts and through this and focusing on being like Christ, we had a very wonderful Christmas full of fun, laughter, family, and hope. We were really grateful for this opportunity to serve others and give to those who are truly in need. We look forward to making this a tradition not only at Christmas time, but also throughout the year.

Love,
John, Jessica, Breanna, & Brett

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Karen and Bob Rutledge Family

I would like to thank Mark and Amy for the great idea, we had so much fun. I would share pictures, but I lost the card from our camera its somewhere between our house and Bob's parents house. Oh well.

We decided to give to the Loomis Fire Department Toy's for Tots. I had spoken to Bob's Grandma and she said that the little girl she watches after schools mother was saying that she hoped that there would be enough donations this year so that Danielle would be able to receive at least 1 gift. So our family went to our local happy K-mart and purchased around 18 different toy's. Afterward we delivered them to the Loomis Fire Station. When we got there it was nice to see a boy's group donating gifts also. The girls got a chance to talk with the fire chief and visit the new fire station.

Please understand that the city of Loomis is quite wealthy but there is a small area there that is very underdeveloped. It is hard for the kids that barley have food to eat going to school with kids that have everything (driving new BMW's to school) I know that this was always hard for Bob since his family didn't have very much money. We hope that just a little something for those in our little community will uplift those children's spirits and make a difference in there lives.

Hope all of you have an amazing New Year and wish you much happiness.

Love
Bob, Karen, Sonoma, Katelyn, and Olivia