March 2023 Newsletter

Our Community Garden Initiative now has over 25 volunteers. The first cleanup has begun and we look forward to planting in early May.  Let us know if you are interested in joining this team.

Our Bario’s gift certificate raffle brought in $440. Save the date: June 13th Dine Out at Canlon’s.

WE WILL BE MEETING WITH U.S. COAST GURARD CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER CARL LOUIS IN THE COMING WEEKS TO DISCUSS UPDATING OUR STEAM PROGRAM. PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE.

IS75 completed a sock collection, that amounted to 6 cases of socks for children and adults.

The winning tickets were purchased by Mike Kormanik and Laura Lipkin. Mike chose to support South Shore Rotary’s New Lane Food Pantry. Laura selected NAMI SI. A representative from NAMI was our guest speaker. Each charity will recieve $225. The winner(s) donates to his/her favorite charity; it is not kept by the ticket holder. To participate, go to our website and donate via PayPal or Venmo using @StatenIslandGIvingCircle. We suggest $60 (for six months or $120 for the year.).

Monetary donations we received this month: Lynne Persing for Nourish the Service Northfield Bank Foundation; Class Trip Sponsorship $500 Investors Bank for Weekend Food Backpack Program $500

Lyn Ferrante of NAMI-NYC Staten Island is an organization which includes people living with mental illness, families, and friends. NAMI builds better lives through support, education, advocacy, and public awareness. We are unique; our services, courses, presentations, and webinars are led by people with lived experience, whether families or those living with mental health conditions themselves, and are free to participants and to our community. We believe that recovery is possible, lives can be restored, and families made whole. NAMI NYC Staten Island is one of about 2000 national affiliates of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), the nation’s largest grassroots organization for people living with mental illness and their families, and one of the 40 affiliates of NAMI New York State. For additional information NAMI

See details below for details of our special May meeting. Copies of our book collaboration with Josue Mendez should be available at our next meeting.

To make a donation please use the following:Venmo: @StatenIslandGivingCirclePayPal:SIGivingCircle@aol.comChecks may be mailed to:Staten Island Giving CirclePO Box 120301Staten Island NY 10312

PLEASE KEEP US ON YOUR SHOPPING LIST, WE ARE COLLECTING: $10 Amazon gift cards and travel size Burt’s Bee’s gift sets Use our Amazon Wishlist to have your donation sent directly to us: Amazon Wishlist In addition, if you received a gift for the holidays that you would like to pass along, please bring it to the March meeting. We are looking for new items we can use for our Fundraising events.

We get inquiries for teens looking to score service hours to satisfy school requirements. We have been recommending the students organize a collection of food (cereal, granola bars, fruit cups) to be used for our Food Insecurity initiatives. Students can create flyers, host the collection and deliver to the recipient for their service credit. Please contact us for a list of items needed.

Michele Yacovello 917.733.7937 MicheleSIGC@gmail.com Evelyn Kormanik H: 718.980.4862 C: 646.240.7486 sigivingcircle@aol.com

Our meetings are held at Oakwood Heights Community Church, 345 Guyon Avenue..  The meeting is at 7pm, in person and Zoom. Please see schedule below for upcoming dates.