June 2023 Newsletter

Our Community Garden Initiative has 10-12 volunteers who maintain the garden every week. We are there on Tuesday’s at 11am. If you like to join us please contact Phil Binder, for instructions. We will be sending out a separate email with photos to update you on this amazing project. Let us know if you are interested in volunteering for this project.

Ilene Pappert of Children’s Aid/Goodhue Center was our guest speaker. Children’s Aid is committed to ensuring that there are no boundaries to young people’s aspirations, no limits to their potential. At five locations on Staten Island they engage nearly 5,500 children and youth in activities that help them learn, grow, and become leaders of their lives.  Goodhue Center’s neighborhood-based programming and services provides approximately 1,000 youth with access to woodlands, swimming, and athletics, educational enrichment, and more.

Our Canlon’s Dine Out event brought out lots of supporters and we received a $475 donation. Thanks to all who ate out that day! The 50/50 was won by JoAnn Reetz and she received $280

We are excited to announce our newest Junior Giving Circle at PS21, Margaret Emery Elm Park School. With class leaders representing each grade they will begin meeting weekly in September.

The winning tickets were purchased by Ilene Pappert and Fran Sisto. Ilene was our guest speaker from The Goodhue Center and her winnings will be put towards the purchase of additional summer items. Fran chose to support Global Medical Relief Fund. Each charity will receive $175. 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.).

Thanks to Bombas we were able to share thousands of pairs of socks with our community partner schools. We also donated gifts for PS74’s kindergarten stepping up ceremony. A donation of baby items was shared with St Roch’s Food Pantry.

On June 7th Lifestyles For the Disabled hosted a luncheon for seniors and graciously asked us to invite some of our community partners. Over 20 seniors from ACT Cares participated in the free event and had a wonderful time. In addition to lunch there was music, door prizes and goodie bags for all.

Monetary donations we received this month: Lynne Persing, The Ollis Foundation, and Performing Provider System. All in support of the Fort Wadsworth Food and Essentials Closet. Richmond County Savings Foundation awarded us a $1000 grant for our Community Garden.

Copies of our book “Learning About Giving” will be available for sale at our next meeting. The price of $10 per copy will help to cover the printing cost.

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: BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES Use our Amazon Wishlist to have your donation sent directly to us: In addition, if you received a gift that you would like to pass along, please contact us. 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

The meetings are at 7pm, in person and Zoom. Please see schedule below for upcoming dates.