February Wrap-Up
Anniversaries
Join us in congratulating our staff member who celebrated their work anniversary in January!
Molly Clark, Operations Manager
2nd Anniversary
Welcome
Our team has grown quite a bit since our last newsletter! Join us in welcoming Becky Jarzynka, Emily Bennetzen, and Jasmin Lopez. Our newest team members have joined our Direct Care Staff team at the Shelter. Pictures and bios will be coming soon!
Hope Harbor needs
Thanks to all our generous donors and supporters, we currently don’t have any urgent needs!
After posting multiple social media posts asking for help to restock our depleted food pantries and traditional media sharing our ask, we were flooded with donation after donation. Donors came by with food pantry items such as: cereal, pasta, pasta sauce, canned meat, canned veggies, and other non-perishable goods. We have been able to replenish the food pantry for our residents and the food pantry in the Service Center for our Community Assistance program.
While we no longer have an urgent need for food pantry items, we will always happily accept more to continue providing meals to our residents and those in need in the community.
If you’d like to donate, please drop off donations at our Service Center, Monday through Friday, from 8:00am to 4:00pm.
For after hour donations, call our Direct Care Staff at (308) 383-4634 to arrange a drop off.
Thank you, you help keep Hope Harbor a shelter from the storm.
Hope for the Holidays RecaP
Words can’t begin to describe how grateful we are to our community! With your help, we were able to create a wonderful memory for our residents.
We would like to thank the community members who participated in Hope for the Holidays, US Cellular, Tommy Gunz Restaurant, Blue Star Christmas Tree & Reindeer Farm, and Santa! Hope for the Holidays sponsors made wishes come true by fulfilling our residents' gift wishlists! US Cellular's generous donation allowed us to upgrade our annual resident party to a larger location with a fancy meal and decorations. Their employees also allowed our staff members to catch a break by volunteering to serve the food, transport the gifts, and so much more! Tommy Gunz provided a much-needed larger space with corn hole for entertainment. Blue Star Farm brought reindeer Dolly & Dash for our residents to enjoy. Santa, of course, made an appearance and made holiday wishes come true!
Thank you!
Serving Up Hope ReCap
We’d like to thank every single donor, supporter, volunteer, staff member, and board member for another successful Serving Up Hope fundraiser!
For our 11th Serving Up Hope gala, our theme was “Mystery in the Making.” We kept the featured ingredient and featured chef a secret! We revealed our featured chef was Sonephet Manivong, owner and chef of Sticky Rice. At the gala, we revealed the master ingredient was Thai eggplant! Chef Sonephet provided a delicious Thai eggplant soup with rice during our cocktail hour.
After dinner, we heard the testimony of our former resident, Kathie. As always, we gave Kathie a standing ovation for sharing her story and vulnerability. It is always inspiring to be able to hear the journey of a resident first hand. Shortly after, we surpassed our Bid for Hope monetary goal thanks to all our generous donors at the event and even from those who could not make it!
Our Silent Auction closed right after and the nearly 100 items we had, all sold!
Before kicking off our Live Auction, we began with a fan favorite game, the First-Chance Drawing! Guests were able to purchase a $100 ticket(s) in hopes of being drawn to win and select any of the live auction items. Our raffle winners ended up being Drs. Josh and Lynda Conner! They chose the beautiful trip to Costa Rica, which was an item we could still offer on the auction again! Our Live Auction then began and the buzz in the room was off the charts. Supporters bid back and forth, raising the funds for Hope Harbor.
Halfway through the Live Auction, we played another classic Hope Harbor Serving Up Hope game, Heads or Tails. Heads or Tails is a competition game where guests guess if the flipped coin will land on heads or tails and the last player will win $500 cash. To play this game, they purchase a Hope Harbor merchandise item. This year we sold blue spatulas with our Hope Harbor logo on it and the $500 cash was sponsored by Lutz. Once we got down to our last 10 players, we pulled them on stage and continued the game! After the winner claimed their prize, we resumed our Live Auction.
Once our Live Auction ended, we wrapped up the night and celebrated another successful Serving Up Hope fundraiser.
What’s next
Hunting for Hope! Our 6th annual scavenger hunt fundraiser is coming up soon! Save the date and stay tuned on our social media for new information.
