Winter's a-comin'!

Happy Halloween!

We have had a busy time of it these past few weeks! The VISTAs were at a training at Rockcraft lodge in Sebago, Maine; people became aware of the Acholi plight; houses were winterized; dinner was cooked at Ronald McDonald House; and everybody made it out smiling!

Election day is coming QUICKLY, and the Office encourages you to get out and vote: Come on people, shake your booty, vote and do your civic duty! If you need to find your polling place, Google has an awesome tool!

No matter what you believe, this week has a lot of celebrations happening. I hope you were able to enjoy one of the many festivites!

Welcome, November!

Amanda

Harvest on the Harbor!

Hello, Fall-Loving people!

Harvest on the Harbor is having its FIRST wine and food tasting here in Portland! This Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Portland is hosting this event at Portland's new Ocean Gateway on Commercial Street in the Old Port!

They are looking for last-minute volunteers for a Saturday shift from 1-5:30. You would be pouring wine, taking tickets, handing out programs or selling water to guests.

Benefits include tickets to a future event, and free early admission on Saturday OR free tickets to one of the many food lectures being given on Friday! This is a HUGE event; over 4000 people are expected to attend!

All interested volunteers must be 21+ and personable!

If you are interested, please write avickerson@usm.maine.edu NO LATER than 9PM Wednesday.

Happy foliage!
Amanda

Top o' the Thursday to ya

Hey blog friends,

This week is a crazy week! Fall break + Fall Fest = whoa.

Since we had such a short week, we decided to back off a bit. We have some big things coming up at the end of the month, which I described last post: Acholi Awareness, Dress for Success, PRYSM, voting, Winterization, and more!

It's almost time to do dinner at the Ronald McDonald House again!
Monday, October 27th, I'll be headed over there around 4 to make a meal for the guests staying there. Please email if you want to join!

I hope that this weekend's beautiful weather was as splendid for you as it was for me!

Peace out,
Amanda

HEYO!

It's October, it's beautiful, and we have opportunities!

Acholi Awareness 2008
Help Us Help Women

Fall Clean-Up
Winterization Kits
Equality Maine Poll Help

Mentor Opportunity with PRYSM

Ongoing Opportunities

Acholi Awareness

Join us the last week of October to raise awareness of the plight of the Acholi people in Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan, and around the world. Documentary flims, a walk around the Bay and a Cultural Fair will all be happening this month! It looks like it will be a fantastically wonderful experience!

Help Us Help Women

Dress for Success of Southern Maine is sponsoring a clothing drive right here at USM! The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support, and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

They are looking for gently worn work wear like suits and separates, blouses, shoes and accessories, winter dress coats, and ESPECIALLY clothes size 18 and up.

Contact LyndsayS@usm.maine.edu for more information!

Clothes must be in mint condition, on hangers, ready-to-wear, and no more than three years old. Please bring them to the Women’s Resource Center in Woodbury until October 17^th!

Fall Clean-Up

In conjunction with the Southern Maine Agency on Agency, we will be sending teams of students out into the Greater Portland area to rake leaves and do general yard clean-up for our elderly neighbors. If you have an afternoon to wield a rake and trash bag, please email us at community@usm.maine.edu!

Winterization Kits

On October 24^th, USM is partnering with United Way of Greater Portland to install winterization kits in the community. We will be sending three teams into the homes of community members who need help getting their homes ready for winter. Please email us if you want to be on one of the teams!

EqualityMaine

EqualityMaine is looking for volunteers to help protect equal rights in Maine. They would love it if you could donate four hours on election day! A record number of voters is expected at the polls this fall, and EqualityMaine is taking advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to talk with Maine voters about equality. They have set an ambitious goal: identify 10,000 pro-equality voters, so we can move into 2009 with a powerful base of support.

If this strikes your fancy, email sparker-holmes@usm.maine.edu!

Mentor Opportunity with PRYSM

PRYSM provides a safe and positive space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and allied (LGBTQA) young people that offers social support, leadership development and community education. Volunteer opportunities include being an adult advisor to youth, advisory committee participation, and more! Please email Amanda for more information: avickerson@usm.maine.edu

Ongoing Opportunities

We’re always looking for mentors and tutors! If you missed our two info sessions this week, don’t hesitate to contact me! avickerson@usm.maine.edu

Civic Leadership Series

The Civic Leadership Series happens every week on both campuses, and we help students learn more effective ways of communicating, recruiting, and maintaining their projects. If you are a student leader of ANY kind, you are welcome to attend our sessions!

Our next session is the week of the 20^th and will be on Planning Projects and Running Meetings. We will have Bill Vickerson, Dale Carnegie instructor and attorney, as a guest speaker!

That’s all for this week! Wee!

Enjoy this glorious weather!

Amanda

Mentoring info sessions!

WE ARE HAVING TWO EVENTS NEXT WEEK!

There will be a mentor orientation for those of you who would like to work in the Gorham Schools next MONDAY, October 6th.
It will be at Gorham Middle School, and we will be meeting at 6pm (we will have pizza, worry not!)
Please come to that if you're interested in the tutoring opportunity at Gorham High School.

For all other interested mentors and tutors, there will be another, less formal info session WEDNESDAY, October 8th at 5:30 in the Husky Hut! Come for pizza and to chat me up about our available programs!

Come be a Big Brother/Big Sister, work with STRIVE, or within the Portland and Gorham school systems!

Hope to see you there!
Amanda

Let's Make Things Happen!

HELLOOOO!

Fall is here, and it’s time to get involved!

• Coastal Clean-Up
• Mentoring: Spotlight on STRIVE U and Reiche
• Tutoring
• Free Press article
• Dinner at Ronald McDonald House
  

The Coastal Clean-Up is THIS SATURDAY from 1-5pm at Higgins Beach in Scarborough. We’re going to collect and catalog trash so that the environmental group can see what’s being thrown where!

We still have room available, so contact community@usm.maine.edu if you want to join!

We are ALWAYS looking for mentors!

I know I wrote about it before, but I want to highlight two special mentoring programs:

STRIVE U is a program for emotionally and physically disabled 15-24 year olds. They are looking for mentors to come hang out with their students a few hours a week. This extra time commitment is spent usually doing an hour of schoolwork and then an hour of fun! Students love to play board games or basketball, or just talk to you! The students at STRIVE U are mainstreamed as much as possible, but sometimes they just want to connect with kids their own age. If you can't commit to mentoring, they have social events every Friday night and are always looking for volunteers to come hang out!

Reiche School on Brackett Street in Portland has an innovative mentoring program that needs students! This after-school program puts mentors with small groups of Reiche students at a time. Over the weeks, the kids form a strong bond with their mentor while they do homework, play games, or other activities. This program has a unique teaching opportunity: mentors are encouraged to teach a short lesson on something fun, like doing yoga, knitting, or cooking! The Reiche program is a branch of the SAFE & SMART program, which focuses on educating kids about whole health.

If you think either of these (or any of our) mentoring programs sound interesting, please let me know!
avickerson@usm.maine.edu, 780-4537

Tutoring!

We have an after-school study session set up at both Portland and Gorham High School. These sessions are staffed by a teacher, some peer helpers from the school, and USM students. The Portland program is run through the Portland Mentoring Alliance, and the Gorham program is the brainchild of Joe Cerny, one of our AmeriCorps Service Leaders!
If you’d like to spend an hour or two a week in a low-key tutoring environment, please let me know!
avickerson@usm.maine.edu, 780-4537

Read about us in the Free Press!

Our very own Alicia Sampson wrote an article in the Free Press about getting involved with the local community. It hits stands next week, so keep your eyes open!

Dinner at Ronald McDonald House

The last Monday of every month is our night to cook dinner at the Ronald McDonald House on Brackett Street in Portland. We need a few students to commit an hour or two to preparing a dinner that will be served buffet style around 6pm. This a really easy way to get involved at a great place, and I encourage you to contact me if you'd like to join me!
I'll be going this coming Monday, September 29th, around 4:30pm.

I hope that one or more of these activities will inspire you to get involved! We can’t do it without you!
See you soon,
Amanda

KickOffs, Leadership, and Mentoring!

Hellooo!

The Community Service Kick Off went well! We had some dedicated volunteers who helped us build, clean, serve, and cook! We hope that next year, it can be even bigger and better!

Coming up next:
Our Civic Leadership Series!
With this series of leadership trainings, we will be offering practical skills for effective leadership, with the intent of gaining a deeper understanding of the role of what it means to be a citizen leader at USM and in Southern Maine.

We will be offering workshops in Portland and Gorham that fall into two tracks. The USM track is for current or aspiring student group leaders; the Community Partnership track is for students engaged in community work in greater Portland. There is a certificate upon completion of either track.

We really hope that this series will be helpful for you to learn how to be a great leader. It will be hosted by the three VISTAs of our office and the advisor for PIRG, Carrie Shepard.

We’re going to offer it once a week on both campuses:
Gorham Trainings: 7:00 PM Wednesdays in the Husky Hut
Portland Trainings: 1:30 PM Thursdays Luther Bonney 503

If you are interested in participating, please shoot us an email!


We are also in full swing of recruiting mentors for this year!

We currently have mentorships in every Portland elementary school, almost all the Portland middle schools, and Portland and Deering High. In Gorham, we have partnerships at the middle school and the high school. Additionally, we have mentors at Greely Middle School, the Kaler Elementary School in South Portland, and the Saccarappa Primary School in Westbrook.


If you want to be a mentor, please let me know! (avickerson@usm.maine.edu)
It’s an hour a week and will make a HUGE difference in a kid’s life!
I have a pre-application ready to email you ASAP, and we always need mentors!

I hope to see you soon!
:)
Amanda