United Way Time!

InterServ staff and volunteers have been pounding the pavement at local United Way rallies held by businesses and corporations around the area recently.
The support that United Way gives InterServ is vital to our programming. As the largest recipient of UW funding, InterServ gladly promotes the UW campaign to raise a little over $3 million to support the 18 agencies and its 6 initiatives.
Please support the local United Way! The campaign runs through the end of October!

InterServ announces Building InterServ

$5 million capital campaign to replace wesley center

 

 

St. Joseph, Mo. _ After many years of exploration, information gathering and prayer, The InterServ
Foundation, in support of Interfaith Community Services, Inc., has announced a goal of $5 million to build a new health and wellness center in south St. Joseph.

The “Building InterServ” capital campaign was approved by both the InterServ Board of Directors and The InterServ Foundation Board of Directors during the summer of 2014 and a capital campaign committee was formed. This committee is chaired by Mr. Joseph K. Houts, Jr. and co-chaired by Mrs. Joyce Edwards.
 

The focus of the five-year plan is to secure funding to erect a new community center in support of

InterServ’s faithful commitment to our community that began in 1909. All campaign funding will support new construction at the corner of Cherokee and King Hill Avenue that will replace the Wesley Center and allow InterServ to continue operations in St. Joseph for another 100 years.
 

Through the combined efforts of leadership at both InterServ and The InterServ Foundation, $1,694,745 of the $5 million goal has been raised with total commitment by both InterServ boards, its administration and staff.

Ellison-Auxier Architects, Inc. will be the design firm for the project. Preliminary work on the design has been started and will continue over the next year, providing for a new gymnasium, commons area, fitness/weightroom, kitchen and food pantry.

 

For more information concerning “Building InterServ” contact The InterServ Foundation at (816) 238-4511, ext. 222 or at www.theinterservfoundation.org.

Mindful of and grateful for your compassion

Imagine having to choose between feeding your children or replacing the shoes they just grew out of. Imagine having to work late, knowing that your 9 year old will come home from school to an empty house, no dinner, and an evening alone in a neighborhood that’s a little rough. Now imagine that it’s Christmas. There’s no tree. And, even if there were, there’s no money for gifts to go under it. That a 9 year old is home every day for 2 weeks with very little food in the house and no heat, because the gas was disconnected in November.

Throughout its one hundred five year history, InterServ has relied on its partnerships with people of faith, services clubs, schools and businesses—its donors and volunteers—to assure that any person who needs help is able to get help. Each year, the generosity of thousands of people helps thousands of people in need to meet their own basic needs and to be fed—body, mind and spirit. As volunteers and donors, you are present and available, through InterServ, for youth who need guidance and supervision; families whose children need care so that parents can work during the day; elderly persons, as they age gracefully in their own homes; immigrants searching for a better life for themselves and their families; and people facing homelessness and hunger due to financial crises.

In this season of faithful reflection, we remain mindful of and grateful for your compassion and support and the enormous difference it makes in the lives of people who turn to InterServ for assistance. Your kindness allows us, as a community, to respond in a way that reflects the social teaching of the Gospel, bringing awareness of a loving and compassionate God in all seasons.  Thank you.

“Through the sharing of God’s love, we seek out and assist those in need, so that all may live their lives more fully and more capably.”

Peace and joy,

 

Dave Howery

The Lessons of Leaves

Bridget Supple - The InterServ Foundation.

 

Reflecting back on the year, one thing that always strikes me is the number of loyal and steadfast supporters we have lost. Many were unexpected — sudden illness or accident — but just as many can be attributed to the cycle of life, finding the inevitable end of its path for many who believed in supporting the organizations that help other people.

Walking through my neighborhood recently, enjoying the last of the warmer weather and trying to judge how long the leaves still had before they were piles to rake, it occurred to me that we, as social workers, volunteers and donors who support the work of InterServ, often expect of humankind what we cannot and should not expect of anyone or anything. We want permanence, finality, an end to having to raise money for "the cause," an end to helping people dig out of messes, an end to human suffering, an end to everything we do. But, as we learn every year from the autumn leaves, that just isn’t nature’s way. The world does not trade in permanence, but in perpetual rebirth and renewal.

Nowhere is the circle of life more evident than it is in the ranks of volunteers and donors. InterServ and its Foundation are full of "servants." People — like you — who know how to make things happen. People who make sure that people who turn to InterServ in times of need get what they need and then some — a shoulder on which to cry; a kind word; a reassuring touch; a smile that tells them that it will be okay — maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually.

The people of InterServ — volunteer, employee and donor — don’t do the things they do for their own glory. They do their jobs — paid or unpaid — every day for someone else. They may not know who that "someone" is yet, but they know, without a doubt, that there will be a "someone" who needs their help. Their hearts are the hearts of servants, the hearts of caregivers. Their hearts know that what today brings will end and tomorrow will bring something else — a problem, a blessing, something.

This year, as every year, we have lost several of our most loyal and devoted "InterServants." As we reflect on them and their support of InterServ, our memories take us back to others we have known through this mission of faith and service. People we have lost in that never-ending circle of life. People who have shown us what it means to, truly, care for humankind. And in our reflections, we remember the legacy that each of those lost have left. Whether it was simply the example of caring for people by delivering meals or regular donations to support the mission of InterServ, memorials requested to InterServ or an estate gift upon death, each person who has cared about InterServ has left a mark on the hearts and lives of those touched by InterServ.

We are grateful to those who have passed through this mission of faith and service, for caring about InterServ and the work that InterServ does. And we are grateful to you for what you do for InterServ every day. What will your legacy be? You are writing your legacy in our hearts every single day. Thank you for your support.

Devoted donors for InterServ

When money gets tight or harder to find, it becomes much more important to plan how to continue to accomplish our mission. And that is exactly what the staff and board at InterServ have been discussing, in much more specific terms than we have in the past—“How will we continue to serve people in need in our community if available funds continue to decrease?”

As a nonprofit that has been particularly responsive to the needs of people as well as receptive to requests from other nonprofits, churches, government, etc., to “do something” about whatever problem has arisen at any given time, InterServ has made itself vulnerable to the “mood swings” of the economy. Fortunately, you and donors like you have made us strong enough to provide resources needed to address almost any emergency situation in the community. One way in which you have done that is to rise to the occasion—when InterServ puts out a call for volunteers, you come, in droves; when we need funding to help people displaced by flooding, you provide it; and when we ask for prayers to keep our staff and volunteers strong, you pray. But one way in which our donors and volunteers have kept us strong is something that we haven’t talked much about up to now.

Over the last year or so, a number of our very devoted donors and volunteers have passed away. In several instances, just as we became accustomed to not seeing or hearing from one of them, we received a letter, letting us know that this loyal servant had included us in his or her estate plan. It is an awe-inspiring and emotional occurrence, receiving that letter. It reminds us, every time, that we are here on earth for such a short while. When we are gone, the things about which we cared, so dearly, may still exist, but will be less without our support.

And so it goes with InterServ. We will continue to feed people. To care for children. To make sure that the youth of our community stay on the right path. To help families to help themselves. To assist the elderly and the infirmed in living where they want to live. And, thanks to the thoughtfulness and planning of the many people who remembered to name InterServ as beneficiaries in their wills, InterServ is stronger and more resilient to the financial highs and lows that so often damage nonprofits. The mission lives on.

Simply naming InterServ in your estate plan leaves behind not only a legacy of love and caring, but an answer to the question, “How will we continue to serve people in need?” Your legacy of love and caring for your neighbors is one of the most important gifts that you will ever give. InterServ promises, in return, to use your gift wisely, to help those most vulnerable among us to live their lives more fully and more capably.

We thank you for your partnership and support, but mostly we thank you for making life better for others.

A Full-Circle Connection

“…The service you provided to daddy during the recovery from his traumatic head injury brought full-circle the connection that we cherished with the “Wesley House” during our childhood and later years.  Daddy coached numerous teams of young boys and girls through baseball, softball, and basketball at Wesley House in league play.”

This excerpt is from a note we received recently from the family of one of our senior services clients.  We believe it demonstrates the interconnectedness that InterServ programming has had in the St. Joseph community for years.  Comprehensive services for seniors, families, children and youth help provide for the basic needs to people every day.   If you or a loved one is looking for ways to avoid nursing home placement, give InterServ Senior Services a call today at 232-8080 inside St. Joseph, or toll free 1-800-794-0007.

Volunteers with a vested interest

Dateline - June 30th, 2013
Place - Griffon Indoor Sports Complex
Scene - Closing of the 2013 National Youth Weightlifting Championships.

Not ten minutes after the final lift was performed at the 2013 National Youth Weightlifting Championships at MWSU did youth director Dennis Snethen get the joking question from a coach of a different team.

"When are you going to do this again?," he asked.

Dennis had been answering that question for most of the weekend due to the events success. Many parents of the lifters had been very impressed with the facility, set-up and logistics that had taken place that weekend with some of them finding Dennis and giving him good reviews.

But after getting the repeat question from that coach after the event, his answer was always the same and always started with the acknowledgment of a certain group of people.

"Let me tell you," Dennis said, "I couldn't have done this without our volunteers."

True that.

Through the years, Wesley Weightlifting parents and volunteers have had a vested interest in how the team performs and through those performances, how the young people who go through the program are shaped, molded and grow to become good citizens.

And to some of them it is more than a vested interest, it is something that they love to do and they love to do it for Dennis, his wife Becky, and all of the Wesley Weightlifters who have come and gone.

Sure, we could find their names and list them all here with their particular job descriptions they had over the weekend event - but some of them probably wouldn't care. Sure, I could tell you that they had volunteer meetings in each of the prior six months to the event to get organized - but that is just what they do. And, sure, I could tell you that I had personal interaction with at least five people (of over 30 volunteers) that had spent half the day Thursday and three 14-hour days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the event - but they probably didn't keep track.

And maybe one of these days Dennis will be approached by the USAW to host another of these national events that hosts over 350 lifters in a 3-day span.

And knowing Dennis, his first response will be "Sure, let me get my volunteers."

To all who have a vested interest in InterServ and helped with that event, InterServ thanks you!