The 20-by-30 foot American flag was recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center and is now on a national tour of all 50 states. It was nearly destroyed in the collapse in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, but was stitched back together by tornado survivors in Greensburg, Kansas. The small white square at the bottom right portion of the blue has a piece of the flag that President Lincoln’s head rested on when he was shot. This flag was also on display at the funeral of Christina Taylor Green who was killed in the Arizona shootings and will tour each state where people continue working to repair it. Afterwards, it will return to the site of the World Trade Centers where it will be flown again as a patriotic symbol of survival.

Click here to see the online photo album from the award ceremony.

“The best thing about this event is the ability to thank all our volunteers,” said Jeff Rose, coordinator of Volunteer Services. “There are so many people who give their time and skills to help the residents of Friendship VIllage. It is also powerful to be able to thank our residents who take part in helping the local community through their outreach volunteer efforts.”

Rose reported that volunteer hours were up by 6.4% from 7,751 hours in 2010 to 8,246. The number of volunteers increased by 9.4% from 339 total volunteers in 2010 to 371 in 2011.

Volunteer Opportunities on the Friendship Village Campus

“Spiritual Care Visitors” is a new program where interested residents and community members are able to visit residents of the Briarwood Health Care Center to provide spiritual care. This group is led by Chaplain Shawn Kafader and consists of residents as well as outside volunteers.

Friendship Village is once again a site for 100 high school students to fulfill requirements for service hours as well as to give back and be volunteers within their local community. They participated in a variety of volunteer opportunities ranging from Wii bowling assistants to piano players.

Volunteers also help residents participate in Care Cap Crusaders and project Linus.

Community Outreach Volunteer Opportunities for Residents

The popularity of the outreach projects by residents accounts for a 44% increase in resident volunteer hours from 3,852 in 2010 to a staggering 5,557 in 2011.

Jeannette Magdaleno, Life Long Learning & Community Outreach Volunteer Coordinator, described the numerous resident volunteer outreach initiatives:

“Feed My Starving Children”  where Friendship Village volunteers packed 5,400 meals, which will feed 15 children for an entire year in 3rd world countries.

Hoover Friendship Garden project that began in 2010, with snow on the ground and ended with a brand new greenhouse and garden. This project will continue for years to come.

W.I.N.G.S – The mission of W.I.N.G.S. is to provide a continuum of integrated services in an effort to end domestic violence and homelessness, one family at a time. Friendship Village residents volunteer at their resale shop, sorting clothes and stocking shelves.

Willow Creek Food Pantry provides food and care for families in need. Residents volunteer weekly to pack bags with groceries.

“Intergenerational Fishing Event” is a local after-school program, where children can participate in a fishing event with our residents. This will continue in the future.

“Parent Day” for Children’s Home and Aid is an event that Friendship Village hosts for parents and families of Children’s Home and Aid on our campus. Residents also volunteer weekly to assist in the classroom with the children as part of this program.

Additional resident volunteer projects include the Go Green bicycle path cleanup and teachers aid volunteering at Aldrin School.

Volunteer Awards

Volunteer and outreach programs at Friendship Village are recognized with awards from numerous organizations. This past year, Friendship Village volunteers were recognized on five separate occasions for:

Care Cap Crusaders – “Halo of Hope Gold Award” – from 2009-2011 volunteers created 1,639 hats for cancer patients. Last year we also received the Halos of Hope Silver Award for our efforts

Life Services Network’s “Community Impact Award” – for the intergenerational program with The Hoover Greenhouse Project, and its impact on our local community.

The Volunteer Center of Northwest Suburban Chicago – “Impact Awards” recognized volunteers with an Honorable Mention – for work with The Hoover Greenhouse Project, and its impact on our local community

School District 54 Community Partner Award – “Super Partner” – for Friendship Village residents’ role as teachers aids in the classrooms and work on the greenhouse project.

Future projects for Friendship Village Volunteers

This year even more volunteer opportunities will be available for Friendship Village volunteers, such as: the creation of an intergenerational choir; acting as science fair judges at Hoover Math and Science Academy, recycling of grocery bags into practical applications along with other ideas in the planning stages.

“Our residents are continuing to make a difference in the world by volunteering in the outside community. They truly are setting an example to all of us of how important it is to help others. We hope this encourages others to explore opportunities to get involved and give back,” concluded Magdaleno.

Friendship Village received the “Community Impact Award” from Life Services Network during their annual conference held at Navy Pier. The award honors Friendship Village’s outreach program to Herbert Hoover Elementary School where the Friendship Village residents and staff worked with students and teachers to create “Hoover Friendship Garden… Growing Green Dreams.”

“The intergenerational partnership between the school and our community served both organizations in many ways,” said Mike McCann, Director of Lifestyles for Friendship Village. “Residents helped students build a greenhouse where they planted and tended the organic garden. Once harvested, all food is donated to the local food pantry.”

The Hoover Friendship Garden project contributed to Herbert Hoover Elementary School earning the recent Math and Science Academy designation.

Life Services Network (LSN) is the state chapter of the national trade organization for not-for-profit senior housing and services (Leading Age). LSN’s Community Impact Award recognizes the impact Hoover Friendship Garden has on the community-at-large, the organization and its core mission. The initiative helps to change the paradigm of volunteer programs and sets an example for other senior communities to follow.

This program will continue and grow this year and into the future. Follow the progress by reading How Does Your Garden Grow by Friendship Village resident blogger, Shirley Odegaard.

Friendship Village resident volunteers routinely “go to class” to help students with their class work.  However, a bold initiative to build a greenhouse and garden on the school grounds required a large group of seniors to help with the project.  Friendship Village residents joined Hoover school staff and students to build the greenhouse and garden, plant the organically grown vegetables and continue to tend the crops that are donated to the Schaumburg Food Pantry.

Friendship Village will continue its partnership with Hoover School along with its other community service programs, including:  Children’s Home & Aid, Feed My Starving Children, Willow Creek Food Pantry, WINGS and Aldrin Elementary School.

For more information about volunteer opportunities at Friendship Village or with Friendship Village residents, contact, Jeannette Magdaleno at 847-884-5539.

During the event, Friendship Village resident Tom Carroll was given the opportunity to address the audience.

“Good Morning, My name is Tom Carroll and I have been a resident of Schaumburg for over forty years and a resident of Friendship Village for the past three years. At Friendship Village we are fortunate to have many organizations, and individuals volunteer to come onto our campus to give to our community. We at Friendship Village are delighted to take the opportunity to give back to the Schaumburg community for all of the wonderful things it has done for us. We have done this by partnering with Hoover Elementary School in the Hoover Friendship Garden-Growing Green Dreams. I was impressed at our first meeting with the Hoover Staff and students. They met the project with great interest and enthusiasm. This partnership gives us the opportunity to give back to the community. Not just here at Hoover, but to the larger community by donating the food that has been grown to the Schaumburg Food Pantry. I feel that I have a special connection to this project as my children and grandchildren have all attended Hoover. In fact I have a granddaughter currently enrolled in the fourth grade here and an eighteen month old grandchild waiting to attend. This has truly been a multigenerational experience for me and I can foresee it benefiting future generations to come.

Thank you.”

– Tom Carroll

Click here to view Daily Herald article

Check out the ongoing progress about this project in the article How Does Your Garden Grow?  on the home page of Among Friends.

See our photos on the AmongFriends.FriendshipVillage web album.

Click to see recent coverage published in the Daily Herald.

See our online photo album

Watch our slide show of one of our work days

other greenhouse posts:

Handymen Dig Into a Project at Hoover School

Friendship Greenhouse Dedication Ceremony

Schaumburg student/senior garden a model of cooperation (Daily Herald)

It was just a seed of an idea… build a greenhouse, ask seasoned gardeners how to grow vegetables, and then give the produce to the local food pantry.
But Principal Jake Chung and the staff at Herbert Hoover Elementary School in Schaumburg have a vision far beyond the glass panels of a single greenhouse. Hoover School is seeking approval to become a Math and Science Academy in July 2010 and is beginning its community partnerships with a nearby senior living community, Friendship Village of Schaumburg.
“The involvement of Friendship Village’s residents is very important to the success of this initiative,” Chung says. “We are very pleased that so many of them will be part of the children’s experience.”
Friendship Village’s Go Green and Garden clubs will partner one-on-one with students to help them grow vegetables organically, and its woodworking shop will help students design and build shelves and growing apparatus. On top of that, Friendship Village’s Land Stewardship Committee will help develop the grounds immediately surrounding the greenhouse.

Altogether, Hoover’s greenhouse project will begin with about 10 volunteers from Friendship Village. Dozens more are expected to participate in the program in some way as opportunities surface. Currently, Friendship Village, a Continuing Care Retirement Community, is home to about 1,000 adults 62 and older.
Jeannette Magdelano, Lifelong Learning Coordinator is organizing the Friendship Village effort for this project. She will be assembling the volunteers in the coming weeks. She said, “We are really excited about this partnership. Not only is it intergenerational but it will really help the children grow in the field of science. We see this growing in the coming years with residents becoming more and more involved with the program. We all believe the sky is the limit to this initiative.”
Hoover Elementary School and Friendship Village residents are planning to meet in April to brainstorm ideas for the greenhouse and then enjoy pizza together. Some of the seniors already volunteer in classrooms at the school, which has 550 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
While the first greenhouse will be built with a $5,000 grant from the Schaumburg Township Elementary School Foundation, the Hoover staff have applied for six other grants to create additional greenhouses, purchase equipment such as a time-release camera to watch the garden grow, and buy solar panels and many other tools to make the Math and Science Academy one of the best in the nation.
“The first greenhouse is an important step toward the success of the Math and Science Academy program,” Chung explains. “Every child in the school will touch this program in one way or another. Since the Academy will not be open prior to the graduation of the current fifth- and sixth-graders, we will bring them into the project first.”
“We know that many friendships will be built between the children and the seniors. We look forward to seeing what they learn from each other and how they will problem-solve when things don’t turn out as expected, and to the many funny, loving and interesting experiences they will no doubt build together,” he says.