Stories
I received a letter in the mail from my grandparents the other day, Ruby and Kenny Bryant, that just embodied the spirit of this fundraising campaign. They are in their mid-90s, and don’t have much give, but they believed in the vision for helping empower students/schools/communities and reverse the culture of wasting that we see in so many of these places. They wrote that they wanted to give as much as they could, and so they challenged their Sunday school class to match their own contribution of $20,. . . . and so sure enough, the other folks in their class scrounged up the other $20 in change, etc… and I end up getting a check for $40 that I know people sacrificed something for. . . because they believed in the power that we all have to change the world. Do I still need several thousand dollars . . . sure (actually 3K). . . . and please. . . by all means give 
– but, an inspired gift really does lift the heart, and I am thankful!!
A few reminders:
We only have 2 days left before we have to set our order. If you want to help schools go green, empower students, and help the underprivileged in our communities – all at NO COST to the schools OR the students.
There are two ways of donating:
1. A major credit card through our secure contract with PayPal – http://www.greenlockers.org/about/contact-us/ - and then click on the orange “donate now” button.
2. Send a check made out to “greenLockers” to
greenLockers
630 East University Drive
Granger, IN 46530
Remember: 1-time donation lasts for 10 years!
Here are some benchmarks that would be fun to shoot for:
$120 = adopting an elementary school for 10 years = affecting ~2,000 students
$280 = adopting a middle school for 10 years = affecting ~4,000 students
$520 = adopting a high school for 10 years = affecting ~7,000 students
$920 = adopting a full track through a school system = affecting ~13,000 students
**If you want to get involved in some other way then please go here – http://www.greenlockers.org/get-involved-donations/
**If you want to view and pass along the brand new video from the first email to someone else here it is – http://www.greenlockers.org/how-it-works/
Well it goes a little like this: A Crazy Summer for an Internship!!
Top 10 internship moments-
- My very crazy schedule that I had to deal with:
*From having a job, coaching two weeks of overnight soccer camps and four weeks of day camps, five weddings, taking a may term class, preparing for soccer season, SALT retreat, family vacation, family member passing away, and finally trying to find time to relax and be with friends. - My laptop crashing during my May term class. I had to give my final presentation and it was wiped out after hours spending on it. Having a good chunk of my internship work on it also. The journal that I had about seven-eight pages of work done. Luckily I was able to recover it all after having to get a new hard drive. What a Blessing!
- Being able to hear from organizations that came to our two distribution days. Being able to hear some really amazing stories about their organization or how this was the best thing that anyone has ever done to help people. Especially during these economic crises we are in.
- Being able to work with Ted and listen to and hear his views on different things besides myself. The man has such great advice for me.
- Being able to get firsthand experience on leading different opportunities without Ted being with me. I was able to do the distribution day, a 5-star day, and speak and get the bins ready to go at Holy Family, Bethany Christian, and John Young schools.
- Learned more of a proper way to speak when dealing with age groups. I dealt with middle school kids and then adults
- I was able to understand more on expenses and how they become a huge part when you are starting out an organization or business. We were fortunate to have big things donated to us this year.
- Gained-
*An experience on communicating with many different area schools, organizations, and news casters.
*A good perspective on the marketing side of greenLockers.
Learned-
*How to make all different types of excel spreadsheets, word documents, and blog posts.
*How to design map layouts of the warehouse for distribution day
*How to make a media alert and newsletter
*How to take the role of managing and being in charge of an organization/company. This is a good way to understand how much time is put into things.
9. Being able to allow God to work through me and give me the strength and ability to finish the work when at times I was stressed out with so much to do outside of this internship.
10. Having all of my internship work all over the house and my mom always trying to tell me to pick it up and put it in my room. I think I had internship work in almost every room in my house.
I get the credit, and yet. . . . I feel like I am the least deserving. greenLockers as a movement is not powered by me, but by countless individuals that decided to be a part of equipping students. . . moving the world forward. Here are some of these individuals that have made major contributions in just the past 2 weeks!
1. Heather – one of my students at Notre Dame who is paving a way for me to speak tonight to the service commissioners of the ND dorms as well as to the ND Circle K club members later on this month.
2. Theresa (an accounting manager) from Dowagiac, MI – who called up a few weeks ago wanting to donate around 200 binders (in about 20 more white bags that you see in the picture) from her work that was going out of business.
3. Verna Davis from South Bend who wanted to donate all of the slightly-used crayons that she had been collecting from her grandchildren over the years (the shoebox in the picture above)
4. Barb from South bend who stopped by Bethel and dropped off some more recylcing bins from a few neighbors (above in picture)
5. Richard in Granger who is wanting to organize a neighborhood collection drive for recyling bins AND school supplies – – be tuning in if you are a resident of Wedgewood in Granger
6. Dennis from Holy Family grade school in South Bend – he wants in. . . one of many people serving in area schools that are bringing their schools on board!
5. Colin – V.P. of Penn’s NHS – he wants NHS at Penn to be in too. . . . just a few students at Penn!!! – should be an amazing partnership
I am amazed and excited about the power of greenLockers to help change the lives of hundreds if not thousands of students THIS YEAR – those that receive AND those that give. It is March, which means less than 3 months until locker clean-out!!! I am grateful for everyone who is supporting greenLockers – we are already gearing up for what should be an amazing Spring!!
So, I decided this morning would be a good time to buy my first ever newspaper with cash from Martin’s. . . . since I was told that the article about greenLockers may be in there today. Sure enough. . . FRONT PAGE of the Local section – I was excited!!
Read the article HERE
I thought that Jeff Parrott wrote a great article – well organized, and with all the essential information, so my thanks to him :).
Now, we will see what happens this week – I hope that I can get some more play on some local radio stations, as well as TV. I hope to get at least 1,000 bins on this coming Sat., but what really matters is whatever God has in mind (so, I am preparing for 10x that much if necessary).
I just checked the 10-day forecast for Sat. 31st. . . . 29 degrees and partly sunny. Hey, that is not too bad – everybody come on out and help greenLockers prepare to help hundreds/thousands of kids this year – bring your bins – (THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAN!!!) – let’s see how many we can get!!