Dear Friends,

April and May have continued to be very busy at ICC. Last month we held our annual meeting (thank you to those who attended) and we are proud to say that with your support we are doing well in these difficult economic times. At the annual meeting we elected new board members; please welcome Anne Pawlowski and Sue Reynolds to our family. Anne is a nurse at Mary Cariola and has been an active volunteer and hard worker at the cupboard for the last year. Anne has been a tremendous asset already and has helped guide me through our tedious capital improvement grant (which has not been fun) Anne will be our new treasurer as our long time friend Kelly Slater has stepped down from this position. Kelly will continue as an active board member and we cannot thank her enough for all that she has done for us! She has been with me since the beginning of this venture and her friendship and dedication has meant the world to me/us.  Sue Reynolds is a retired nurse and has been with the food cupboard for several years. She has taken over Tuesdays for me while I have been out and has proven herself invaluable. Sue is also a volunteer for Good Samaritan. We are all very excited to welcome Anne and Sue to our Board of Directors.

We also decided, at our annual meeting to start a new tradition of honoring our board members who have stepped down as “Honorary Board Members.” We will be purchasing a plaque which will hang proudly in our lobby, and it will list those who have been tremendous volunteers and advocates for ICC. To that end we would like to thank Rev. Jeff Printy and Shirley Olek for their dedication, hard work and passion to ICC. They will continue to be active volunteers. If you see them, please thank them for all that they have done to support us!

At the annual meeting we also made changes to our by-laws which we review every year to make sure they are keeping up with the ever changing needs of our residents. You can request to see them at any time as we keep them o­n hand.

Our construction is plugging along, slowly but surely. For those of you who have been to the cupboard, I am sure you have seen the remarkable changes that are occurring there. Thank you John Kane for your dedication, commitment and patience in helping us through this process. We can’t wait for this project to be done!!

We continue to aggressively apply for grants as our cupboard’s annual budget is roughly $23,000. We have been successful in securing grants in the past and are hopeful we will be this year as well. We have already applied for 3 different grants and we are waiting for responses from these organizations. Last year we received funding for utilities, food, and continued construction. This year we are hopeful we will again receive the grant for utilities and operations and we will be applying for community grants to help us with our Annual Back to School night, continued service and the holidays.

Our numbers of calls to ICC are still increasing; we received 163 calls for assistance and referrals last month. We are seeing a steady increase in those who continue to be laid off from work, those who are struggling to understand the social service maze, those who are struggling with their utilities and mortgage, and who need support and guidance to assist them with their needs. We are also seeing an increase in services to our senior population. Not o­nly have we assisted them but we have made many referrals for food stamps, Eldersource, Faithlink, Good Samaritan, Life in Irondequoit and Meals o­n Wheels.

We are again thinking of marching in the 4th of July parade but we would like it to be a healthy turnout to thank all of Irondequoit for their assistance. If you, your family, your civic organization or group would like to march with us, please let me know as soon as possible.
We will not be having our monthly meetings in June and July because we know so many of you are enjoying the weather, travel and your families. We will meet again in August to get ready for our Back to School night.

As the school year comes to an end we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the schools and churches for their continued support. You ARE what “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” are all about! Thanks so much, especially for the “item of the month” program, we couldn’t do what we do without you.

Please watch for news o­n our Grand Reopening Celebration (we will keep you posted) and watch for our annual newsletter which will be coming in the mail in the next couple of months.
If you are a regular volunteer o­n Tuesdays or Saturdays OR you would like to sign up to volunteer, please contact me as soon as possible as I am scheduling for the summer months now.

Exciting news**We are now a United Way Donor Designee! You can make donations through your pledge card with number 2466. All donations are tax deductible.

We are currently collecting donations at all of our area donation dropoff sites and a complete list of items needed can be found at the "how you can help" link o­n this website.

Sincerely,
Debbie Evans; President
message from spring/summer 2009

Electronic donations may be made to Info@IrondequoitCommunityCupboard.org via

Thank you for your generosity.