Category Archives: CEO Blog

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  • SATURDAYS – Summer Intern’s, Student Mentoring Car Wash

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  • Student to Student Tutoring

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• Stories – Youth Philanthropy

  • Listening To Emma!

    A story about her visit with her classmates, from Emma. Photos from their day are here.
    

    It’s a Saturday in Acushnet, and a group of students from Rising Tide Charter Public High School are spending it sorting clothes. Rising Tide’s Community Action Club has been planning their December 19 trip to GiftsToGive for weeks, and twenty five students arrived in the sprawling warehouse building excited to work.

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  • “The Normandin Middle School Sorority” Defining Youth Philanthropy

    

    Kayla Smith, Flavia Miranda, Adrienne DePina, India Santiago, Sabine Charles, Anitra Alves, Alianah Grajales, Sofia Dias, Diana Jesus, Rylee Nogueira, Natasha Ferro and Martha Kay. (Not in order)

    Two amazing women; Natasha Ferro and Martha Kay have been mentoring groups of middle school girls, after school, since 2012 at the Normandin Middle School.

    

    CLICK to read their joint speech

    “The Sorority” morphed into a Youth Philanthropy Group this year and with the guidance of Natasha and Martha their young women focused on issues that concerned them. In the beginning of the school year, they brainstormed a list of needs within our community and settled on animal abuse, domestic violence, gang activity, and homelessness.

    This week they made a presentation to the Greater New Bedford Homeless Providers Network. Their speech was inspiring as was their work. Their speech defines the work they’ve done, please read it.

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  • GNBVTHS students have gifts to give!

    

    Alex Pinarreta

    

    Michael Perreira

    But wait … there’s more!

    Lead by Michael Perreira and Alex Pinarreta students at the Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School and members of the Business Professionals of America (BPA) Chapter’s officer team held a donation drive to gather clothing, toys, and books for children ages three to twelve. The students and staff at the school generously donated many items which were delivered to GiftsToGive.

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  • Listening to Wendy – A student’s perspective on service.

    Tabor Academy student Wendy Liu accepted the assignment of reporting back on her group’s volunteer experience yesterday. Here is what she had to say – “September 22 may be another mundane Tuesday for most students, but not for those at Tabor. Today was our Service Day which takes place every semester; students and faculty members volunteer in various places, one of which is GiftsToGive.

    Some from Tabor have been to GiftsToGive multiple times, while others stepped into the factory for the first time today. Caitlin, a junior to Tabor, is new to this activity. Today she sorted clothes for adults and kids. She recounts that the most difficult part of the job was to decide what to re-cycle because she wanted to “keep everything.” In addition, the day at GiftsToGive has been influential, for she believes that their Directors’ empowering speech makes people “reevaluate [their] circumstance[s]” and rethink how fortunate they are.

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  • Student Intern SHOOTS FOR THE MOON!

    

    Student Intern, Molly

    * UPDATE
    

    Molly’s quest to collect 1,000 gently used sports balls has hit snag after snag, then last week something positive happened.

    The back story – Initially Molly went to the Bruins and asked for help in the form of a player coming to New Bedford and she and her hockey team would host a skating event. The Bruins could not send a player but did offer some of their surplus equipment – so that is working itself through. Then Molly went to the Celtics for help and they also could not send a player down to New Bedford. (You can see Molly’s letters to them below).

    The positive thing that happened last week came in the form of Boston University and FYSOP! Sixty-eight incoming BU freshmen spent two days at the mill helping us process clothes (we were at the critical process place of swapping out summer clothes for winter clothes and getting ready for back to school.) See that story here.

    Last week we received an email from Anthony Moccia asking to be connected to Molly. Who is Anthony Moccia you ask? Anthony is a senior at BU and was one of the chaperones for the the visiting BU freshmen. Here is Antony’s email –

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  • Worcester Academy

    Students from Worcester Academy made a field trip to visit with us last week. Photos from their visit are here. We ordinarily would talk about the experience, but teacher David Baillie was kind enough to send us the following:

    “Community. We’re about community.”

    “This was the response of a student to a seemingly simple question: “What is Worcester Academy all about?” The question, posed by GiftsToGive founder Jim Stevens, hung over the fifty Worcester Academy students for several heartbeats before it was answered.

    We had traveled that Saturday morning from Worcester to Acushnet to fulfill a community service obligation, a school-mandated requirement that is part of every student’s experience. The fifty boys, all upper classmen, were dorm mates; they boarded the bus that morning without complaint, napped or talked or joked around for the hour it took to get to Acushnet, and then assembled in the bare-bones repurposed warehouse that served as the factory’s base of operations.

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  • What’s right with University Students? BSU students talk for themselves!

    We met a most remarkable young woman on Saturday, Jessie Barbosa. Photos from our day are here.

    Jessie is a student at Bridgewater State University. She organized a day of service with several groups on campus. We asked Jessie to write about their experience, she had this to say – “On Saturday a group of Bridgewater State University students from multiple backgrounds, majors, and ages volunteered their time and services to GiftsToGive in Acushnet. This community service was made possible by a collaboration between The Center of Multicultural Affairs, Men Integrated in Brotherhood and the Community Service Office, which all form part of Bridgewater State University’s clubs and organizations. The students arrived around 9:00am, registered and then received a short orientation, which allowed them to understand the organization’s mission and familiarize themselves with the building.

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  • Twin inspiration!

    

    Matthew and Lily

    We literally were overwhelmed with a huge donation of great new toys and other items on Saturday from FOUR year-olds, Lily and Matthew.

    We work everyday at receiving donations from some very remarkable people, lots of them children, but this donation was overwhelming for us. It was overwhelming not only for the volume of the things we received but for how and why they came to us. We were so busy the day they arrived we really didn’t get to hear the whole story. We emailed their mother and asked for details. What we got back was the best email in recent memory.

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  • Gifts From the SKY

    

    SKY Campers

    An abundance of gifts came from the SKY (Summer Bible Camp) and found their way into the hands of hundreds of local kids in need, thanks to the children of St. Christopher and St. Theresa Parishes in Tiverton. 

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  • Student Leadership Intern Program

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  • 4-Year Old Austa Shares Her Birthday

    

    4 Year Old Austa Shares Her Birthday Presents

    Four year-old Austa taught us a thing or two about sharing! 

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  • 10 Year-Old Birthday Star Elizabeth

    

    Elizabeth and her friends helped girls they did not know have happier Birthdays!

    When we talk about special children, we talk about Elizabeth!

    Ten year-old Elizabeth celebrated her birthday in a most amazing way!

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• News from GiftsToGive

  • Rising Tide Students Reflect a Bright and Shining Light!

    When people ask us why we do the work we do. We talk about the children we meet every day. Today we met teens from the Read More »

  • We’ve come to expect more from technology and less from each other

    We spend a significant amount of our time interacting with and mentoring young people.  One of our constant issues is separating volunteer teens from their hand-held Read More »

  • First Annual Health and Safety Fair – A Huge Success!

    Over 100 students from Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School and Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School developed, marketed and staffed their First Read More »