The Spectrum Ride was a terrific event, held at Dorset Park yesterday. We lucked out and had perfect weather. More than 100 riders participated in helping make our first annual Spectrum Ride a success. Thank you to all the sponsors, riders, and volunteers. A big thank you Sam Quinn who coordinated this event!!

For more photos, check out photographer Emily Nelson from the Burlington Free Press: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=BT&Dato=20090628&Kategori=SPECTRUM&Lopenr=906280802&Ref=PH

The owners of Healthy Living in S. Burlington have been bringing meals into our drop-in center for the past two months, it has been a great experience.  They had an ending event for us at their store two Friday nights ago, raised $300 for us, and here is a nice note I received from Nina Lesser-Goldsmith afterwards:

Hi Mark,

You are so welcome and thank YOU for coming to the event!  I agree, the weather was our eneny on Friday, but we did raise over $300 so I consider that a success.  After all the silent auction items are picked up I will bring you all the money from the event to go towards your food program.  Please do stop in and see us any time.  And please keep me in the loop with what is going on with your food program at Spectrum, as I said the other day, I would love to continue working with you guys to purchase smarter and strech your food budget further, while still feeding kids healthy meals. 

Thanks for the amazing work you and your staff do around the clock…Spetrum is an amazing organization and we are honored to have worked with you for the last two months!

Best,

Ken Randall is a contractor we use for most of our renovation projects, and when the Co-Op was washed out by a defective sprinkler head a few weeks ago, we called him in to do the repairs.  The boys were out of the house for two weeks, and when Ken was done and they returned, he pulled a $100 bill out of his wallet and said to one of our staff, “These boys have been through a lot, please take them out for a nice meal.”  We are lucky to have an association with people like Ken, who helps us in so many ways.

Here are a few photos from the Burlingon Free Press: B-Scene (Ben Sarle, photo credit) To see the all 18 photos, click here. Comcast Cares Day was a complete sucess. A big thank you to all the Comcast employees that volunteered to help fix up our buildings, clean and shampoo the carpets, replace the fence at our Youth Co-op on Murray Street.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Fr. Charlie Ranges, the pastor of the church my wife and I attend in Essex Junction, and how he donated the money that was in his wallet when it was lost. (He found it in the dumpster and gave us $144.)

Today he mailed us a $50 check with this note:

“Once again St. Anthony came through. Sr. Yvonne couldn’t find her keys and Sr. Marion showed up with them. Thank you St. Anthony, who told me to send $50 to Spectrum for a favor received.”

Thanks Fr. Charlie!

A week ago the five boys in our Murray Street group home were woken up at 4:30am when a faulty sprinkler head went off and flooded the house. We have put them up in the Hawthorne Suites nearby since then, and last night one of our staff, Patrick Farnsworth, went to the Hannaford’s on Dorset Street to pick up food for the boys. He shopped and rung up $132.34 worth of items and then found out that the cashier/store would not accept our check. This was mind boggling since we use this same procedure every week at the Hannaford’s on North Avenue. The clerk was going to have Patrick return all the items to the shelves when the man behind him in line said, “You’re from Spectrum? Let me just pay for it.” He put it on his card and Patrick was able to get the food over to the kids. His name was John Canning. I just called him at his home to thank him for this incredibly kind and generous act. “It was the least I could do,” he told me.

An example of the incredible goodness of people.

This person donated to us on-line and in response to the question, “Why did you donate to Spectrum?” he wrote:

“You helped and saved our son and we will never forget it.”

From a first time donor:

“I’ve read about your program and the amazing impact you have had on at-risk youth. I am a firm believer in helping our most vulnerable citizens first and I fear that often people tend to look the other way or give their money elsewhere when the ones in need are troubled and at-risk teenagers. I am also impressed with your ability to use your available funds wisely and efficiently. (I recall reading that you were able to provide 2 or 3 hot meals for the same amount of money for which another organization was able to provide a cold lunch and snack.) Kudos to you for the amazing job you do.”

Our development director, Joan White, put out a request to a company called Grabber Warmers to give us free hand warmers for the homeless teens we will be encountering this winter. Here is the reply she received:

“Per your request for in-kind product donation, I am pleased to send you 120 GRABBER Hand Warmers to distribute as needed this winter. Here at Grabber Warmers, our involvement in event sponsorship and donations follows our concept of “Sharing the Warmth.”

“Sharing the Warmth” reaches beyond the obvious relation to our warmer products. A deeper message lies in the feelings associated with warmth like nurturing, comforting and caring. We believe in creating a correlation with the warmth our products provide and our passion for supporting various causes that produce positive results for all parties involved.

We receive many requests and while we may not able to accommodate them all, we are happy to help your organization this season. Shipment should arrive by the end of next week. Happy Holidays!”

Stephanie Feyen