News

2012 Tootsie Roll Drive
Recently, members of St. Timothy Council - Walkersville, of the Knights of Columbus, met with representatives of Community Living, Inc. to present to them the proceeds gathered as part of the Council's 2012 Tootsie Roll Drive. The annual Tootsie Roll Drive is conducted by Knights councils throughout the area in support of programs working with the intellectually disabled and 100 percent of all proceeds collected go directly to these programs. Pictured, from left to right, are Alita Baer, Community Living client; Sarah Matthews, Community Outreach Coordinator with Community Living; Grand Knight John Szarnicki and Deputy Grand Knight Ed Pisarcik with St. Timothy Council 12255, Walkersville, and Wesley Rippeon, Community Living client. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic, charitable, family, fraternal organization. You can find out more at http://www.kofc.org/, or more locally at http://www.kofc-1225.org/.

Thank You Safeway!
Recently Safeway awarded Community Living a grant in the amount of $2,500. CLI will use this amount to contribute to the funding of a handicapped accessible van for CLI Works, the Vocational Program.

CLI's Wellness Program
Ausherman Family Foundation has continues its support of CLI’s Wellness Program. This program is designed to assist in helping our staff making healthier choices by providing well ness classes on smoking cessation, healthy eating, diabetes control, hypertension control, stress management both through individual meetings with a coach and group meetings. This is the 2nd year the Ausherman Family Foundation has funded us and we are pleased that Wegman’s joined us this year. Through Wegman’s “eat well live well” program our staff can engage in programs that address concerns they have and also integrate into healthy eating with the people we serve.

New Chairs in ROW
CLI was pleased to receive not one but two grants administered by the Community Foundation of Frederick which enabled us to purchase chairs with arms for our participants in our Retirement Our Way program. The first fund was “The Persons with Disabilities Field of Interest Designated Grant Fund” and the second was from “the Elder/Senior Care Field of Interest Designated Grant Fund”. As our retired population ages, getting into and out of chairs without arms was becoming increasingly difficult and a safety risk. Chairs and people in that configuration were unstable leading to falls. Chairs with arms are much steadier and the ROW attendees now push themselves up to a standing position. They then grab for an assistive walking device. Everyone feels much more comfortable now!

Music Encounters
Music encounters has begun through a gift from the Monocacy Foundation. This program is designed to provide sensory stimulation to some of our ROW participants that cannot participate in our regular craft, mall walking, movie and art activities. Six of our ROW participants travel to 246 Wyngate one morning a week to ensure they can be apart from the rest of ROW to enjoy this activity. Leader Marcy does a musical activity with each person while playing the guitar, whether drumming, clapping, playing a tambourine, or singing and then there is a group activity. Martha laughs and laughs. John does John things. Vickie is very energetic, animated and an active participant. Charlie sits back, his feet tapping in time with the music. Tess is very engaged and is alert the rest of the day after attending the session. We are so happy to have Thomas back, and he particularly enjoys the guitar and the drums. Many thanks to the Monocacy Foundation for making this possible.

Bocce courts ready to roll!
With funding from the United Way, the Salter Family and Albanes Landscaping we have not two, not three but four brand spanking new Bocce courts behind our Corporate offices. They are all made oft of treated wood and are 60 X 12. We have two with the playing surfaces made out of grass, one out of gravel stone and one out of artificial turf. All four courts are handicapped accessible and folks using wheelchairs and walkers will be able to go to the, by just using the ramp and going to the gazebo. The courts will be used by people in the community such as people from assisted living programs, people that attend day programs and any of our friends that want to learn to play the sport.

Community Living Participates in iGive
What is iGive?
The website iGive.com started in 1997. iGive defines itself as the first online shopping mall that donates a portion of a member’s purchase to a cause of the member’s choosing. Additionally, qualified searches by members allow a member’s favorite cause to receive a donation of $.01 or more.

There are currently 919 stores that participate in the iGive program. The list of participating stores includes many popular options such as: Best Buy, Amazon, eBay, Staples, and Home Depot. Up to 26% of a purchase is donated to a member’s cause. This donation is not directly paid by the customer. In fact, the store pays the donation amount to iGive as “sales commission”. For the donations process the shopping must be done through iGive’s website, links in their newsletter, or by using their iGiveToolbar.

Donations can also be earned for a cause when members make a qualified search. The search must be conducted by a real person, and a qualifying link must be clicked. Qualifying links will be highlighted, and the amount to be donated will appear next to the link. This method does not cost members either; rather the money is made by iGive for advertising.

iGive is free for members to use; it does not take any money from them. The process of donations is automatic, if the purchase is made using the methods above. Members can also view how much they have accumulated in donations. Promotion tools are available to members who want to promote their cause. Members may also receive benefits such as: sale alerts, coupons, and free shipping.

iGive currently has over 300,000 members. All donations made by members are given to the charities. Over $5,000,000 has been donated over the course of iGives lifespan. iGive allows customers to donate to any cause within the United States or Canada and has over 50,000 charities.
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The people of Community Living, who have developmental and intellectual disabilities, receive a delivery of Gazette newspapers on Thursday mornings. They roll and stuff the newspapers. They then go out and deliver them. Alan is fairly non-social but has mastered his route and is now able to look people in the eye and say good morning.  Thomas has many issues and walks at only one pace but gets his route done with a minimum of prompting. The Retirement Our Way program, filled with our retirees, is the group that rolls and stuffs the newspapers in the mornings. For some, to get two newspapers rolled is a big accomplishment, and some are able to do many, but the camaraderie in the room is high. This is work for our people and they take great pride in it. Rain or shine, this is an activity our people do, with dedication and consistency.

Community Living, Inc is proud to be a member agency of the Untied Way of Frederick County. Just as we appreciate our relationship with the UWFC as a recipient of their funding to us, we also like to do whatever we can to help the UWFC with any of their activities affecting the community at large. On Tuesday. July 26 members of CLI painted the 45 boxes that will be used for collections for the "Stuff the Bus" initiative for FCPS sponsored by UWFC. In addition, CLI taped 80 care boxes to send to soldiers in Afghanistan. The postage was paid for by the Rotary Club of Frederick. The care boxes are from the 9/11 Flag tour.