August Birthdays

Are you passionate about educa-

tion? Help kids prepare for the

school year by volunteering at

Backpacks & BBQ, Kingdom House's

annual back-to-school event! At

Backpacks & BBQ, we distribute

new shoes, backpacks, and school

supplies to the families Kingdom

House serves throughout the year.

Here are the details:

Who: You (and your family or

friends!).

What: Help families pick out the

school supplies they need from a

selection of new donations.

August 2017

The Volunteer Voice M O N T H L Y V O L U N T E E R N E W S L E T T E R

Volume 5, Issue 8 Senior Editor: Julie Strassman Associate Editor: Natalie Gemberling

Pat Jarosz

Ellen Just

Sarah Moore

Bob Puyear

Linda Skinner

Carol Smith

Matt Tabakin

Katie Wimmer

Happy Birthday!

Aaron Goldsby

Larmore Maclin

Sangeeta Mehta

Bridget Schulte

Bianca Valentine

New Volunteers

Welcome to the

Kingdom House

Team!

Help Kids Start the School Year with Backpacks & BBQ When: Saturday, August 12th -

8:30am - 3:30pm. Morning and

afternoon shifts are available.

Where: Peabody Elementary

School (1224 S 14th St, St. Louis,

MO 63104), just a few blocks

from Kingdom House.

Perks: Free picnic lunch!

Online sign up makes it easy:

1) Register to volunteer online:

http://signup.com/go/AjCWXd

2) Review the options listed and

choose the spot(s) you like.

3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will

NOT need to register an account

or keep a password on SignUp.

Thanks, and see you there!

Thanks, Summer Readers! Thank you to all of our Volunteer Readers,

who helped

make it a fun,

educational

summer for

the Freedom

School Sum-

mer Camp

kids! See Page

3 for a special

feature on our

summer read-

ing volunteers.

Volunteer Spotlight - ECC Assistants Dan & Dena Stokes

The Volunteer Voice M O N T H L Y V O L U N T E E R N E W S L E T T E R

August 2017 Volume 5, Issue 8 Senior Editor: Julie Strassman Associate Editor: Natalie Gemberling

Help Kingdom Academy Teens Learn New Life Skills

This month, we’ve interviewed Dan and Dena Stokes, who volunteer in the Blue Room of the Kingdom House Early Childhood Center. Here’s what they have to say! What is your occupation? We are both retired school teachers. Dena taught Jr. High and Sr. High English. At the end of her career, she was the A+ coordinator in the desegregation program. Dan taught Jr. and Sr. High math. He also taught photography to teachers at a local college part time. What book/movie inspired you recently? Dan recently read "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" by Matthew Desmond. It helped him better understand housing challenges from various perspectives. Dena particularly liked Trevor Noah's book "Born a Crime,” as it told of prejudice in South Africa (and the United States) and his positive attitude in dealing with it. How do you enjoy spending your free time (when not volunteering at KH)? We both love classical music and theater. We have season tickets to the SLSO and the OTSL as well as The Rep. We both sing in our church choir and are in two English hand bell choirs. Dena vol-unteers at our church one day a week answering phones and doing odd jobs as needed. Dan volunteers on the ARC Disaster Action Team, helping families after disasters (usually house fires) with food, clothing, shel-ter, long term recovery information, and hugs.

In your opinion, what is the best thing about the St. Louis metro commu-nity? Kingdom House, of course! How long have you been volunteering with us, and what keeps you coming back to volunteer at Kingdom House? We both have been at KH for about 3 years now. The shouts of "Miss Dena... Mr. Dan!" when we enter the Blue Room and the hugs and amusing tales of daily life that follow is what keeps us coming back. How did you first hear about/get involved with volunteering at King-dom House? Many years ago, we went to the same church as Jennifer March [Kingdom House’s Development & Associate Executive Director]. When we were visiting KH for an activity with our church, Jennifer got her hooks into us! The rest is history. How has volunteering with Kingdom House benefited you? Although we both feel that we had given to our community through our decades of teaching, after retirement we felt that we had more to give. As with almost any altruistic endeavor, we get back more than we give.

Do you have a passion for working with teens? Do you want to help teens learn new life skills through enrichment activities? Vol-unteer with our Kingdom Academy program! Volunteers are needed to lead enrichment sessions once a week for six weeks to 12-15 teens. Volunteers are asked to commit one hour Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday from 4-5pm or 6-7pm. Please contact Natalie Gemberling at ngemberling@kingdomhouse.org or at 314-627-1232 for more information. Possibilities include:

Art: drawing, painting, crafting, fabric dyeing, graphic design or other unique forms of art

Dance: teaching basic ballet, modern, jazz classes, or other unique forms of dance

Baking: cakes, cookies, candies, frosting decorating

Recreation/PE: exercise classes, sports, or other unique forms of physical activity

Career Exploration: Accountant, Engineer, Veterinarian, Cosmetology, Entrepreneur, Chef/Culinary, Education, Computer Science, Web/Graphic Design, or any STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) related field

Financial Literacy

Music

Sex Education

The Volunteer Voice M O N T H L Y V O L U N T E E R N E W S L E T T E R

August 2017 Volume 5, Issue 8 Senior Editor: Julie Strassman Associate Editor: Natalie Gemberling

Freedom School Readers Share Their Love of Literacy!

Freedom School scholars celebrate Harambee Read Aloud. Fea-

tured Summer Readers (clockwise from top left): Neosha Franklin

of STL Community Foundation, Steve Kuehl of Edward Jones, Tiffa-

ny Gibbs of Eaton Bussmann & Ryan Jackson, Jim Bicklein of An-

heuser Busch, Samantha Sherrod of the United Way, Rev. Yvi Mar-

tin of The Gathering UMC, Keith Brooks of Cardinals Care, Dave

Rabe of Emerson, and Maxine Clark, founder of Build-a-Bear.