The Pulse

A Reminder from Hurricane Bill

 

As Hurricane Bill spins harmlessly out to sea in the Atlantic, the storm served an important reminder: It's August and the hurricane season is upon us. Bill intensified last week into a Category-4 tropical storm, packing winds in excess of 130 mph. Thankfully, the storm missed most of the East Coast. Still, its surge caused rogue waves in Maine that carried 20 people offshore and killed one person.

Though NOAA has downgraded the 2009 hurricane season from earlier predictions, we all need to be prepared for intense tropical storms in the coming weeks and months.

Reason: The last time NOAA predicted a "near-normal hurricane season" was in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast as a major storm and was followed shortly thereafter by Hurricane Rita (also a Category-4 storm when it hit the Texas/Louisiana coastline).

Heart to Heart is ramping up preparation efforts for the coming hurricane season. Hopefully, we won't need to deploy any of these resources. Just in case, though, we're calling on you to help us be as ready as possible.

Here are four things you can do today to support our readiness activities:

• Help us assemble Heart to Heart Care Kits. These hygiene kits are distributed to disaster survivors in the U.S. and overseas by the thousands. We are facing a critically low inventory of these kits and need your help immediately. Click here for the recipe and instructions on where to send them.
• Join our volunteer bank. If you have special skills (or simply two willing hands) that can help us during an emergency response, we want to know about you. Sign up here.
• Get your network involved. If we've learned anything at Heart to Heart over the years, it's that everyone has a network that can help alleviate human suffering. Talk to your frinds, family and colleagues about Heart to Heart and get involved in our global work. Click here to get the conversation started.
• Donate to our Crisis Response Fund. Your financial contributions enable us to do more for people in crisis. We're highly efficient with every donation. When you support our efforts, you ensure that people in crisis get the medical attention they need. Donate here.

We appreciate anything you can do to help. Feel free to contact us about other ways to support our crisis-response initiatives.

Your support helps us create a healthier world -- one community at a time.

Creating Healthier Communities

Sometimes the only thing standing between a trained healthcare worker and a healthy patient is an appropriate medical treatment. For millions of people around the world every year, Heart to Heart stands in that gap by providing shipments of quality medical aid.

When it comes to helping people with health needs, we are intensely local. We find pockets of need -- whether here in the United States or in 60 other countries around the world every year -- and seek to improve health at the community level.

In fact, we have initiated a pilot project in our hometown of Kansas City. Working with a select set of free health clinics, we're taking our model of global-assistance partnerships and localizing it at these clinics. Propelled by two separate grants -- one from the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City and the another from the REACH Foundation -- we have become a vital link in their supply chain. We provide each clinic with regular shipments of medicines and supplies. We also deploy volunteers with technical expertise in public health, family medicine and laboratory services to increase clinical capacity.

Dr. Florence Ndikum-Moffor (pictured) leads our clinic-outreach initiatives. She says she's excited about working alongside our clinic partners and helping them meet the increasing demand for their services, as more unemployed workers and families seek health services at these safety-net clinics.

We are also deploying our mobile clinics to assist in community health fairs. When medically indigent people don't have access to basic health services or cannot afford these services, we work with our clinic partners to bring these services to the community.

You can support our local health efforts by volunteering with Heart to Heart, sharing our story with those in your network that can help us, or making an online donation today.

Thnaks in advance for helping us create a healthier world -- one community at a time.

The Need for Speed

Heart to Heart adopted the "Tools for School" initiative in 2006. In the first two years under our wings, roughly 8,000 disadvantaged children per year received a new backpack filled with essential, age-appropriate school supplies.

Then, in 2008, we were able to reach out to 12,000 kids in the Kansas City area and beyond.

During each of those three years, volunteers gathered in one of the underground warehouses operated by Meritex Logistics off 95th Street & Renner in Lenexa, KS. Over the span of two weeks, hundreds of volunteers would filter in and out of the warehouse location to help us fill the backpacks. If you were there to see it, you'd say it was pretty amazing -- even inspirational -- to see people of all ages coming to give kids a boost before the start of the upcoming school year.

This year, we moved the initiative to our Global Distribution Center in Kansas City. We also simplified the process. A lot. Instead of learning a whole system for filling the backpacks, we introduced pre-packaged school supplies, which were quickly inserted into new backpacks and packed in boxes.

The result: Nearly 10,000 backpacks were filled in less than five days! (For the non-math students in the audience, that's basically half the time it used to take to fill the backpacks.)

Thanks to all those who volunteered for this effort (even those who signed up for the second week)! You changed the course a student's life!

Stay tuned for video footage from the effort.

The Good Doctor: What's in a Name?

We are excited to introduce a new column penned by our President and Founder, Dr. Gary Morsch. The column will appear periodically on the HHI Blog and share thoughts from "The Good Doctor." This edition reflects on the name of Heart to Heart and what it's worth to us...

We recently received a copy of the first report on the power of brands in the nonprofit sector. Somehow the producer of the report (Cone Inc.) sifted through the balance sheets from thousands of nonprofits, analyzed the strength of each brand, and came up with a list of the top 100 nonprofit brands in America. Considering that there are something like 2 million charities in the United States, anyone would be excited to be in the top 1,000--let alone the top 100--nonprofit brands in America.

Heart to Heart came in at #75!

We're still putting our arms around this new honor. For me, it boils down to our name.

"Heart to Heart" has so much emotional appeal. I mean, when you hear the name, it creates an immediate reaction.

We attribute the naming of our organization to Keith Johnson, a member of the Olathe Rotary Club and one of our staunchest supporters between 1992 and 1997. Keith runs an independent newspaper called Johnson's County Gazette. He has a flair with words, and he was instrumental in helping us communicate with the public in those early years when nearly everything at Heart to Heart was run by volunteers.

Experience Global Health

Every month, we give you a behind-the-scenes looks at our global work and a glimpse into a day in the life of those we serve around the world.

We call it our Global Health Experience.

This informational session gives attendees a deeper appreciation of our humanitarian mission and what it takes to create a healthier world. Almost without fail, people end up saying something like: "I thought I knew who you were, but this time together really opened my eyes to all that you're doing locally and globally--and my role in helping you achieve your mission. I'm excited to get involved!"

You can attend the Global Health Experience on Thursday, July 16, from 12 noon- 1 p.m, at our Global Distribution Center in Kansas City, Kansas. Lunch is provided, courtesy of Schlotzsky's. Space is limited.

You'll get a sneak peek at our "Tools for School" initiative at this particular Global Health Experience. We'll will be preparing the assembly areas for another volunteer group, who is helping us stuff 8,000 packpacks over a two-week period for disadvantaged kids in Kansas City and beyond.

Call us today at 913-764-5200 to reserve your spot at the Global Health Experience on July 16.

Check our Event Calendar for future Experiences.

 

Tools for School

As part of the 2009 Summer of Service, we are encouraging people to get involved with our "Tools for School" initiative.

Over the span of two weeks, hundreds of volunteers will flood our Global Distribution Center in Kansas City, KS and help us assemble 8,000 backpacks full of essential school supplies. These backpacks will be distributed to disadvantaged children in Kansas City and beyond.

We "adopted" this initiative in 2006 and it's been a wonderful entry point for volunteers ever since.

Over the years, this initiative has provided more than 130,000 kids with a new backpack, so they can start the school year on the right foot.

You can join this effort! We need at least 100 more volunteers to help us. Weekday sessions from 9 a.m.-12 noon and 1-4 p.m. are available during July 13-17 and July 20-24. Some weeknight slots are available from 5-8 p.m.

These three-hour sessions make great team-building exercises or community-service projects for your family, school group, civic club, faith community or local business.

Contact Heart to Heart today by calling 913-764-5200 or signing up online and bring a smile to a student in need.

More Aid on the Way to Pakistan

In times of disaster, Heart to Heart sends shipments of targeted to aid to help people in crisis. The recent conflict between Pakistan military forces and the Taliban has forced more than 2 million people to flee into the Swat Valley.

That's where our humanitarian partners are meeting health needs. With the help of FedEx, we sent an initial shipment of medical aid to Islamabad, where it was then transported to refugee camps in the Swat Valley.

Our partners report overwhelming need and asked for additional supplies. We're responding with a second shipment today. It contains medicines and vitamin supplements specifically for children, who are the most vulnerable to airborne and water-borne diseases in exposed environments.

We stand already preparing additional shipments of aid, because the need is great. Please help us save as many lives as possible in this troubled region. Make an online donation today.

Your support will enable us to help children caught in the crossfire of this regional conflict.

 

H1N1 Virus: 50,000+

Today, the World Health Organization updated the spread of the H1N1 flu virus and said that more than 50,000 cases of the virus have been reported in 96 countries and territories worldwide.

Heart to Heart is continuing to address the situation, working closely with humanitarian partners around the world to prepare for potential outbreaks in new regions.

So far, we have shipped aid to clinics and hospitals in the U.S. (where most of the cases have been reported to date), Mexico (where the most deaths have occurred), and Guatemala. We have provided training in the United States and Guatemala. We are planning an extensive training exrecise in China this fall (October 16-25).

We are still looking for technical experts to join this team. If interested, please contact Kyle McPhee at 913-764-5200.

First Friday: Summer of Service

"First Friday" is a special message each month from Heart to Heart's CEO, Jon D. North, and communicates our agenda for the coming weeks. The column usually appears on the first Friday of each month (though this month it appears on the second Friday). In this edition of "First Friday" Jon talks about the impact of volunteers on our global work...

When Heart to Heart was founded back in 1992, it had a distinctive "grassroots" feel and was fueled almost entirely by volunteers from all walks of life. Though we have gotten more professional on the staff side over the years, we have not lost our perspective on the value of volunteerism.

Today, volunteers still help us at almost every turn -- whether it's answering the phones or stuffing envelopes at our world headquarters, sorting product or packing pallets at our warehouse, helping us create healthier communities at home or abroad, or making our events flow seamlessly.

Volunteers keep us ticking and they help us stretch every dollar even further.

Over the next three months, I encourage you to volunteer as part of our "Summer of Service." We have something for everyone -- from individuals and families to schools, civic groups and businesses.

New Grants Help Local Health Outreach

Heart to Heart recently received two grants -- one from the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City and another from the REACH Foundation -- that will energize our local health initiatives.

The grants result in approximately $160,000 in new funding that will help us enhance the health services of safety-net clinics in the metro area. We are excited that we will be able to provide additional pharmaceutical and laboratory support to several free clinics, as well as increase diabetic testing and treatment opportunities for at-risk populations in Kansas City.

Read the press release about these recent grants.

You can support our local health initiatives by volunteering at one of our upcoming health fairs or by making a financial contribution. You donation of time or money will help us stretch our resources even further in these difficult economic times.