Used Cell Phone Drive: How to Get Involved!

Hi Everyone,

So today, instead of writing a description of what we have done, I am asking for your support with our used cell phone drive. Participating is SO easy! It is just 3 simple steps.

1. You and/or your office want to participate - great! Just email john.r.covey@gmail.com or katewalsh82@gmail.com and we will send you a letter to send your company should you need approval to hold the drive.

2. Next, put a box out in a common area where the phones can be gathered and email your colleagues letting them know. We will email you flyers to put in front of the box.

3. Lastly, send the letter and flyers on to all your friends and clients who may want to participate as well!!

Just a reminder that all proceeds will go directly to Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity's Bridgewater, NJ project. Specifically, for the funding of 1 Dutch Lane. If you support this worthy cause, we will include logo on our marketing materials and at our real estate networking event at the end of the month.

Thank you all!

John, VT Alumi & Kate, Fairfield University Alumni

Today's Update Aug. 31st

Used Cell Phone Drive Participant : Thank You

Used Cell Phone Drive Participant!!!! Keep them coming.

John's day

Used Cell Phone Drive Details

Please email me if you want to get your company involved: john.r.covey@gmail.com

Information Below:

Please donate your used cell phones to help build a home at 1 Dutch Lane in Bridgewater!

100% of all proceeds made from the cell phone drive will be donated to the funding of 1 Dutch Lane.

It costs $100,000 to build a home, so every cell phone counts!

Habitat Partner Families - Bridgewater Community

We are often asked what the “typical” Habitat family looks like. Of course, all of our families do share some things in common – they are low-income, they are hard working people, they are willing to invest their time and energy to build a better life for their families. But every family has their own unique story.

Our nine newest partner families include 37 people – 12 adults and 25 children.
These families will soon begin building a new Habitat community
on Southside Avenue and Dutch Lane in Bridgewater.

Below are a few facts about our Bridgewater families.

Family Facts:

· Two-thirds of the Bridgewater families are headed by single moms.

· Family sizes range from two to seven people.

· Families come from a mix of ethnic backgrounds - Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian.

Employment:

· All nine families have at least one adult working full-time; two families have an adult working two jobs.

· All families earn between 30% and 50% of median income for our area.

Types of employment include:

§ Auto mechanic

§ Medical technician

§ Meeting planner

§ Hospital registrar

§ Retail clerk

§ Church musician

§ Shipping agent

§ Machinery mechanic

§ Medical receptionist

Problems with Current Housing:

· Excessive Rent

§ Five of the nine families are paying more than 33% of their income for rent.

§ Three of these families are paying more than 40%, and one is paying more than 50%.

· Overcrowding

§ Two families are each living in a single room.

§ One family of 7 is sharing a three bedroom apartment, with Dad sleeping on the couch.

· Inadequate Housing

§ Four families have no space for the kids to play outside.

§ One family has three children sharing an attic bedroom reached by a dilapidated metal staircase.
Their apartment also has a recurring insect problem, even after treatment.

§ One family is living in an unheated basement, relying on a space heater for warmth.

· Unsafe Housing

§ One family is living in an unsafe neighborhood, with drug dealers around the corner and gun shots sometimes heard at night.

§ One family shares a house with 7 other adults and a landlord who enters their bedroom at will.

Save The Date: Wedding Cake Design Contest/Networking

Hi Everyone!

We just spoke with Scott of Sublime Restaurant in Gladstone. We are thrilled that he has agreed to let us use his restaurant/bar for our networking event, which will be held on Thursday, September 24th from 6-9 p.m. We are meeting with him this week to discuss all of the details...

Sorry, no save the date magnets here.....but please come out and support us and please mark your calendars now as it is just a little over three weeks away!!

We are in the finals!

Today, we found out that we are in the top 10 for the wedding contest! I am sorry we have not written in a while, but we plan to do a wedding cake design contest, a used cell phone drive and an online registry. We plan to do a Thursday night networking happy hour in late September. We now have the whole month of September to fundraise. We will put a link to the registry here as soon as we have it.

In the meantime, we have started a used cell phone drive. Please let us know if you would like to help us collect used cell phones from your friends, family and co-workers. We can provide you with a flyer that describes what the funds will be going to, which is Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity. We hope to raise funding to build a home at 1 Dutch Lane in Bridgewater for Habitat....

We hope to hear from you! Please write us back!

Thanks,

John & Kate

Powerpoint is in!

We reviewed our PowerPoint presentation this past Wednesday night to make sure it looked exactly how we wanted it to and even had some friends give us feedback as well. We emailed it in late Wednesday night and have our presentations tomorrow, Saturday, August 29th. We plan to finish rehearsing our presentation tonight to make sure we have our timing down and know which one of us presents which slide. The presentations are 1 p.m. tomorrow. We are excited!! As of tomorrow, we will give you a full update on how everything went :)

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Well our presentation is this weekend. We will need all the help we can get. We have the ideas down and ready it's not about putting all the small details together so we don't forget anything. On a more personal note my allergies are killing me! Oh and I'm getting lasic surgery in a week. Talk to you soon,

Day 5 (Kate)

Hello!

Today was a GREAT day for John and I. We went to a networking event tonight and found a venue that we could host our event for absolutely free, should we make it to the next round....We also met some business people that are willing to give of their time and experience to help us. Not to mention, attend our event! We hope to put our plans into motion soon! :).....

Good night!

Day 4 (John)

This planning is so exhausting! I'm not going to complain cause I do feel lucky to be a part of this, but today was rough. I was so tired and could not get up this morning and I had a networking meeting at 8AM and the commute was over an hour away. The hour got me a chance to sort our ideas and of course before Kate was awake she had about 50 ideas in her inbox from yours truly.

Exactly what Kate looks forward to in the morning:) I think I'm driving her crazy with all my ideas, but she does have that way of making my ideas that much better. She always puts a good twist on things. Someone has to rein me in. I love her so much! On another note, I called our priest today, well left a message. I don't want to surprise him with a November wedding so i figured i'd give him a heads up just in case plus would it be cheating to ask help from the big man? We need all the help we can.

As for my real job i had a pretty good day. Got a couple key decision makers on the phone. Just to give you some background for those that don't know me i do business development. My co-workers have been great and one even donated a space for us to throw an event. If anyone out there actually reads this let me know if you know anyone willing to donate a space for us to throw an event? Big or Small. We have a number of ideas that we hope to do.

Got to run, Kate and I got a movie tonight. We decided that we need a night off!

Day 4 (Kate)

Today was a very productive day!! We came up with a concrete plan after much discussion. We talked it over with friends and colleagues and everyone seems to agree it is a good idea. We are working out the logistics but have already gotten a good deal of preliminary support. I sent an email out to all of my wonderful bridesmaids letting them know the plan and asking them for their support in advance.

More to follow....

Day 3 cont.. (John)

We had a great evening. I got home from work and Kate and I started to talk about our days and how so many people gave us great ideas. Cory my roommate (aka "Dupree") came home started to brain storm with us then the doorbell ran and my friend Scott the architect came over and we really got thinking. I wish I could tell you the ideas, but since this is public we don't want our competition getting a leg up on us. But next thursday we will release our plan!

I have a picture of the site there are building on, but i can't get it on the site. I wish i knew more about computers.

It's going to be good! Please tell your friends to sign up to our blog.

Made the paper! Thank you Star Ledger!

http://www.nj.com/news/local/index.ssf/2009/08/bridgewater_when_bianca_ruffin.html)

Till tomorrow my friends,

- John

Day 3 (Kate)

Hi All,

Today, I realized that many people, friends, and networking contacts are willing to help us reach our goal. They are willing to donate their time, money and in some cases possibly even a venue to hold these charity events. We are thinking that a series of events is still the best way to go. It will take time to get the word out but hopefully people will come out and show their support.

More to come...

Day 3 (John)

HELP!!!! So many ideas and narrowing down which ones are going to be successful is going to be a problem. The more and more I hear the goal of 100K I say to myself can we really do this!!! It's just Kate and I, but encouraging words from everyone has been really great. As well as the overwhelming support of people willing to help!

Thank you everyone!

Day 2 cont'd (Kate)

Today I met with Habitat for Humanity and talked about some of our goals for this project. We plan to build a new house for a family in Bridgewater. The house they gave us to raise money for is 1 Dutch Lane. We know a little about the people who will be living there. They are a hard-working Polish couple that has four children. To accomplish our goal, we plan to probably have a series of events or one big event, or both. If anyone has ideas on where to host these events in Somerset or Hunterdon counties, please let us know! We have some pretty good ideas but could always use more.

To be continued,

Kate

Day 2 (John)

Not more than 3 hours after my first ever blog the grammer police called aka my fiancee. I'll apologise in advance if my grammer is lacking, but i'm sure my lovely fiancee will fix it when needed. I'll do my best to read things over before posting:)

Back to work! Oh on another note if you know of any companies looking for furniture i'm your guy.

Talk to you later,

Day 2 (Kate)

Adding to what John included in his post earlier today, we are really excited about the contest! We have been paired with Raritan Valley Habitat for Humanity and our goal is to build a home. Over the next week and a half, we will be preparing a business plan on how we intend to accomplish this goal, what fundraisers we will conduct and our idea for a larger event in September. Our plan will be carried out if we are selected as one of the finalists in the competition.

Today, we are going to be meeting with our representative from Habitat for Humanity. She is going to show us some of the homes that Habitat has sucessfully built for members of the community.

Along the way, we would love to hear your thoughts, comments or ideas on great original ideas that will get Habitat for Humanity in the limelight and will get people to come out and support their cause.

Much more to follow,

Kate

Website Link

Here is the website link if your interested in seeing details.

http://www.theromanjewelerswedding.com/Default.aspx

Day 1 (John)

Yesterday, Kate and I went to the luncheon to find out the details of the contest. Well they were simple, but they did throw us a curveball. Here it is... If we win the wedding it will be in November. My first reaction was like that is three months from now, but for a dream wedding and the planning is done for you why not! Kate was likes sound good to me! Of course while she was listening intently to the rules and regulations I was sizing up the competition. Let me tell you this is not going to be easy. There are some eager couples out there that are going to give us a run for our money. The other couples were so nice that we were like they would be fun to go out with, maybe after the contest:)

All in all here is the skinny. We are in the top 20! In two weeks we need to complete a business plan that will comprise of a unique and new fundraising plan to be implemented in one month (by the end of September). In the first round, 2 couples randomly draw out of a hat and were paired with a charity. We were given Habitat for Humanity. I felt it was a very good one for us especially with what we do for a living (business development). So we are competing with one couple to get to the next round. If we make it, the next round will be to implement the business plan.

So yesterday Kate and I spent the better half of our day throwing ideas around and waiting for something to stick. We went to BN, Borders, and a local Princeton book store to find ideas. For most of you that know me that is probably the most anyone has seen me in a book store yet alone three. We also called all our friends and family for support. Long story short, this Sunday was an adventurous one!

Talk to you later,

John