Hundreds of Apples a Day: Center Team Spends Saturday Helping Gleaners

 Our team never winces at the suggestion of a little manual labor, in fact we embrace it when it means helping out a great local charity. On Saturday February 15th, our Center team members and their families volunteered to support the Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan. We look forward to this rewarding opportunity to get together outside of the office and help out a charitable organization that directly supports our local communities.

After orientation, The Center team was assigned the task of packing 750 bags of apples to be distributed to families in need.  We made quick work of packing 150 large bags of apples into 5 huge crates for shipment – plenty of laughs and smiles along the way!

I wanted to give many thanks to The Center team members for the continued support of the now Bi-Annual Gleaners volunteering event.  It came as no surprise to me, but The Center team members also managed to accumulate a total of 323 pounds of non-perishable donations (Yes – I said 323 POUNDS).  A special thank you to Client Service Manager Jennie Bauder who collected monetary donations from the office and filled two shopping carts with donations – look out Extreme Couponing!” –Jen Hackmann

If you happen to get the volunteering itch, you can just show up at 9:00 a.m. on any Saturday at the Detroit Gleaners Distribution Center location: 2131 Beaufait Street in Detroit. Once there, look for the Gleaners Volunteer signs! You do not need to be part of a large group to donate your time, just arrive ready to work. Please check out the Gleaners website www.gcfb.org to see all of the remarkable things the Gleaners Organization does locally or to find out more about volunteering opportunities.

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Helping those that help others

 In October the Center will be furthering our vision to help those who help others.  Our financial planners will be spending time with the employees at Community Housing Network in Troy, Michigan.  This is one way we give back to some of the great folks in the area that spend their time helping others make our community a better place to live for all. We will be answering the employees’ personal financial questions pro bono and help them get their financial “houses” in order so that they can be focused on helping those in need.

The Community Housing Network is a passionate advocate, devoted to providing homes for people in need. They give people access to resources to create sustainable communities. This is achieved with proven strategies of homelessness prevention, housing assistance and development, community education and referral, advocacy, and additional services.

Serving our community and profession

 At the Center we are dedicated to sharing and spreading financial literacy. Melissa Joy, CFP® and Julie Hall, CFP® recently took their professional expertise to the community by volunteering for the Financial Planning Association of Michigan. Each presented workshops for the Detroit Parent Network. 

Julie led a risk management workshop speaking to parents of school aged children that live in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. Her message included ways to incorporate life insurance, disability insurance and property and casualty insurance into an overall risk management plan.  Julie said, “It was great to be able share my financial planning knowledge with a group of parents in Detroit who have not had the opportunity to meet with someone to discuss financial planning concerns before."

Also reaching out to parents, Melissa visited the parent support center at Marcus Garvey in Detroit Public Schools where she shared what she calls a personal Financial Fire Drill. “I visited on field day so the whole school was full of excitement and energy and the parents had been volunteering their time with their kids throughout the day," Melissa said. "It was great to meet so many moms and dads and the program instructors at Marcus Garvey. The financial literacy discussion was wide-ranging and real-world, just as financial planning should be. I’ll look forward to volunteering with this program again in the future.”

Julie Hall Helps Spread Financial Literacy

 

Teaching middle school aged children about budgeting and the value of learning how to make financially aware decisions, even as teenagers, was top of mind for Julie Hall. That's why she got involved in the Junior Achievement Finance Park in Detroit as a volunteer through her membership in the Financial Planning Association (FPA) of Michigan.

During the workshop teens were given a different life scenario with different education levels, income levels, and unique circumstances emulating real life family dynamics.  With guidance from financial professionals, the participants got to make their own financial choices and build a budget.  After paying bills and reviewing results the next step was to explore and decide if they can and want to save money for upcoming financial goals or donate to charitable causes important to them.

Julie says “Teaching financial awareness can and should begin at an early age so that our children are better prepared to handle their finances effectively in the future.” The Junior Achievement Finance Park is a resource that Julie has been involved with in the past, and each time a member of the Center team volunteers, we walk away knowing we've given even more young people in our community tools they can use for a lifetime.

Teaming up with Gleaners Food Bank

 On Saturday February 23^rd, Center team members and their families volunteered to support Gleaners Food Bank.  Jen Hackmann, Client Service Manager said we really pulled our weight.

Thank you, thank you for all the support for the 1^st Gleaners volunteering event - we had a total of 214 pounds of donations (I think Tim’s donation of multiple cans of fruit cocktail put us over the 200 pound mark),” Jen reported. “And according to the organizers at Gleaners, this food donation will provide 178 meals for our hungry neighbors in need.  Gleaners collects over 2.5 million pounds of food from food drives like ours and distributes the donations to more than 600 partnering groups in need each year.”

After an orientation and video introduction to Gleaners Food Bank, our volunteers got to work. We went from standing still, trying to figure out what we were going to be doing, to a full-on assembly line working at what felt like a 100 miles per hour.  Jen remembers saying to Troy Wyman, CFP ®and Gerri Harmer, Client Service Associate, “I have a new and GREAT respect for assembly line work!”  Apparently it is not as easy as it looks!  Some of us packed bags of fruit while others worked with packaged food, putting together large boxes of noon-perishable goods to be handed out to families in need. 

And despite the demanding morning of helping out at the food bank, we couldn’t get enough! We’ve already planned another Gleaners volunteer day on Saturday, September 21^st from 9am – noon.  Anyone who would like to join our group is more than welcome.  If you happen to get the volunteering itch on your own one Saturday morning, you can just show up at 9am on any Saturday at the Detroit Gleaners Distribution Center.  You do not need to be part of a group and the Detroit Distribution Center is the only site that takes “walk-in” volunteers.

Center Client Gives Back to his Community

 Lee and Susan Riddell, longtime clients of Marilyn Gunther, CFP^® have been Center Clients for nearly 25 years.  Susan is a gifted quilter and crafts person.  Lee retired from a career at Ford Motor Company and was recently featured in an article written by Robert Norris for Cincinnati.com, a Gannett Company.   

The following quote taken from the article provides insight as to how Lee Riddell shares his many talents and what successful retirement means to him and Susan.  “This is my community.  Do I want to be a spectator or a participant?”  One of the ways Lee participates is by volunteering with Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Phoenix.  He helped Katrina victims rebuild and more recently went to Kentucky to help rebuild a home taken down by a tornado in March 2012. 

Marilyn Gunther said, “It has been such a pleasure to see Lee and Susan successfully retire.“

Photo: Lee Riddell, left, joined a volunteer team that included AmeriCorps worker Kevin Slowe from Jamaica in building a home last fall in Dry Ridge.

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Investment performance was not used to determine which clients to include in this spotlight. It is not known whether the above clients approve or disapprove of Marilyn Gunther/Center for Financial Planning or the advisory services provided.  The criteria used to select this client was random.

Serving Our Community and Profession

 The Center takes pride in serving our communities, our profession and each other.  Below you’ll find the many organizations supported by our team’s volunteer efforts.

• Sandy Adams, CFP® was appointed to the Board of Visitors for the Institute of Gerontology (IOG) at Wayne State University and also serves on the Legal and Financial Advisory committee for the IOG as well as a liaison to the Board of Visitors for the last two years.
• Marilyn Gunther, CFP® serves the Board of her community foundation in North Carolina
• Sandy Adams, CFP® and Julie Hall, CFP® led Junior Achievement activities.
• Dan Boyce, CFP® served on the Governing Board of an elementary charter school, as well as continuing on the Board of Trustees of Prescott College.
• Laurie Renchik, CFP® and Tim Wyman, CFP® participated in Leadership Oakland and Melissa Joy participated in Inforum’s Executive Leadership program.
• The Center proudly supported the local community and Gleaner’s Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan through the celebration of food, wine and art! The 9th Annual Vine & Dine, hosted by the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce.
• Matt Chope, CFP® offered his thoughts on what it means to leave a Legacy of Value as part of the The Youth Diversity Symposium annual event developed by the Southfield Community Foundation.
• Carrying on a proud Center legacy (and following in Marilyn Gunther’s, CFP® footsteps), Sandy Adams, CFP® was appointed to the Board of Personal Financial Education Services, an Ann Arbor based non-profit organization with a mission of promoting personal financial education in Michigan and beyond and to empower youth and adults to build more stable financial futures through financial education.
• Dan Boyce, CFP® continued his leadership at the Institute for Sustainable Social Change in Prescott, AZ.
• Betsey Schrock, Bookkeeper/Office Manager, was elected president of Stagecrafters, a large community theatre organization located at the Baldwin theatre in Royal Oak.
• Troy Wyman, CFP® was elected to the Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Association of Michigan and to the executive board of the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce.
• Melissa Joy, CFP® began serving on the Business Development Committee for Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings.

To find out more please feel free to contact the team member aligned with your organization of interest.

Matt Chope Shares Values at Youth Diversity Symposium

 On November 9, 2012 Matt offered his thoughts on what it means to leave a Legacy of Value.  Through discussion and a hands-on exercise students explored their true life values.   Matt helped them look inside themselves to determine who they are and where they stand today.  A value Matt takes to heart and practices throughout both his personal and professional lives.

This year’s symposium, "Millennials Creating a Legacy", focused on global issues that the millennial generation face and the legacy that they hope to leave behind for future generations.

The Youth Diversity Symposium is an annual event developed by the Southfield Community Foundation and is being helped in partnership with the Council of Michigan Foundation in 2012.  The event offers a diverse base of youth from the metro Detroit area an opportunity to interact with each other and engage in learning activities centered on social issues and philanthropy. 

Betsey Schrock Elected President of Stagecrafters in Royal Oak

 The Center is pleased to announce that Betsey Schrock, Office Manager/Bookkeeper, has recently been elected president of Stagecrafters, a large community theatre organization located at the Baldwin theatre in Royal Oak.  Stagecrafters recently celebrated 50 years of providing quality performances to children and adults in the southeast Michigan region.  Each year, Stagecrafters presents five productions on its 372-seat Main Stage and three contemporary productions on its more intimate 100-seat 2^nd Stage.  Stagecrafters is unique among community theatre groups because it owns the building where it performs and where, later this year, the Baldwin is expected to be awarded Michigan Historic Building status.

Betsey joined Stagecrafters in 1996 after being involved as the wife of an actor and the mother of two budding theatre aficionados.  She began her involvement as producer for several Stagecrafters Youththeatre productions (SYT). From there, Betsey also experienced producing on the Main Stage and more recently the 2^nd Stage.  Other experiences include manning the box office, ushering, house managing, and working on such committees as human resource, membership, production, and budget.

Betsey is most proud of the SYT which presents two productions per year.  SYT is theatre for youth and by youth.  Children ages 8 – 18 can join SYT for a small fee and can be involved in a production, from acting, to set building, to painting, ushering, and even producing or directing, all of which are supervised by caring and experienced adult members of Stagecrafters.  Some of our youth have gone on to professional acting, including the popular Kristen Bell!  More importantly, the youth have the opportunity to work with adults and feel comfortable around adults who are valuable role models.  Whether on-stage or backstage, one can see how involvement at Stagecrafters helps youth develop their interests and their confidence, which are useful later on in life.

Betsey’s term as president is two years.  During these two years, she plans to help Stagecrafters celebrate SYT’s 40th year and to seeing to fruition a multi-year campaign to fund and renovate the theatre’s restrooms.

 "There’s always something we can do to make Stagecrafters even better." Betsey