SPACE Team Gets Down and Dirty for Day of Caring

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Colette

Cleaning up the roadsides surrounding the Chippewa Nature Center has become a regular community service event for SPACE employees. We supply ditch-cleaning crews for the Spring Season of Caring and Fall Day of Caring programs of the United Way Volunteer Center. This year we were able to time it so that the roads leading to the Nature Center would be litter-free for the Fall Harvest Festival this weekend.

SPACE Road Crew

The group shown here in the snappy vests went to work with poker sticks and extended grabbers to remove litter from the ditches and roadside surrounding Nature Center property.

Thank you to the Leffel family (Julia, Sean and Elizabeth), Theresa, Mike, John, and Jeff for spending a couple of hours on a glorious September evening keeping our section of America beautiful.

Thank you, too, to the Nature Center’s volunteer coordinator, Cathy Devendorf and her husband, Craig, for feeding the crew pizza, salad, and cookies after we’d completed our work.

As the days get shorter, opportunities for outdoor team events dwindle. We look forward to next Spring when we’ll be “in the trenches” again.

SPACE Gets Ready for Fall Day of Caring

Posted on September 12, 2009 by Colette

It’s that time of year again: the leaves are starting to turn, nights are cool and crisp, and Day of Caring is right around the corner. In fact, SPACE Inc. employees will be participating in Fall Day of Caring this Wednesday to help the Chippewa Nature Center keep its property clean.

Each Spring and Fall, SPACE team members don day-glo vests (a real fashion statement) and walk the roadways surrounding Chippewa Nature Center property picking up trash. We’re pulling out our gloves and locating our pick-up sticks and extended grab tools. Some of the ditches are quite deep and teamwork is needed to haul in garbage found in those areas.

Our clean-up crew is made up of SPACE families. To the kids it’s like a treasure hunt; whoever can find the most unique and most disgusting items wins! Boys especially like this aspect.

Tune in to next week’s blog for pictures and snippets about our Day of Caring adventure at the Chippewa Nature Center.

School Starts Today

Posted on September 8, 2009 by John

With today being the first day of school here in Michigan, we all need a refresher course on Safety as it relates to the start of the school year. It’s been 9 months since we have dealt with the school year.

It’s estimated that 24 million students nationwide start their school day with a trip on the school bus. The greatest risk is not riding the bus, but approaching or leaving the bus. School buses are nearly 8 times safer than passenger vehicles. But children must take care when boarding or leaving the bus. While an average of 7 school-age passengers are killed in school bus crashes each year, 19 are killed getting on and off the bus.

Most of those killed are children, five to seven years old.

Young children are often in a hurry to get on or off the bus.

Sometimes they act before they think and have little experience with traffic. They assume motorists will see them and will wait for them to cross.

Let’s make sure we look out for our childeren as well as those of others. Take a minute, it is worth every bit of it.

SPACE Goes Crim!

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Colette

August 22, 2009 was the scene of the 32 Annual Crim Festival of Races in downtown Flint. Sponsored by the Crim Fitness Foundation the races promote fitness and health as well as the Special Olympics.

All Wrapped Up in SPACE

SPACE, Inc. team members and their families participated in a variety of ways: running, volunteering, and cheering. Stacy Betts and her son, Christopher, are pictured with the SPACE banner. It was a little chilly, so Christopher was using the banner as a blanket. They cheered on Britney Hyde, who was running in the 5K….her very first Crim race! Britney also volunteered at the morning breakfast prior to the race. Diane Toth’s husband, Andy, ran in the 10K and was enthusiastically applauded as he crossed the finish line.

The Crim Festival of Races is ranked as one of the top world-class races in its league. From volunteers to participants to spectators, Crim pride is visible across thousands of faces during the fourth weekend of August- year after year. This year, SPACE was visible, too!

“Graceland” at Saginaw Relay for Life

Posted on August 29, 2009 by Colette

SPACE team member, Brian Allen, and his family paid tribute to a favorite cousin by forming a Relay for Life team and participating in the Saginaw Relay for Life. In 2007 Brian’s cousin lost his fight with cancer. In 2008 Brian formed a 10-person team to walk in the 24-hour event. This year, Brian recruited 19 team members.

Brian’s cousin loved Elvis Presley, so it was only fitting that the team name be Graceland. The Graceland team prided itself on having at least one team member on the track at all times. Last year two of Brian’s daughters, Addison and Mikayla, got their hair cut to donate to Locks of Love. This year both girls were very disappointed because their hair hadn’t grown long enough to contribute again at the event.

It was very hot at the Relay this year, so one of the Graceland team members made 100 water balloons. The adults asked all the kids to line up for a picture and then, according to Brian, “launched a devastating attack.” It didn’t take the kids long to locate the ammo supply and retaliate. Everyone got a good cooling off!

Thanks to the hard work of the entire Graceland team, they posted the 4th largest amount raised at the event. Expanding SPACE’s core value of community service to include his extended family, Brian not only honored his cousin while raising money to fight cancer, but also taught his children that giving back can be fun and rewarding. Brian says, “It has become a family tradition to participate.”

SPACE Team Member Goes “Back to the Bricks”

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Colette

What do beads, a poodle skirt, disco music, and classic cars have in common? The ever-growing “Back to the Bricks” Autopalooza in downtown Flint! For five days in August, downtown Flint becomes THE place to be.

Chelsea Sirlet, Miss Burton 2009 Photo by: Elizabeth Gillies, The Burton News

SPACE team member, Stacy Betts, was there with her daughter, Chelsea. Chelsea is this year’s Miss Burton, so she had official duties to perform. Stacy’s official duties were to make the poodle skirt Chelsea had to wear for the salute to the 50′s on Wednesday. On Friday, Chelsea celebrated the 70′s dressed in peace symbols and hot pink glasses. She also worked the bake sale booth to help raise money for her cheerleading squad.

Meanwhile, Stacy donated her time to help promote the candidacy of a friend running for city council. She and her son, Christopher, handed out beads labeled with the candidate’s name. She is also working on a fundraiser for him in conjunction with the Michigan/Michigan State game. (Editorial note: Go Blue!)

From politics to poodle skirts, Stacy keeps her family involved in the community and has passed along her civic commitment to her children. Chelsea has been volunteering since she was in fifth grade. Christopher spends his evenings riding his bike to distribute campaign material with his mom. For Stacy, community service is not only a SPACE core value, it’s a family value.

SPACE Inc Core Values Carried on by Next Generation

Posted on August 15, 2009 by Colette

Lexi & Caleigh trimming foliage at CNC

It’s a hot, sunny, summer Sunday. While most 11-year-old girls may be recovering from sleepovers, chillin’ with Wii, or talking to friends on cell phones, these two volunteers are hard at work trimming trails at Chippewa Nature Center.

Caleigh, and her friend, Lexi, spent 3-1/2 hours helping Grandma Colette trim and clear 3 different trails at the Chippewa Nature Center. It was hot, tiring work, but they stuck with it until the trimmers ran out of juice. They trimmed the lower portion while I followed with the larger hedger and got the higher branches. Then they helped sweep up the trimmings on the main Chippewa Trail.

In addition to trail maintenance, they walked along the roadside on the way to River Point Trail, picking up trash along the way. Grandma drove the ATV while they competed against each other to see who could gather the most garbage. In the end, they lost count anyway because they were too busy chatting……mostly about how disgusting it is that people throw litter out of their cars. It provided a wonderful opportunity to educate the girls on humans’ responsibility for maintaining our natural world.

Happy Hedgers!

On the trails they caught a couple of tiny toads and let them go, picked a few blackberries, and watched fish at the Wetlands. Both girls were glad we didn’t see any snakes!

As we headed back to the garage, Caleigh and Lexi agreed that while their arms were tired from trimming, they had a lot of fun. Caleigh’s a regular volunteer with me most Sundays, but having Lexi along this time sped up the process and kept them both engaged.

SPACE, Inc’s core value of community service is now a seed planted in the next generation. Caleigh’s already asked about Day of Caring and Lexi is eager to volunteer again. Let’s keep that going!

SPACE Team Puts “Fun” in Fundraising for a Cause

Posted on August 8, 2009 by Colette

The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk isn’t until October 17th, but SPACE is already buzzing about the event.

Linda Anthony, the SPACE coordinator for the walk, will be attending the kickoff breakfast this month. The Finance and Administration team’s weekly meeting has an agenda item to discuss potential team names. Will we have a theme? Should we get matching t-shirts? How can we stand out from the other teams? Team members who can’t participate as walkers will generously pledge to those team members who are walking.

Last year’s event was the first one we attended as a team, so we were unprepared for the wild costumes, outrageous hats, feather boas, and pink as far as the eye could see. Team names played a huge role in the event. Some were fun; some were in memory of someone; some were incomprehensible.

So, we have our work cut out for us to develop a team, pick the perfect team name, get a theme/color/dress code going, and raise the funds to fight breast cancer. This year we are coming prepared!

SPACE Team Member Makes a Difference with Dippin’ Dots

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Colette

Who would guess that little beads of Dippin’ Dots would provide a SPACE team member with an opportunity to make a difference? While at a Great Lakes Loons baseball game recently, Robin Wazny thought she was just helping a kid buy a treat, but it turned out to be much more.

Dippin Dots Make a Difference

Robin and her husband were sitting near a group of people that included a young boy about 6 years old. They overheard him asking for Dippin’ Dots. They also overheard that there wasn’t enough money left to make that purchase. Robin stepped in and offered to supplement the funds so that the little boy could have Dippin’ Dots. He happily went off to buy the treat. Robin thought that was the end of it.

It was after the game that she learned from one of the young women in the boy’s group that this baseball game was a diversion they’d planned for him. The boy’s father had just died. The trip to the stadium was an attempt by family members to bring some sense of normalcy back into his life and Robin’s gesture helped make that happen.

Little did Robin know that buying Dippin’ Dots would have such an impact. You don’t need a major event or team-building moment to make an impact. Even little kindnesses can make a big difference in someone’s life. Give it a try.

From Gas to Groceries

Posted on July 25, 2009 by Colette

What would you do if you were pumping gas and noticed an elderly man bending over a garbage can? Avert your gaze? Pretend you don’t see him?

Here’s what Shelly Luckett, a SPACE team member did: she watched him. She thought he’d just stopped to dump something into the barrel, but when he moved on to a dumpster across the street, she realized that he was “shopping.”

As Shelly finished filling her car’s gas tank, the man got on his very old and battered bike and headed down the road. She decided to follow him to make sure he was all right. She found his bike outside a run-down house.

Rather than let it go, Shelly decided to get involved. She went to a grocery store and bought food and staples. Not knowing what kind of cooking facilities the man had or if he could cook, she got lunch meat, bread, doughnuts, milk, and the like.

When she pulled up to the house for the second time, Shelly came bearing groceries. She knocked on the door, which was answered by an elderly woman. Shelly explained that she’d picked up a few extra groceries and would appreciate it if they could use them. The woman was extremely grateful that she wouldn’t have to shop and that the little money they had could go elsewhere.

This one-on-one display of community service exemplifies our team’s commitment to our core value of making a difference in our community. Shelly could have driven her car home without a second thought for the man on the bike, but she made a conscious decision to get involved and help. How do you make a difference?

Space, Inc. Designing a workplace that works.

3142 Vantage Point Dr. Midland, MI 48642 Phone: 1-877-77-SPACE Email:khobohm@spaceinc.net

Category Archives: Community Service