February 1, 2020 Service Saturday at Sterling House Community Center

In December, Pam Robertson, the Program and Volunteer Coordinator at Sterling House, asked me if Hearts of Hope would be willing to help out with one of their Service Saturday projects. 

We LOVE Sterling House, and let me say this publically... our Stratford chapter would not be able to continue to exist if it were not for the support and generosity of Sterling House. They have given us a room on the third floor of the community center which allows us a place to store all of our materials and equipment.  It gives us a place to roll out our hearts. It gives us a place to call together volunteers to work on projects. Sterling House has given us a Home. Without them, I honestly don't think we would be as successful as we have been this year. We would not have been able to grow as a chapter nor would we have been able to reach so many groups and individuals with our hearts. So of course I wanted to do a Service Saturday with them! It would be my honor!

We chose February as that is the month that Random Act of Kindness Day fall in, and these hearts will be ready and returned to today's painters on February 15th, so that they can give them out on February 17th, National Random Act of Kindness Day.

I was fortunate to have three of Sterling House's interns working with me. They did an amazing job helping me to set up the room, help the guests get whatever they needed, and set up an extra table when we ran out of seats. One of them turned out to be a former student of mine! Thank goodness she had fond memories of me.

 The event was to run from 10-12, but people were so excited to paint a heart that we had a few people come early. We let them in and let the fun begin. As a teacher, I am used to having to repeat introductions and directions over and over again, lol. 

We have learned to bring a hair dryer to our events to help the drying 

process along. 

Filling out Message Cards is another way to personalize your heart!

Ann Marie is a student at Sacred Heart who is doing her
intership at Sterling House.

This is Maddie, my former 5th grade student, who is now a student
at UB and interning at Sterling House.

A few of the completed hearts.

After the hearts are mod podged this week, I will put a picture of all of them here on this blog so everyone can see all 53 of them together in one big photo. 

These hearts will be available for pick up at Sterling House on Saturday, February 15th from 9-3 pm. 

Thank you everyone who joined us today for Service Saturdayat Sterling House Community Center. I hope you had as much fun as I did! It was great getting to meet and talk with all of you!