• Previous
• Next

This is a Guest Entry from Collette Vacations’ CEO (and Collette Foundation Founder) Dan Sullivan:

I’ve just returned from a 25-day trip to China, Hong Kong , Australia and Fiji. My wife Kathy joined me along with my niece Vanessa and sister-in-law Christine as well as Tom and Marilyn Sowinski. Marilyn painted Collette Foundation murals at our Vermont facility and here in the home offices.

One of the best things we did on the trip was visit TWO of our Collette Foundation sites. I am so proud of the Collette Foundation team. The work that the foundation does around the world and in RI and Southeastern New England represents the best parts of who we are.

In Alice Springs, our project is Drum Atweme, an organization that we came across many years ago. My group and I met with Peter Lowson and 2 of the Aboriginal girls who are part of the drum corps. This organization has 74 young women ages 6 to 18 who perform. Peter, his wife and others are their teachers — and they’ve come so far. This gives the young women the kind of self confidence that is not provided in their homes and or the community. The community has so much abuse both physically and mentally that these young women are in dire straits. By performing in the Drum corps the girls and women gain self confidence and a sense of trust in the group and its founders — a sense of family and security. The work of Peter and Drum Atweme is just unbelievable. You can see how much the girls love the music… and we fund and support this project, having the hope that Drum Atweme will help them be motivated and confident enough to use the experience as a jumping off point to lead healthy adult lives. Seeing how committed Peter Lowson is to Drum Atweme was inspirational for us all.

In Fiji we visited our foundation site in Koroipita run by a man named Peter Drysdale. This man works 15 hours a day , 7 days a week . His wife ran the Save the Children philanthropy in Fiji until recently. He gives everything to help young children and families who are in desperate need. His organization is called The Model Towns Charitable Trust. Peter and his team build cyclone-proof homes for impoverished homeless and landless families and squatters. Peter has built over 800 homes and placed families in them since 2009.

Peter shared with us that in 2010, they almost closed their doors due to lack of funding. He shared the many issues he encountered operating this project. He then showed us a piece of paper that hangs in his room which details the donations that the Collette Foundation gave when they needed it most. He said we helped to keep the project alive at that desperate time. We believed in the project and supported it at a time that he especially needed the support. The program flourished and Peter got the New Zealand rotary and New Zealand trade association to support his valiant cause and now the European Union to step up with strong resources and funding. The day we visited, there were almost 100 volunteers helping to build these houses and create communities. 46 homes were built last year and they will build over 100 this year.

I came home more enthused than ever. We all make a difference locally and internationally. Every one of us can do something that helps make a better life for that less fortunate child or person. This is part of the Collette culture and I thank all of you that are involved in any of our philanthropic efforts for all that you do .

Yesterday, at a luncheon hosted at the Marriot Providence, Gateway Healthcare honored Kathy Sullivan – Community Relations Manager for the Collette Foundation – for her community outreach work and the Foundation’s support of Gateway through the years.

In a speech of thanks, Kathy shared the award with her Community Relations partner, Lynne Kelly, and thanked Gateway for making a true difference in the lives of so many community members. The Collette Foundation named Gateway their Charity of the Year in 2012 — which entailed clothing drives, backpack drives, a grant and monthly support. Gateway has also been the recipient many times over the years for the Giving Tree initiative that the Collette Foundation runs each year at Christmas.

Congratulations, Kathy! And from all of us at the Collette Foundation, thank you, Gateway, for recognizing the Foundation’s local work.

Last Friday was a special day at Collette Vacations. Children that have attended the Heart and Hope Fund summer camp shared their stories of their illness and how our Charity of the Year, the Gabrielle Dinsmore Heart & Hope Fund, has supported them and their families. Many Collette employees showed their support and came to learn more about this worthy cause, and to hear from the charity’s founder, the mother of Gabrielle Dinsmore, about Gabrielle’s story — and the positive impact she continues to make on the world.

At Collette, employees dress down on Fridays, and give $1 to support the charity of the month. That amount is matched at the year’s end for an extra donation to that foundation.

Check out a blog post from February about the Heart and Hope Fund. Click here.

**This is a guest post from Bonnie Hoddy, a group travel leader from Connecticut**

As I get ready to visit South Africa, the school where I work (and will retire from this coming July) donated 51 pounds of supplies to the children of Knysna who I will be meeting on my tour during a Collette Foundation site visit! I feel so empowered bringing so much to them, as they are so in need.

As a child, I went to St. Mary’s Catholic school and loved it. The school is closed now, but before they closed their doors for good, they had a sale of everything in the school. I went to say good bye and found some great supplies there to bring to the children in Knysna.

While walking the halls of my old stomping ground, reminiscing, I saw a sight on the second floor that stopped me short. There were two big boxes labeled “UNIFORMS”. One contained all sizes and was marked BRAND NEW. The uniforms were lightweight with blue silky shorts. The other box contained the same material in white with V-neck shirts and all sizes for children.

The shirts have no lettering but a sports type number on the back. I figured even if they don’t use them for uniforms, the kids could wear them as regular clothes in the hot Africa days! There was one blue striped shirt (pictured above). The athletic director at my school, Grasso Tech, dontated 3 “G” patches. You can see two in the photo, and the other I had sewn on the front of the blue striped shirt.   Maybe they can just hang it in their classroom or some little boy may get it.  I am happily bringing 12 pounds total of new clothes plus loads of supplies including:

• 11 blankets
• Socks
• 300 crayons
• Colored pencils and paints
• Classroom decorations
• 90 washable markers
• Lip glosses
• Precious little bows, barrettes and hair clips for the little girls
• Cool shaped pencil sharpeners
• Little pencil erasers with sayings like “GREAT JOB!”
• Regular pencils
• 5 puzzles
• 48 red pens
• 120 blue pens
• Outsanding Student awards
• Apple garland
• Scissors (both left and right handed)
• Toys
• 10 bottles of chewable, gummy, children’s vitamins
• 8 scribble/art pads
• Brain activity books.

I wish I could bring more but I think we’re off to a good start!

As National Volunteer Week comes to a close, we have so much to celebrate. With over 130 hours of great effort this week to help those in need, it’s a great time for giving back.

Below is a message from Kevin Ferguson, our Collette Foundation’s Peru Ambassador. He encourages us all to “go out and help somebody.” National Volunteer Week is wrapping up – but this is a message we should take with us, into the weeks ahead. One thing we can learn from this week is that our work is never really quite done.

Give back. It feels good.

In honor of National Volunteer Week, Collettefoundation.org is celebrating our Top Ten entries dedicated to good works our employees have done by lending a helping hand. Enjoy!

1. Volunteers band together with the nonprofit Tourism Cares to restore the historic Pensacola Lighthouse Story here.
2. Our Canada office enjoys a day at the park, volunteering with children! Story here.
3. Employees clean up Collette’s home city, Pawtucket, RI, in alliance with the nonprofit The Pawtucket Foundation for Pawtucket Proud Day.
4. Team Peru creatively organized and then volunteered time at a book fair to benefit our Peru project! Story here.
5. Our Product Operations team gives new meaning to team building in the entry Two Hands Are Better Than One.
6. Employees join together in Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Story here.
7. Many employees give back on a frequent basis. Story here.
8. Employees fed the homeless at the McAuley House as part of their “Lunch On Us” program. Story here.
9. Our Transportation Department turned some volunteer time into a friendly competition. Story here.
10. Our Community Relations Manager volunteered at the RI Community Food Bank with lifelong friends, discovering new ways to deepen friendships by giving back together. Story here.

• Previous
• Next

Today, members of marketing and accounting at Collete donned their Collette Foundation t-shirts to get into the spirit of volunteering at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank — one of the many ongoing projects this week for National Volunteer Week.

On the list of things to do: Organize and package food and toiletries which will get distributed to families in need in the Rhode Island community.

Volunteers returned to Collette at noon after a full morning of hard work, with smiles on their faces. The message shared:

“Giving back always feels good. Doing it with colleagues and friends makes our teams closer and makes doing a good deed that much more fun.”

Job well done, volunteers!

More to come…

This week, National Volunteer Week, is a time dedicated to motivating individuals in their communities to celebrate the value of giving back. This week-long event, full of nationwide events, is sponsored by Points of Light. It’s about taking action and encouraging individuals and their respective communities to be at the center of social change.

Here at the Collette headquarters in Rhode Island, so many volunteers are rolling up our sleeves to provide more than 130 hours of service to local organizations.

Our top three initiatives this week:

• Serving lunch at the McAuley House in Providence — a meal site and house of hospitality for the hungry or homeless.
• Inspecting, sorting and packing donated food in the production warehouse at the RI Community Food Bank. This blogger will be there Wednesday with fellow marketing team members all morning and I’ll share photos/video here.
• Lacing up sneakers to March for Babies in Bristol, RI. This walk supports the March of Dimes and is geared more toward fundraising.

Let the volunteering begin!

Happy National Volunteer Week! For us at the Collette Foundation, this week is like a holiday and to celebrate, we’ll be posting to Collettefoundation.org every day this week! So tune in.

To kick it off, check out this video on the many faces of volunteering at Collette.

Our Ireland Project, the Frank McCourt Museum, which we only began partnering with a few months ago, was recently given a stellar write up in Ireland’s Limerick Post. After a recent group of disadvantaged Irish youth attended a three-week workshop, the response was overwhelming. The students delved into literature, working together to write a play and perform it. For many, their attendance at the program at Frank McCourt was their first introduction to both literature and performing.

When the workshop was over, more than half of the students said it enabled them to become more confident, over 80% said that it helped them become more creative and tap into their imaginations, and over 90% said that the course had helped them to make decisions, express themselves, and share opinions. 100% of the young students stated that the workshop helped them to work better in a team.

The successful workshop caught the interest of the Limerick Post – which garnered some much-needed attention for this wonderful foundation which strives to engage youth in need with culture and education.

Fiona Quinn, the program’s director, stated that the workshop was an overwhelmingly positive experience for all those involved. She was very impressed with both the enthusiasm of the students and the excellent support that they received from their Youthreach teachers. The students far exceeded Fiona’s expectations to such an extent that she was able to take the class to a far higher level than she had originally thought possible.

She was also very happy with the Museum as a location for the Workshop – the ambience of the Museum, the inspirational nature of Frank McCourt’s life and writings, and the friendly nature of the staff and their welcoming attitude, all contributed to making the pilot project a success and provided the ideal venue for a non-formal learning experience.

The workshop tremendously enhanced the confidence of all participants and she noted that several students who had been initially shy and withdrawn at the beginning of the course had become fully engaged and animated by the end.

Fiona believed that the workshop had fully met its targets for it had given the students a sense of self-worth, a sense of achievement and they had become creatively empowered. The project had given the young people an opportunity to develop a ‘voice’ to express themselves; they had learnt about working co-operatively together  in a group for a creative purpose and as a result they had developed a storyline and created their own drama script.

Now, the foundation looks to a bright future. The Pilot project ‘performed’ wonderfully — gained the foundation some positive attention from local media and audiences — and impacted the lives of some children already. We are so excited to continue working with our partner in Ireland to take this project to the next level.