Helen's Letter
August/September 2026
Dear Families and Friends of Respite Volunteers,
We have a Year of the Nonprofit Respite Volunteer display at the Shiawassee Arts Center, now through Aug 29th. There are even free raffle prizes if guests fill out cards indicating their memories or connection to the nonprofits that are highlighted and have exhibits at SAC. You can see the exhibits whenever SAC is open.
We have information/fun booths at the Sat. Oct. 3rd Durand Harvest Festival and the Shiawassee Family Fall Festival at the Shiawassee Family YMCA-Camp Shiawassee east of Bancroft on Sun. Oct. 18th. We can share more info on these events, and check the Greater Durand Chamber of Commerce & Shiawassee Family YMCA Facebook pages for more info too.
There are multiple other ways you can help sustain our program so that we may continue to serve persons and caregiving families seeking our help. We sell unique gifts and books at our office whenever we are open. Many of the gifts have been handcrafted by our volunteers, friends, and even families we are serving. We thank everyone for the Have a Heart for Respite donations we have received; many were made in honor of or in memory of someone.
Can you also arrange to display our info at your church, business, or place of employment? This would, of course, help our nonprofit reach more people! Stop by for supplies, or we could deliver.
Gently loved purses and wallets donated are sold at New and Old Unique Treasures on M-21, west of Delany Rd, Owosso, to support Respite Volunteers all year long. The store posts its hours on their facebook page. Also, some of our vintage glassware & crafts are on sale at the new Mystic Sisters Mercantile in downtown Corunna, across the street from the historic Courthouse. 100 % of the proceeds are given to Respite Volunteers from both stores.
Donations can be made to our program at any time, and we hope that persons and families receiving our services will consider giving back in some way in the future. Since we have been providing services, for almost 33 years, we are often pleasantly surprised that a young person, young family, new volunteer, or business owner has decided to help by either volunteering with Respite Volunteers or donating, and that they already had a connection to our program, perhaps because a grandmother was our volunteer or their family was blessed with a wonderful Respite Volunteer at a critical point in caring for a loved one. Please call our office if you would like to learn about the different volunteer opportunities we offer.
Our Fall Purse Party Bingo is scheduled for Oct. 1st. We now have the State Lottery License. We are now selling the tickets at our office M-F 9-3.
We are hoping for persons to consider being matched with someone and visiting & helping weekly, or perhaps you would like to try out being a substitute volunteer first. Other volunteer opportunities include helping in the office, posting flyers on bulletin boards & at stores, asking if your church would approve our brochures being there, and helping at information booths.
In-kind donations: We are very grateful to the Owosso Eagles, who donated funds so we can purchase paper products from HK Allen Paper Company, and to Diane Calder, who recently donated the cost of having our carpets cleaned by Thompson Floors. If you would like to direct your donation in a special way, notify our staff. We are also the beneficiaries of walkers & canes to loan out to anyone who needs them. A frequent donor to this outreach is Legacy Estate Sales, and someone who lives locally and buys pallets of merchandise. Maybe there is a way you could honor a loved one, a dear friend, or a Respite Volunteer and help Respite Volunteers at the same time.
We always need help clearing the roof valleys, gutters & downspouts, sweeping the ramp, deck, driveway & sidewalks. We thank DayStarr Communications staff, Heather Brooks, Kelli Weidermayer-Morse, Sherry Morse, Denise & Tracy Temple, Amy Flum-Street, Steve Street, Kathleen Haak, Mary Adams, Cheryl Korf, Gabriel Harrington, Connie & Isabel Scherer, and Julie Petty for all their work on our lawn & garden this past year!
Our local Meijer employees voted to donate $5,000 to Respite Volunteers in 2025. Thank you very much. You can bet we are doing our shopping there! If you shop there, please help us express our thanks to their employees.
The Kroger Community Rewards program continues, and signing up needs to be done online. https://www.kroger.com/i/community/community-rewards, then follow the prompts. Call our office if you would like more info.
If you are not yet receiving our newsletter and would like to, please call our office.
Thank you so much for helping our program continue to serve others.
Helen Rathbun, RN, Executive Director
WISH LIST
Postage stamps
More people to try out Respite Volunteering
Shoppers at our little gift store
Sponsor a Respite Volunteer Family $550
Annual membership
Help Clean Our Office
Mailing labels: 30 on a page, #8160, Avery, if possible
Persons to apply for the Kroger Customer Rewards for Respite Volunteers
#10 Plain White Envelopes
Gift Cards or Gift Certificates from Gilbert’s, Meijer, Thompson’s Floors
For office supplies & services
Asking for help picking up sticks in the yard & weeding the perennial gardens
Help watering the gardens early morning or evening, please