Helen's Letter
July/August 2026
Dear Families and Friends of Respite Volunteers,
Tickets are in for our Volunteer Celebration, Silent Auction & Annual Meeting! We thank Hemenway Business Service, Horizon Bank, Jackie Hurd, and Diz & Muriel Clark Family for the $1000 sponsorships received. Thank you for the $500 Sponsorship from Mowinski Financial & Young Chevrolet Cadillac Inc. These sponsorships allow our Volunteers to receive complimentary tickets to the event. We are also seeking donations of unique Silent Auction items for this event, with a retail value of $50, please. We need it by the middle of July so it can be in the program. See our website for photos of some of the Auction Items.
We have a Year of the Nonprofit Respite Volunteer display at the Shiawassee Arts Center, now-Aug 29th. We will be present on July 30th from 5-7 pm; there are receptions all the same evenings at the Moonlight Market & Summer Concert. We will have info booths at the SCOA Senior Picnic at McCurdy Park & Senior Day at the Fair.
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 expect to be selling tickets in July.
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 & clearing snow, especially for the handicapped-accessible parking spot, too. 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, 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