April 1, 2009
HandiCapable Board Meeting
The meeting was opened with prayer by Mike.
Attendees: Jeff Morehead, Mike Hines, Herschel Gulley, Alan Myers and Lori Holderman
Treasurer's Report: Current Balance is $2365.23
1. Office Space: An agreement was signed between Harvesting Capabilities and St. John's Lutheran. The first month has been paid and move in date is today, April 1st. They have been a blessing to us and we look forward to getting the office up and running.
2. Disability Awareness Month: The visits to the schools went very well. We are planning to do this again next year. We weren't able to get to every school that wanted us, so we may still go visit them even though Disability Month is over. Public Awareness Day with the mayor and others using wheelchairs in downtown Peru was very effective. Several business owners are now more aware of the problems at their businesses. Tom Harp is working on getting a board together to assess the buildings in Peru. The program would train a few volunteers to visit the business and "grade" it according to the guidelines such as getting into the building, getting into the restrooms, getting a wheelchair up to a counter or a table, etc. If the business receives a passing grade, they would then be rewarded a sticker for their door that seems is "Accessible for All". This program would work with the Chamber also. Mike and Alan would both like to involved in this.
3.Chicken Noodle Fundraiser: The dinner grossed $1179.00. People seemed to like the drive-thru idea and there were no problems. Thank you to all who helped and supported the fundraiser.
4. Mystery Theater: After mentioning this fundraising idea at the Kiwanis meeting, they have now expressed interest in co-hosting this event as a community project. This is to raise funds for the new crossing signal at Main and Broadway. We need to talk to Pap Piper about the following items: Location (does she need a stage?), and maximum number of people to be in attendance. We also need to plan out the cost to pay her, rental of a facility if need be and the price for snacks.
5. Name Change: We need to change the name to not include any variation of handicap or challenged. We would like to keep the logo. Possible ideas: H.C. Hope for the Challenged, H.C. Help for Change, M.C. A. Miami County Advocates, Hope for the Country, Hope for the Community, Miami County H.C.
Herschel made a motion that we only change the corporate name and not the local support group name. Alan seconded the motion. We will discuss this further at the next meeting. You may want to check out the website: www.disabilityisnatural.com for more information on politically correct terminology.
6. Bake Sale: The next fundraiser is a bake sale on May 9th at Kmart from 9:00 to (?) 2:00PM
7. Cart: Cart stands for Cooperative Action Repair Team and is run by area churches. Their motto is "Neighbors Helping Neighbors". They are a team of volunteers that come together to make a positive impact in the community by improving Peru's appearance and restoring a positive attitude in our people. They aim to serve the needy and less fortunate in our community by landscaping and cleaning up of property, offering home repairs free of charge to those who cannot afford it and general clean up of Peru. Rod Correll, Zion Chapel, 472-7092 is the person to contact. After much discussion on how to get involved with the CART organization, it was decided that we will call Rod and find out as much information as possible about the program so we can refer people to them for services and possibly volunteer our services to help them on projects.
Next Meeting: May 6th, @12:45 PM, Harvesting Capabilities Office at St. John's
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