NFCA Honors JOIN HANDS DAY Excellence Award Winners
Tenth annual JOIN HANDS DAY awards announced.

10/08/09

OAK BROOK, IL – The National Fraternal Congress of America (NFCA) recognized this year’s 10 JOIN HANDS DAY Excellence Award winners on September 17, 2009, at the 123rd NFCA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

The ten awardees were selected from hundreds of volunteer projects that emphasized youth and adult partnerships on May 2, 2009. Each award-winning project will receive $1,000 and a plaque. The coordinating groups will choose how the funds are used. Some organizations donate the money to the beneficiary of the project or another benevolent cause. Others save the funds to use as seed money for the following year’s JOIN HANDS DAY event.

JOIN HANDS DAY, a program of the NFCA, takes place annually on the first Saturday in May. The volunteer day promotes fraternalism and fraternal benefit societies and is the only day of service on America’s Season of Service national calendar that seeks to build youth and adult relationships through planning and participating. This signature event is solely sponsored by America’s fraternal benefit societies and provides these organizations with an opportunity to connect with other volunteer groups to make an important impact on their communities.

A panel of independent judges selected this year’s top projects. As in years past, the judges selected the winners on the basis of the project’s uniqueness, its youth involvement, recruitment, publicity and the value of the project to people and the community. The potential for the contacts made on JOIN HANDS DAY to build into long-lasting relationships between the generations is also considered.

“In its 10 years JOIN HANDS DAY has really come into its own. Communities are developing this year’s event based on previous projects to further enhance the community and relationships begun a year ago,” said Joseph J. Annotti, NFCA President and CEO. “JOIN HANDS DAY has become a tradition for many people. When 450 people out of a town of 500 give up a day to volunteer, you know JOIN HANDS DAY is making an impact on people’s lives.”

Since its conception in 1999, JOIN HANDS DAY has awarded 100 Excellence Awards. This is the final year for this award program. The final Excellence awards follow:

2009 Excellence Awards Winners

Modern Woodmen of America - Davenport, Iowa
At Modern Woodmen of America Park, members were joined by Quad Cities River Bandits, Genesis Health System, Scott County DAV/Auxiliary, Illowa Council BSA-Cub Scouts, 4-H, Girl Scouts and St. Paul the Apostle School. More than 151 youth and 209 adults made 425 Jared Boxes, shoebox-sized containers filled with toys, games and crafts for children that find themselves in hospitals, in bereavement and trauma support.

Iroquois Memorial Park/Thrivent Financial for Lutherans - Iroquois, South Dakota
Beadle County Thrivent Financial for Lutherans #30561, Iroquois Area Community Club, Redstone Valley Creek 4-H Club, Iroquois Housing Development, Iroquois City Council, United Methodist Church and St. Paul’s Catholic Church and school groups through three group meetings prioritized the needs of the Memorial Park. The results were new benches made by the shop class, an adopt-at-tree program, volley ball court preparation, landscaping and city-wide clean up.

Modern Woodmen of America - Kimberly, Idaho
Sixteen Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) Youth Service Clubs, five MWA Adult Camps, Red Hat Society chapters, the Area Office on Aging, LDS relief societies, Meals on Wheels Volunteers, Boy Scouts of America, OWLS members, Key Ag Distributors, Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, Rock Creek Growers and Kimberly Construction participated. Following last year’s projects at assisted living centers, these 192 volunteers chose to do a project for home-bound senior citizens. Volunteers found 200 shut-ins in need of attention. On JOIN HANDS DAY, the group planted 200 “Pots of Love”, adorned with a poem written by a youth and phone number for the shut-ins to call when an act of service was needed. Adults, accompanied by youth, delivered each pot to the shut-ins. Follow-up calls have resulted in weeding yards, planting flowers, mowing lawns and trimming bushes and on-going relationships.

Catholic Order of Foresters - Lafayette, Minnesota
Catholic Order of Foresters St. Thomas Court 1994, Bernadotte 4-H Club, Lafayette Area Lions Club, St. Gregory The Great Catholic Church/CCD Program, Troop #2 Boy Scouts, First Lutheran Church and Lafayette Charter School packed meals for the Kids Against Hunger campaign. The judges were impressed that event was organized by youth from beginning to end through all aspects of the project. They were also impressed by the fact that the population of Lafayette is 500 and 425 volunteers turned out to pack 91,086 meals.

Wisconsin Fraternal Congress/Catholic Family Life Insurance/
Catholic Knights/Employes’ Mutual Benefit Association - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
In a project sponsored by the Wisconsin Fraternal Congress, Catholic Family Life Insurance, Catholic Knights, Employes’ Mutual Benefit Association, Children’s Service Society of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Fire and Police Academy, New Berlin High School, Pius High School, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the Volunteer Center of Greater Milwaukee, students and adults provided parents of special needs children in 33 families a much-needed 6-hour day away from their 24/7 responsibilities.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans - Coral Gables, Florida
An amazing 1,291 youth and adults from 30 organizations, led by Thrivent Financial for Lutheran’s Miami Dade Chapter, worked side by side to support Operation Thank You. They collected “wish list” items for the troops serving in Iraq, packaged and shipped the care packages abroad. Letters were were included in the packages to give them a touch of hope and of home.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans/Modern Woodmen of America - Dewitt, Iowa
The West Clinton County Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, along with Modern Woodmen of America, asponsored May Day in Lincoln Park. Volunteers spread mulch, pulled weeds, raked leaves, prepared flower beds, work on the walkways for the new hausbarn and to ready the park for summer use. Later volunteers went to a nursing home and did the same there.

Woodmen of the World /Omaha Woodmen Life Insurance Society - Gray Court, South Carolina
A JOIN HANDS DAY Gospel Fest was organized by Woodmen of the World/Omaha Woodmen Life Insurance Society Lodges 206 and 1298. Profits benefited the crisis center, the food bank, the youth association, fire deptartment and PTO. The eight-hour event included inflatable structures for the children, school information, face painting and over 40 vocalists sang and donated their time. Local businesses donated use of tents, porta-pottys, a truck, trailers for the stage and sound equipment. Also pitchng in were the Hickory Tavern Volunteer Fire Department, the Hickory Tavern Youth Association, Hickory Tavern Elementary PTO and the Laurens Baptist Association Crisis Center/Food Bank.

The East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corporation (ECKAN) - Ottawa, Kansas
Youth Action Council-ECKAN, Youth in Government-ECKAN, Ottawa University’s Phi Kappa Chi, Ottawa Area Chamber of Commerce and Modern Woodmen of America Camp No. 499 went green. Volunteers donated materials and worked with 25 seniors to construct rain barrels for their homes. A local cable channel taped the workshop and the video brought more support for the youth and their sustainability project. Other volunteers painted over graffiti in the downtown park in preparation for the kick-off of Famer’s Market season, and planted flowers at the Ottawa Retirement Village. In the afternoon, volunteers distributed cost-saving and environmentally friendly CFL light bulbs and reusable shopping bags to 120 households.

The Order of United Commercial Travelers - Columbus, Ohio
The Order of United Commercial Travelers (UCT), Columbus ZooTeens, Linden Youth Association, Westland HS Junior Air Force ROTC, Ghosts of Ohio and Green Lawn Volunteers Association cleaned up the 350-acre Green Lawn Cemetery. Volunteers cleared away sod and weeds from military markers and children’s graves; and picked up debris from around the pond and the office. Many people stopped into the office that weekend just to comment on the neatness of the grounds. UCT, through this experience, learned that three of the founders of the organization are buried at Green Lawn. Green Lawn Association acquired two new volunteers for the non-profit cemetery as a result of JOIN HANDS DAY efforts.

About the NFCA
The 123-year-old NFCA unites 65 not-for-profit fraternal benefit societies operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.  The association represents 9.3 million fraternalists in 37,000 local chapters, making it one of America’s largest member-volunteer networks.  Fraternal benefit societies provide their members with leadership, social, educational, spiritual, patriotic, scholarship, financial and volunteer-service opportunities.  Combined, the NFCA’s member-societies maintain more than $353 billion of life insurance-in-force and, in 2008 alone, contributed almost $424 million to charitable and fraternal programs, and volunteered nearly 94 million hours for community-service projects.  These statistics demonstrate the commitment that fraternals make to those in need and exemplify the true meaning of the NFCA signature phrase:  Joining Hands to Touch Lives.

About JOIN HANDS DAY
Sponsored by America’s fraternal benefit societies, JOIN HANDS DAY is the fraternal national day of service when youths and adults work together to plan and implement projects that benefit their local communities. Visit www.joinhandsday.org for more information.