Always eager to take part in community service activities, the Solutions team was particularly enthusiastic when they adopted a local Head Start class for Christmas.

“The Community Service Committee took a survey in August, and many of the employees expressed a special interest in doing something to help kids,” says Bob, a Solutions team member.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America – 12.9 million of whom are children. One federal program geared toward helping kids from low-income families is Head Start.
Continue Reading The Giving Tree

Georgianna, one of our Solutions teammates, is a mother and grandmother, so she knows the value of reading to kids. For this reason, and because she can’t imagine a life without reading, she began volunteering with Start Making a Reader Today (SMART®) in 2001.

“It doesn’t take a lot of time, but has big benefits for the kids,” she said. “It’s so valuable. This is their time each week to enjoy being the most important person in the world.”

SMART® is a nonprofit early literacy program in Oregon, serving kindergartners through third graders at risk of low literacy and the resulting challenges. Each adult volunteer meets with the same two children once a week for half an hour each during the school year. Volunteers may read or be read to depending on the child’s mood, interest or ability. SMART children also receive two new books per month to keep and read with their families.
Continue Reading Solutions Volunteers Show Their Smarts

When it comes to time off, most people look to relax, often in the shade of a swaying palm tree. But there are some who would rather swing a hammer than a hammock. They explain their choice by saying that once you have volunteered for Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), you’re hooked.
Continue Reading Solutions Employees Put Constructive Spin on Vacation

Normally when a company says it is “cleaning up” it is referring to revenue not rubbish. But twice a year Solutions concentrates on the coastline rather than the bottom line as part of SOLV’s annual Beach Cleanups.

Since 1994, the company has sent a team of volunteers, one in spring and another in fall, to the Oregon Coast to help tidy up area beaches. SOLV, established in 1969 as Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism, began the beach efforts in 1984 to help fulfill its mission to bring together government agencies, businesses and individual volunteers in programs to better Oregon.
Continue Reading Solutions Joins SOLV Effort to Protect Oregon Coast