WINTER 2010

WE CHANGE LIVES

Material donors, retail store shoppers, financial supporters and event sponsors: Thank you for investing in Goodwill and our mission of "Creating Hope, Jobs and Futures." All of our numbers reflected below are possible by motivated clients, skilled staff, focused board members and YOU!

Growing X 3 began in October 2009 when we introduced three new programs here at Goodwill - our collaboration with Heartly House to provide employment training for their clients; the second through our new "Good Guides"(TM) mentoring program for at-risk youth in our two-county area; and the third is our concerted effort toward outreach and enrollment of individuals and families through the MD S.N.A.P. (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food stamp program.

40th Anniversary "Wrap" took place at Carrabbas' Italian Grille in Frederick where we honored the founding leaders of our organization while also realizing that our work is never done! Expressions of gratitude were shared with founder W. Jerome Offutt and Harvey Kettering, the Baltimore Goodwill CEO at the time of our own organization's incorporation. Our anniversary celebration during 2009 was an overwhelming success as shown by 195 media hits and 10 events during the year.

The visionary leaders of our Goodwill are its board members; at our recent November meeting, we thanked four leaders for their years of service to our nonprofit - Tom McCanner, Daryl Routzahn, Dave Magoon and Sam Jones each helped us grow from serving 300 individuals per year to now serving nearly 3000. I am also pleased to welcome Jackie Kanekuni and Laura Easto to the Goodwill board and look forward to their leadership.

We all make a difference! We served over 2800 people through computer training, job skills development, job coaching, emergency certificates and volunteer placement. We placed nearly 100 clients in jobs in our communities. Our retail stores received donations from over 122,000 donors and served nearly 3,100,000 customers. We are truly changing lives.

In honor of his leadership through the founding of our Goodwill, we have established the W. Jerome Offutt Goodwill Fund at the Community Foundation of Frederick County. Designed to support the training needs of clients served by our nonprofit, contributions may be made by contacting either the Community Foundation or me.

Style Show Becomes "Model" of Success - Our first ever style show, in collaboration with The Temple/Paul Mitchell Partner School, was a resounding success - admission was $10 per person or a bag of material donations and $5. We extend our appreciation to the folks at The Temple for this effort, which also included the awarding of a full scholarship to one of our Goodwill clients. Thanks to their staff and students for their work on this project!

We believe in "The Power of Work! Thank you for embracing this ideal with us.

Dan Kurtenbach, President/CEO.

FALL 2009

WE CHANGE LIVES

Tommy came to Goodwill because he knew he had to make changes in his life. His drive to find a job was persistent, despite numerous closed doors. His criminal background made finding a job so hard, he almost gave up. His primary motivation in finding employment was "his family" and to make a positive impact in their lives. With a great attitude and help from Goodwill, Tommy secured a position at "We Help U Move." He enjoys his job and the chance to prove he is a responsible employee.

Family Circle Magazine and Goodwills across the country have teamed up to launch a five million pound clothing drive. We invite parents to put their "gently-used" adult and kids' clothes to work by donating them so that another child can have a "new to them" outfit. The donated items will be sold at Goodwill retail stores. This program generates revenue that funds Goodwill job training programs.

Night at The Keys - A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I enjoyed a night out at the Frederick Keys stadium where we were pleased to see all of the donations to Goodwill given by Keys fans. When they gave a donation, they got free tickets to that night's game. Thanks to the Keys for their support! We are planning similar events with Frederick Community College's basketball team this fall.

The "Cars for Clunkers" program is intended to reduce carbon monoxide emissions by taking poor fuel economy cars off the road. It is doing that, and at the same time, having an adverse impact on Goodwill's car donations program. If you have a vehicle that you no longer need, please consider us as a place to donate. We turn the value of your "clunker" into many services to help people find and keep jobs.

A few weeks back, the Senior Staff and I met with the board to finalize the strategic initiatives we intend to address in the next few years. The message was clearly one of growth. We intend to grow the mission, the people served, the business, the brand and the operational excellence of our Goodwill.

This is budgeting time for us at Goodwill. With thousands of people needing jobs, we have to make sure that the resources entrusted to us are used wisely and for our mission. We spend many hours looking at labor, utilities, transportation costs and all of the areas of our operations.

Painting was my first job out of high school so when we needed to repaint our Workforce Development and administrative hallways, I couldn't say I didn't know how to paint! For a few hours one Saturday, a number of staff and I grabbed the rollers and paint brushes and brightened up the hallways. Most of the paint actually went on the walls; however, some speckled shirts, shorts, shoes, floors and faces were also evident!

Brazil Day Festival - Once again, our Goodwill is the recipient of a donations drive to be held September 13 at Baker Park as part of this year's Brazil Day Festival. Our truck will be parked all afternoon that day to receive donations from festival attendees. We appreciate this recognition on the part of Festival planners to include our need for donations in their events schedule.

Celebrate the holiday season with us - perhaps by shopping for gifts and needed items! And remember: we can ALWAYS use your donations to help us continue to "Create Hope, Jobs and Futures in Our Community!"