"Never doubt that a small group of citizens can change the world.
Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."   Margaret Mead

ONGOING OPPORTUNITIES

The Ostrander Family
On January 11, 2008 Heartworks learned of a family in near by Hackettstown, N.J who had just given birth to twin boys Zach and Kyle on December 1, 2008.  The boys have been diagnosed with a disease by the name of  Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), a devastating, excruciating and often fatal disease in which one's skin blisters and falls off.  Simply, imagine a child with wounds similar to third degree burns covering most of his or her body that are not able to heal themselves.

Heartworks is so grateful to the Ostrander family for opening their lives to us.  They have been gracious and courageous in their willingness to receive from Heartworks and the hundreds of people who have reached out to them.  Our hearts have been cracked wide open by the teachings of these little boys.  Their lives continue to offer people the healing power of vulnerability, gratitude and compassionate.  Heartworks sees Zach and Kyle as teachers for all of us and we feel blessed to be included in the Ostrander's circle of friends.  Sue Ostrander is wanting to start coming to Heartworks
to meet everyone and to possibly begin her own group as a way to pay it forward... this is the power of God and the power of giving. THANK YOU FOR YOUR LETTERS, DONATIONS AND PRAYERS! Everything sent to our P.O. box is being given directly to them. Please continue to pray for families living with EB and for a cure to this disease.  To learn more about EB, please visit www.debra.org.

The Ostrander family is made up of Kyle and Zach’s mom Sue, Dad Jerry, big sister Samantha (age 12) and big sister Brianna (age 6).  Please send notes of support and/or checks made out to Heartworks (with THE OSTRANDER FAMILY on the memo line):
                           
Heartworks Foundation
P.O. Box 296
Bernardsville, NJ 07924

Please remember that Heartworks is a 501(c)3 and can qualify for your company's employee matching gift program. 100% of monies raised will go directly to the Ostrander family.

The Haley Family
In September 2007, Heartworks was introduced to The Haley family of New Hampshire and all of our hearts have been opened through our newfound friendship with them.  Allison and Jerry Haley are in their mid thirties and have 3 children- Jake and Megan age 2 and Peter who is 3.  Jerry was diagnosed with a grade 2 brain tumor 3 years ago while Allison was on bed rest, pregnant with the twins.  Allison's college friend Erin had never been to a Heartworks meeting before, but came to us for help. When we heard that Allison was looking to go back to work because they needed to be able to pay for COBRA insurance ($1,500) a month, we were awestruck.  As Moms and wives we could not let her go to work when she wanted to be home with her kids and Jerry, who is no longer able to work. Within 10 minutes of Erin telling us about the Haley's we had a year of COBRA payments covered for them. We had 12 members commit to fundraising within their own social circles to raise one month's payment.  We are currently on track to pay for 14 months of COBRA for the Haleys.  For more on their story and to see beautiful family pictures please visit their website at www.haleysfund.com.  Donations can be made through Heartworks which will go directly to the Haley's.  Please send notes of support and/or checks made out to Heartworks (with THE HALEY FAMILY written on the memo line):
                      
Heartworks Foundation
P.O. Box 296
Bernardsville, NJ 07924

BlinkNow
Heartworks was introduced to Maggie Doyne, founder of Blink Now, an organization that "empowers young people to become pioneers in developing solutions to world poverty".  Maggie, a former Mendham resident, now resides in Nepal and is building BlinkNow's first project, the Kopila Valley Children's Home.   Meeting Maggie was mesmerizing as she filled us in on how she decided to take advantage of LeapNow's program to defer college for a year and travel to Asia in a "rite of passage" course.  It was during this year that Maggie was introduced to the overwhelming devastation of war torn Nepal and its impact on its children. Maggie decided to act on her own and start her passionate work to establish a caring, helpful presence in this area.  Maggie has invested her all of her savings, including $5,000 which she raised babysitting, into this project and so far has raised $16,000.  BlinkNow's immediate budget is $50,000.  In an effort to raise funds, BlinkNow has created Birthday donation cards in which people can donate to BlinkNow in someone's honor and receive an acknowledgement card to give to the recipient.  These cards will be available to purchase at meetings.  Heartworks, in support of Maggie and BlinkNow will donate the funds to print these cards.

Maggie's efforts to help the Nepalese orphans is really paying off.  Maggie was able to open the orphanage and now has 8 children living there.  To learn more, please check out Maggie's blog on her website www.blinknow.org.

Our Veterans
During Veterans Week, Heartworks honored our local veterans that raise and lower the flags at the post office each day by providing breakfast and a late day snack/dinner.  To end the week, Heartworks provided a candlelit dinner for the veterans and their spouses.  This was an amazing start to what will be a longstanding Heartworks project.  The veterans were touched by our desire to honor them.  Every day, Megan had at least one man over the age of 70 crying to her and thanking Heartworks for their caring deeds.  They greatly appreciated the meals and the turnout.  Megan was so moved by this whole event that she has proposed that we continue our efforts to honor them throughout the year.  The men meet on a monthly basis and plans are in the works to provide something special for them at each meeting, whether it is a dessert bar, decorations for the tables made by Brownies and Cub Scouts.

Fire and Rescue Donations
Mason jars were passed around for members to take home and collect loose change in support of our local Fire and Rescue Squad.  After seeing their heroics firsthand, Megan is asking members to store up change that we can pull together for a group donation.  We often forget that the volunteers on the fire and emergency squad are volunteers and do this as a public service on top of their regular jobs.  We plan to organize a group to find meaningful ways to properly honor them for their service to our country.

Food Bank Supplies
The Somerset County Food Bank is desperately low on supplies.  To help, Heartworks members can bring supplies needed for the food bank to each meeting.  While it is great to clean out our cabinets, we should instead allow ourselves that great feeling of grace that comes from God of knowing that we specifically bought for the food bank while doing our weekly shopping.