Bergen Volunteers Buzz
April 2020
What is the Buzz?
Bergen Volunteers Buzz is our monthly newsletter highlighting organizational news, events, updates, and volunteer opportunities. Look out for our newsletter at the beginning of every month to stay connected with your friends at  Bergen Volunteers!
Dear Friend,

From all of us at Bergen Volunteers, we hope everyone is healthy--mind, body and spirit.

As we move into the next phase of the COVID-19 crisis, Bergen Volunteers is actively working to support the vulnerable over the next weeks and months.

We are continuing to hold weekly calls with other service providers and community leaders to identify both needs emerging in the community and what resources different organizations are providing. You can access our resource list here .

In this crisis, we are really all in this together--and "helpers" need as much support as those they serve. Our staff are staying in touch with our volunteers, our friends at other community based organizations, and community leaders.

The best thing we can all do during this crisis is to  stay physically distant , but we can stay  socially connected . We will continue to highlight heart-warming stories from our community on social media. And soon, we will be launching regularly scheduled conference calls/google hangouts to help alleviate social isolation.

Stay safe, be well and thank you for your continued interest and support of Bergen Volunteers,

Lynne
Upcoming Events
Due to the increased exercise of caution from the corona virus the Friday Forum
will be postponed to September 25, 2020.

It will still be at the Stony Hill Inn from 11:30 am - 2:00 pm and the topic is pending.

If you have already purchased a ticket, it will be applied for
the September forum date.

If you cannot attend, please contact Elizabeth at
ereich@bergenvolunteers.org  for more information on refunds.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused
and thank you for your patience during this time.  

Join Our Team
Improving Lives Program Assistant - 20 hours/Week
Our Successful Families Team that works with the Mentoring Moms and Dads and Mentoring
Youth programs is looking for a part-time Program Assistant. We’re looking for someone who is detail-oriented, compassionate, and preferably speaks Spanish. Let us know if that is you, or someone you know. View job description here .
Exciting Volunteer Opportunities
Help with Food Insecurity
In collaboration with Bergen County, the Housing Authorities, Community Food Bank and the Center for Food Action, we are planning a safe volunteer experience to package emergency meal kits for distribution throughout the County. Our goal is to pack 1,800 kits, each of which will contain 40 pounds of food. If you would like to volunteer, you can sign up here.
Help Seniors in Your Community
If you are able to help seniors in the community get groceries please connect with Umbrella: https://www.askumbrella.com/covid-response-volunteers They have created a system and an app that you can download to find out who needs help near you.
Program Updates
Bergen LEADS, College LEADS, and Teen LEADS
College LEADS and Teen LEADS programs are on hold for now. Bergen LEADS is scheduled to meet again on April 21st. We will look at all options (virtual, outdoor time for Environmental Seminar, and see what we can do! Stay tuned!
CHORE
Even though they are not out on the road at the moment we want to highlight our CHORE program and our amazing volunteers. Back in November the program was included on a CNN International episode of Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. If you missed the show
when it aired, check out the 5 minute clip here .
Census 2020
Despite all of the current challenges, the 2020 Census is vitally important to the future of Bergen County and New Jersey. Please take a few minutes to complete the Census for your household ( www.2020census.gov ) and take a #CensusSelfie to encourage your friends to do the same. The Census can also be completed on the phone in various languages.
You can access a list of phone numbers here.
Successful Aging
Our CHORE program has been suspended. We have encouraged all of our mentors and our CHEER visitors to say in regular contact with the people they are matched with during this time. 
VITA
VITA Tax Prep has been suspended for now. If you had a scheduled appointment, you have already been notified. We will determine if we have the extensions from the Federal and State governments, if we have the staff and if, most importantly, we have the wonderful volunteers. We will keep clients that were already scheduled updated along the way.
Volunteer Spotlight
We have dedicated volunteers who serve with the CHORE program, often for an extended time. We want to highlight three volunteers this month. Two have hit their 10 year marks in the last few months George Ann Muller and Dennis Beezley. And Harvey Rappaport is retiring this month after more than 11 years of service. Thank you to George Ann, Dennis, and Harvey! 

We also want to take a moment to honor two of our CHORE Volunteers who passed away recently. Terry O'Connor volunteered for CHORE for 12 years on one of the Tuesday vans. He passed away in February. Jim Walker started volunteering with CHORE in October of 2018 and drove one of our Thursday vans. He passed away in March. Our hearts go out to their family, friends, and crews.
Bergen Volunteers bergenvolunteers.org