Happy New Year ❄️ Our January 2022 News is Here for You

Creating opportunities for adults with disabilities since 1974

Connect, Follow, Like and Comment on our Social Media

DONATE

JANUARY 2022 E-NEWSLETTER

A MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

It’s been a challenging month at Vocational Visions. The surge of the Omicron variant of the COVID virus caused us to discontinue in-person services once again, much to everyone’s dismay. Our commitment to safety for our staff and our program participants must always take priority. The good news is that we have set a reopen date for 2/14/2022.

We are still under guidance from our licensing agency to keep in-person services at or below 50% capacity. Our returning participants will follow the same attendance schedule they had prior to our second onsite shutdown. We will, of course, continue to offer Zoom classes, wellness checks, home delivery of activity packets and some in-home services to our participants who are not able to return to in-person services.

Our Enchanted Evening gala has been postponed once again due to COVID concerns. The new date for the event is 9/17/2022 at the Hyatt Regency John Wayne Airport Newport Beach hotel (same place our last event was held in 2019). Won’t it be great to all gather together to celebrate and support Vocational Visions once again? This year’s event will have some new features such as a website specifically for the event where you can pledge a sponsorship, buy tickets, make your meal choices and add your table guests. The silent auction items will be listed on the website and the silent auction will be open online for our supporters who want to bid on items and support our organization but cannot attend the event in-person.

I’ll take this opportunity to thank and recognize our direct support service staff and managers for their nimble and very quick response when we decided to discontinue in-person services for a second time. Thank you to our board members for their support during this challenge as well. I also want to thank our program participants, their families and care providers for their patience and understanding.

We look forward to welcoming everyone back!

EMAIL JOAN

DONATION APPRECIATIONS

We are truly blessed by the support of those who believe in our VV mission. Each newsletter, we like to show some appreciation for one or more of our recent donors.

We'd like to thank Lisa Meyer who donated $1,500 to our ADP program which her daughter Megan has been attending since 2014. Thank you Lisa.

As part of our Year-End Appeal, Ching and Humei Feng donated $1,500. Since 1997, their son Vin has participated in our DTAC Alambre program. Thank you Ching and Humei.

Kathy Kenna created a Facebook birthday fundraiser inviting friends to donate to Vocational Visions in honor of her November birthday. She successfully raised $235 which will go to our DTAC Pala program where her sister, Nancy, is a participant. Nancy has been with Vocational Visions since 1988. Thank you Kathy.

If you would like to be acknowledged in our newsletter for your donation, we are happy to do so if you let us know when you make your donation.

MURPHY'S BLEACHERS FUNDRAISER

One day in December, out of the blue, we received a $25 first time donation from a woman living in Chicago. She referenced the following in her donation: "Wrigley Field Chicago hosted by Kevin".

Needless to say, we were wondering who Kevin was and what Wrigley Field in Chicago had to do with our small non-profit in Mission Viejo. We did some sleuthing and discovered the story behind it and it's a really neat one.

It turns out that Kevin is Kevin Stevenson and he works at a sports pub called Murphy's Bleachers, which just so happens to be located across the street from Wrigley Field.

Each year at Christmas time, Kevin's parents select a nonprofit organization for family members to donate to in lieu of exchanging Christmas gifts. This past holiday, they selected Vocational Visions where their daughter, Jeanette Stevenson, is a member of our ADP program. They selected VV because they knew it was a challenging year for our participants and staff due to the pandemic. Now, Kevin could have made an individual donation to VV and called it a day. But, that just wouldn't be his style. After all, Kevin has great appreciation for the organization that has been serving his sister since 1990.

Kevin coordinated a fundraising night for VV at his jobsite, the iconic Murphy's Bleachers in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago. Local Chicago patrons learned about our mission through Kevin's efforts and donated to our cause. The night included live music and raffles. Kevin was able to raise $2,525 for VV which is above and beyond any expectations he or his parents had.

Thank you very much Kevin and Murphy's Bleachers! If we are ever in Chicago, we will stop by and thank you personally. We also want to give a shout-out to parents Pete and Joan Stevenson for their dedication to supporting all types of nonprofits throughout the world.

Murphy's Bleachers began in the 1930's as a hot dog stand with a different name before settling into a building across the street from Wrigley Field. When Chicago Police Detective Jim Murphy purchased the business in 1980, it became Murphy's Bleachers.

GIVING TUESDAY 2021 RESULTS

Every year, on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, there is a global fundraising day for nonprofits called Giving Tuesday. Through 19 donors, we were overjoyed to raise $7,880 in a single day on 11/30/2021.

YEAR-END FUNDRAISING APPEAL RESULTS

We are excited and appreciative to report that our 2021 Year-End Appeal raised $18,393 from 50 donors. We are very lucky to have such generous supporters who are dedicated to our vision.

IN MEMORIAM

PARTICIPANT DANNY JENNINGS

Over our organization's 48 years, we have mourned the passing of several VV participants. Our participants are like family to us so we grieve like family. We recently lost Danny Jennings who was a member of VV since we first opened back in 1974. Danny was one of the first faces we got to see at VV when we reopened to in-person programming in June of 2021.

Danny most recently participated in our DTAC Pala and Clubhouse programs. In late summer, Danny was moved to a higher care facility in Anaheim and we ultimately had to close his case with VV in November 2021. It was very sad for Danny, for us and for his strongest advocate, his sister Mandi. Danny held the distinction of being a participant of VV longer than any other (and we have many participants who have been with us for quite a long time).

On December 26, 2021, Mandi shared the sad news that her beautiful brother, her 'Danny Boy', passed away on Christmas day.

Here, we would like to share a touching tribute written by his sister.

The phrase “Heaven received another Angel” is never truer than with my brother Danny.

This beautiful person was my roommate until he was institutionalized in 1964. He spent his young life, from around age 9 to age 18 in a state mental hospital only visiting us on weekends. When California introduced the “Group Home” concept, Danny was chosen to pioneer this program. He was a rock star and lived in a few different homes (not moving much) until his passing on Christmas morning, 2021. He was 66 years young.

His life was amazing. Trips, sporting events, meeting professional athletes, Special Olympics and working in the community. He lived life large despite never having an education. He was a man of few words. Most found him hard to understand, but he and I communicated in our own special way and had a very close, unique and loving relationship. Danny Boy loved movies - karate, sci fi, scary - you name it. Christmas was his favorite holiday and seems fitting to be the day he passed. Vocational Visions' day programs and the House of Champions Clubhouse treated him with love and respect and clearly were the best part of his life. Danny was the best part of my life!

- Mandi Jennings Lenaburg

VV 2021 HOLIDAY MEMORIES

We love to celebrate the holidays with our participants. During December, we shared our holiday spirit through many awesome activities and celebrations. Here is a look back at some of our favorite 2021 winter holiday moments. We hope you enjoy watching this as much as we enjoyed making the memories.