Hi, Neighbor! Join us for Good Neighbor Day!

Hands On Nashville and the Neighborhoods Resource Center invite you to come and be recognized for the great work you do in our community as a volunteer.

Join us for Good Neighbor Day at the fifth annual Nashville Neighborhoods Celebration from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 30 in Elizabeth Park.

• Enjoy local artists performing great music, poetry, and storytelling;
• Taste wonderful food from around the world; and
• Engage in a wide range of fun activities for people of all ages.

The event is free with plenty of free parking. MTA riders will discover easy access using route 42 – St. Cecilia / Cumberland.

 

Volunteers: Stand up and be recognized! 

At 2 p.m., we’ll pause to recognize and thank the festival’s volunteers, and their role as some of the 10,000 volunteers serving our community through Hands On Nashville. Share your story about the work you do to make our community a better place to live. Help inspire others to volunteer and make a difference.

Volunteers are good neighbors

“The Nashville Neighborhoods Celebration is inspired by the qualities of every great neighbor,” said Jim Hawk, executive director at the Neighborhoods Resource Center and organizer of Good Neighbor Day. “Hands On Nashville Volunteers are good neighbors, too!

If you believe being a Good Neighbor is important part of life—and I believe most volunteers do—then you’ll be in the right place!”

Volunteer opportunities

Of course, there are plenty of volunteer opportunities if you want to help make Good Neighbor Day a great day.

The Celebration’s volunteer needs are listed below. You might expect some opportunities, such as greeting folks, taking photos, setting up and breaking down. Others might come as a surprise – for example, the Celebration is recruiting more than a dozen kazoo players to provide a soundtrack for the competitions and parades.

Browse the list, click your favorite to sign up, and help the Neighborhoods Resource Center make the Nashville Neighborhoods Celebration the city’s most welcoming event!

• Set-Up Crew & Shift Leaders (Friday and Saturday)
• Greeters
• Game Assistants
• Grounds Crew
• Driver with F-250 (or better) truck (signup coming soon)
• Face Painters
• Kazoo Players (signup coming soon)
• Photographer
• Videographer
• World Food Pavilion – Hospitality Staff
• Breakdown Crew

For more information about Good Neighbor Day at the fifth annual Nashville Neighborhoods Celebration, or ADA accommodation, visit the event’s website or call (615) 782-8212.

Salon Nfuse to host 5th annual Cut-A-Thon benefiting Hands On Nashville

Salon Nfuse Cut-A-Thon
Saturday, Jan. 31, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.– Appointments will fill fast!

Ready for a new hairstyle in the New Year? For the fifth consecutive year, our talented friends at Salon Nfuse will host an all-day “Cut-A-Thon” to benefit Hands On Nashville.

Nashville Chefs Collaborate on Dinner to Raise Money for Hands On Nashville

**Please Note: This dinner has been postponed for a TBD date. All ticket purchasers will receive a 100% refund this week. Please contact becca@hon.org with any questions, and stay tuned for details on the September dinner!

Sycamore’s summer farm dinner on Sunday, June 8th features seasonal fare from four Nashville chefs

Sycamore Nashville, a pop-up concept created by husband-and-wife team Tony and Caroline Galzin, will host a summer beer dinner to raise funds for the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm. The four-course dinner will highlight seasonal produce from the Farm. The evening will be a collaborative effort, with appetizer from Tony Galzin, a pasta course from Tom Lazzaro of Lazzaroli Pasta, a wood-fired entrée from Jim Garvin of Crankees Pizza, and dessert by pastry chef Audra Dykes.

Chef Tony Galzin demonstrates a healthy summer salad recipe for the participants of Hands On Nashville’s Urban Farm youth summer program. The kids got to try their hands at making the salad, too!

Beers from Jackalope Brewery and other local brewers will pair with each course. The dinner will take place on Sunday, June 8th at 6:00 pm at POP Nashville (604 Gallatin Ave., Ste 202).

TICKETS: $50 each and include dinner and beer pairings. Tickets may be purchased at the event, or in advance here. Space is limited.

In partnership with Mayor Karl Dean’s Office and the Metropolitan Board of Parks and Recreation, Hands On Nashville’s Urban Farm engages volunteers – primarily young people – in service and learning. This dinner will support Hands On Nashville’s youth summer camp program at the Farm, which teaches Davidson county children about nutrition, sustainability, and healthy food choices.

This will be Sycamore’s fifth fundraiser for the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm.

Hands On Nashville is grateful for Tony and Caroline’s dedicated support of our work to engage young people in learning about healthy eating choices, leadership development, and FUN at the Hands On Nashville Urban Farm. 

ABOUT SYCAMORE: Sycamore is a project from husband and wife team Tony and Caroline Galzin, both formerly of Chicago. Tony and Caroline have been hosting pop up events under the name Sycamore for the past year in Nashville at Fido, The Catbird Seat, Flyte, The Jackalope Tap Room, The Southern Artisan Cheese Festival and Outstanding in the Field. They are currently working on a new concept that will open in Nashville in 2014.

Introducing Go Green Home Services: An innovative social enterprise

It’s here: Nashville’s first-ever home energy solutions company that gives back to the community with every dollar it earns.

Hands On Nashville is proud to partner with Village Real Estate Services to launch Go Green Home Services, an innovative social enterprise that provides high-quality home energy improvements for an affordable fee.

All of the company’s profit is reinvested in Hands On Nashville’s Home Energy Savings (HES) program. This nonprofit program engages volunteers to make energy and safety improvements in low-income homes at no cost to qualifying Nashvillians. Since 2011, HES has completed improvements on more than 160 homes and saved each homeowner an average of 16 percent on their utility bills.

All proceeds from the services provided by Go Green Home Services go to help low-income Nashvillians like the Norfleet family (pictured here) through Hands On Nashville’s Home Energy Savings program. http://www.gogreennashville.com

When you choose Go Green Home Services, you will feel good in your home, and help someone in need feel good in theirs.

Go Green Home Services’ process is simple:

The first step is to schedule an affordable home energy audit.Go Green will perform a thorough home inspection to pinpoint areas of your home that waste energy and leak air.

From there, Go Green will provide you with a selection of improvement suggestions based on the inspection findings, along with a quote for each service and anticipated return on investment.

> Learn more about Go Green Home Services at www.gogreennashville.com.

VIDEO: A glimpse into a Home Energy Savings project

Cut-A-Thon at Salon Nfuse Benefiting HON

Saturday, January 25, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Make your appointment today… Spots will fill fast!

For the fourth year running, our talented friends at Salon Nfuse will host an all-day Cut-A-Thon, with 100% of proceeds benefiting Hands On Nashville. For one day only, Salon Nfuse is offering:

• haircuts at $30 and up (appointments only)
• event styling at $30 and up (appointments only), and
• blow-outs and braids at $20 and up (appointments and walk-ins welcome).

Call (615) 649-0501 to make an appointment (please specify desired price point when making your appointment). Salon Nfuse is located at 2535 Franklin Pike, Suite 106, Nashville, 37204 (just south of downtown Nashville near where 8th turns into Franklin Rd).

Red Earth Trading Co. will also be on hand selling high-quality, fair trade jewelry and accessories created by artisans in Uganda and Kenya. Red Earth Trading Co. exists to create hope and opportunity through fashion by giving these talented artisans in developing countries access to the global market. They also donate 5% of every sale to their nonprofit partner Know Think Act to further their mission of empowering local leaders in East Africa to end extreme poverty in their own communities.

Bonus! Salon Nfuse will also give $20 toward any future hair service to all HON volunteers who bring in proof of volunteer service in 2013 or 2014. (One per person. To print off proof of service, volunteers should login to their accounts at www.HON.org and print off their account homepage.) Thank you to our talented friends at Salon Nfuse for their generous support of Hands On Nashville.

115 bikes donated on #GivingTuesday!

Warmer weather and lots of wonderful people in Nashville made #GivingTuesday here at Hands On Nashville a glowing success. Thanks to everyone who came out to support this fun day. Special thanks to Dozen Bakery and Tennessee Cheesecake for providing treats, and Wannado for volunteering with us.

This donor brought by a whole truckload of bikes!

Hands On Nashville received 115 bikes during our #BikesAndBakedGoods bike drive on #GivingTuesday, bringing our total so far to 325 bikes (our goal is to reach 500 bikes by Dec. 20 – read more about how you can help here). All of these donations will support our ReCYCLE for Kids program presented by Jackson. Volunteers will restore the bikes to like-new condition with expert guidance from the Oasis Center’s Bike Workshop. Then in the spring, we’ll give them to 400 underserved youth along with new helmets and safety training.

During our #GivingTuesday bike drive, we heard all sorts of fun stories from donors as they parted ways with their wheels.

Instagram user BroccoliCupcake used the day (picture featured below) as a teaching moment with her two boys. She remarks, “The boys donated their bikes to Hands On Nashville today and were pretty excited to get brownies as a thank you.”

One father took a “last photo” of his daughter’s bike before handing it over to us, and then sent his daughter – who just went off to college – the photo as a memento. He also picked up a few baked goods to ship to her in the mail.

Jerilyn told us about using her childhood bike at her first job on the paper route. The banana seat was just *so* comfortable.

Jerilyn drops off her childhood bike.

Another donor came up with a pick-up truck piled high with over eight bikes he collected from his neighborhood. He saw a story on the news and was intent on helping out a good cause.

Thanks to everyone who donated their bikes or gave monetary donations to support ReCYCLE for Kids and Hands On Nashville. We absolutely love this community and are sincerely thankful for your giving hearts.

If you missed out on the designated day of giving, we’ve extended our collection. And yes, we still need your help. Up until December 20, we’re collecting new and used children’s bikes at the Hands On Nashville office, located at 37 Peabody Street, Suite 206 (in the downtown Trolley Barns), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Go ahead and dust off those bikes sitting in your garage or basement – they could make a kid’s year, helping them enjoy the excitement of riding and exercising, just like you did as a child.

Our goal is to collect 500 used children’s bikes, and with your help we will get there!

Don’t have a bike but still want to help? We’re also accepting monetary donations to help buy new helmets for the kids. $10 will buy one helmet. Help us keep their noggins safe!

> Click here to make a monetary donation. (Be sure to include the note “for bike helmets” in the Special Instructions field upon checkout.)

 > Click here to read more information about ReCYCLE for Kids.  

Look at all these bikes that will get a second life, thanks to YOU, Nashville!

The silver lining of coming in second.

During this week of thanks, we at Hands On Nashville are feeling particularly grateful for everyone who voted for HON in the recent Claris Cloud Giveaway contest to win $200,000 in IT services. We were honored to be a finalist and to receive so many votes from our friends locally and nationally.

We came in a close second to Operation Stand Down Nashville – a wonderful organization that provides many life changing social services to veterans in Middle Tennessee. Claris’ significant investment in Operation Stand Down Nashville is a win-win for the Nashville community. You can read Claris’ announcement about the winner here.

To our friends and incredible community volunteers: Thank you for your support of Hands On Nashville in this effort, and throughout the year. To EVERYONE who voted in this contest no matter which organization you voted for: thank you. We can’t wait to see what Operation Stand Down does with their new IT support, and know it will go a long way to serving those who have bravely served our country.

Thank you for voting us #1 Best Nonprofit!

We are feeling the love this week in a big way. What great enthusiasm our city has for volunteerism!

FIRST: Thank you, Nashville, for voting us “Best Nonprofit” in the 2013 Nashville Scene Readers’ Poll. We are honored to share this recognition with two great organizations, Ronald McDonald House Charities and Thistle Farms. A special thank you to the Nashville Scene and Jackson National Life Insurance for awarding us $5,000 – this money will go to support our work to meet critical community needs through volunteerism.

This city sure is proud of its culture of service, and we are truly honored to play a part in making volunteerism something that Nashvillians value. All of our good work is made possible by the remarkable gifts of time and talent provided by selfless volunteers and community partners.

LAST (but certainly not least!): We were also honored this week when our fearless leader and CEO, Brian Williams, received The Bank of America CEO of the Year Award at the 2013 Salute to Excellence awards dinner. This award highlights the importance of executive leadership in an organization’s achievement of mission-related results. Thanks to the Center for Nonprofit Management and Bank of America for this wonderful recognition!

Back to School Tutor Fair Recap

The Salvation Army was just one of many nonprofits at the Tutor Fair.

The need for tutors who can assist both youth and adult students in Middle Tennessee is greater than ever. Believe it or not, there are usually more than 100 tutoring opportunities listed on the HON website at any given time. But while such a large number of openings provides potential tutors with a nice variety from which to choose, it can be overwhelming for them as well.

With a new school year underway, Hands On Nashville welcomed 18 local nonprofits and more than 75 volunteers to its offices for the inaugural Back to School Tutor Fair on September 5.

The goal of the event was to connect potential volunteer tutors with the nonprofits who need them most and simplify the process that matches individuals with tutor openings. The gathering also provided an opportunity for Hands On Nashville and its nonprofit partners to address some of the common questions and concerns individuals have about tutoring in general.

A prospective volunteer learns more about tutoring opportunities.

Overall, the Back to School Tutor Fair was an enormous success. Individuals were able to meet a variety of nonprofits in a personal, face-to-face setting and learn about tutoring opportunities that they can fit into their busy schedules.

“It was fantastic to see such a large turnout for this important initiative,” said Kirsten Floyd, HON’s Nonprofit Program Manager, who helped organize the event. “Having nonprofits and potential tutors meet in person, rather than be connected over email, was a great way to start filling the many tutor openings available in the area.”

Hands On Nashville still has plenty of tutoring openings available throughout the Fall. If you missed the Back to School Tutor Fair but you’re interested in tutoring a local student, contact Kirsten directly, and she’ll help you out.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Back to School Tutor Fair!

You (yes, you) Will Make HON Day 2013 Happen. Here’s How to Get Started.

HON Day volunteers have the most fun!

YOU ROCK! Thank you for choosing to get involved in Hands On Nashville Day 2013, our city’s biggest day of volunteerism that benefits Metro Schools. To sign up as an individual, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps, all outlined below. If you’d rather sign up a team, read about how to do that here. If someone is going to invite you to be a part of their team, you will receive email instructions telling you what to do.

1. Create an account / Log in to your account.
> Click here to create your HON.org account.
(If you already have a HON.org account, simply log in using the green ‘login’ button in the upper right corner of the site and go to step #2.

2. Browse schools and SIGN UP!
> Click here to get started. From this page, you can browse school sites on the Google map:

Once you find the school you want and click SIGN UP, you will receive an email confirmation with additional details about exactly where to go on Sept. 21, etc.

3. Donate at least $25 to Hands On Nashville, and receive an AWESOME thank-you gift: a limited edition Hatch Show Print event t-shirt.
> Make your gift here. This event is also Hands On Nashville’s biggest fundraiser of the year. During registration, all participants will be asked to make a $25 donation to support Hands On Nashville’s work to connect volunteers to community needs. All who make a minimum $25 donation will receive a special thank-you gift: a limited edition Hatch Show Print event t-shirt. Hands On Nashville leverages every $1 donation from this event into $5 of volunteers service that meets critical community needs. Donations are encouraged, but not required. Regardless of ability to donate, we encourage everyone to participate in Hands On Nashville Day!

4. Tell your friends.
Please spread the word about this awesome, uplifting community event! Whether your preferred mode of communication is Facebook, Twitter, email, or carrier pigeon, you can inspire others to Be the Change. (Please be sure to tag us — www.facebook.com/HONashville, @HONashville — and use #HONDay13 as the Twitter hashtag).

QUESTIONS? 
Check out our HON Day FAQs, email us at honday@hon.org, call us at (615) 298-1108, or visit our HON Day webpage.

We can’t wait to serve with you on September 21!

“To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions.”
– William James