Friday, October 29, 2010

Internship Opportunity at RTS!

Are you a college student looking to acquire excellent experience in the non-profit industry and other related fields?

Rebuilding Together Seattle has an ongoing internship opportunity for college students in Seattle! RTS interns work for approximately 15-20 hours per week, and assist with various development, program, marketing, and administrative activities at the RTS Office.

For more information, please read the Internship Job Description, or email mthirlby@rtseattle.org. Please note that RTS internship candidates must be professional, organized, show good attention to detail, and be comfortable working in a diverse work environment. Thank you for your consideration!

-The RTS Staff
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Job Description
Rebuilding Together Seattle Intern

Rebuilding Together Seattle (www.rtseattle.org) offers a year-round, part-time internship program for college students or early graduates. The intern is supervised by the RTS Executive Director, and works with the RTS Board of Directors & Staff on various office operations. Projects may include (but are not limited to):

• Entering contact information into RTS database
• Tracking important outreach and development activities on Microsoft Excel
• Organizing and maintaining office supplies and the RTS warehouse
• Assisting with mailing projects and events
• Answering the phones and speaking with clients
• Helping execute rebuilding day logistics
• Facilitating the RTS client application process
• Conducting in-kind solicitation projects for office supplies and warehouse inventory
• Conducting community partner and sponsor research
• Conducting various outreach activities
• Creating documents on Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and various Adobe programs
• Printing and tracking thank you notes to individual and in-kind donors
• Assisting with activities concerning the RTS Youth Board and Young Professionals Society
• Miscellaneous projects assigned by Executive Director and Program & Outreach Coordinator

QUALITIES OF INTERN

Required Qualities & Skills
Must be: professional, trustworthy, organized, responsible, hardworking, team-player, positive attitude, flexible, patient, friendly, strong phone skills, show excellent attention to detail, good writing skills, demonstrates solid follow-through, knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel.
Preferred Qualities:
-experience working or volunteering for a non-profit organization; knowledge of the non-profit industry
-some knowledge of the home and/or construction industry

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE & HOURLY RATE
• 3-5 days per week, 15-20 hours per week
• The RTS Internship position begins as a non-paid, temporary position for all candidates. After a 1 month commitment, the intern is considered for a monthly stipend, depending on the intern’s commitment level and work performance
• Please note: Official schedule to be agreed upon by the Executive Director and Intern.

DIRECTIONS FOR APPLICANTS
Please email your cover letter and resume to mthirlby@rtseattle.org with the subject line: “Intern Applicant.” Please mention (in your email) when you would like to start working and approximately how many hours per week you are available. RTS will contact you if we would like to set up an interview. For more information about RTS, please visit www.rtseattle.org. Thank you for your interest in Rebuilding Together Seattle!

Thanks from the Hazell family to Honeywell

On Saturday, October 23, Honeywell volunteers completed their 5th project with Rebuilding Together Seattle to help a family in the Greenlake neighborhood of Seattle. The following week, the Rebuilding Together Seattle office received an email from the Hazell family, sharing their appreciation for Honeywell's work.

The RTS Staff & Board hopes that RTS supporters will enjoy "reading the impact" that a sponsor and group of volunteers had on one of our families. Thank you, Honeywell!
_______________________________________________________________________

10-29-10 to info@rtseattle.org:

Amazing improvements. Awesome - it took my breathe away! Thank you all so much for such fantastic work. The kitchen floor is beautiful and the new faucet too. It's unbelievable how much can be accomplished in one day; and the wonderful work that a group of people can do. All the yard work in the back and front - beautiful job in the rockery. When I came up the front steps were much safer with the railings in front, and better stairs and porch. Everything was much more organized inside. Thank you again.
Evelyn Hazell - homeowner, 98 years old

Thank you. When I came out of the house I couldn't believe all the amazing talented volunteers who came. I was speechless. Thank you so much for everything you did: from fixing the railings, repairing the stairs, securing the porch, to the yard work in the front and back, the beautiful kitchen floor and faucet, the new vapor barrier in the crawl space, and even fixing a light and the toilet handle. A special thanks for the help with organization and cleaning.

I also saw something else: people connecting with one another, on a personal level. How wonderful!

I wanted to share a memory from when I was a child. I remember my mom and dad had friends and family that got together to play the game pinochle. One of them needed to have a basement dug for his house on Mercer Island. So instead of playing cards, one weekend they dug out the basement for their friends. The men dug, and the women brought food and cleaned (it was the fifties). It was like a big picnic, and everyone was doing something. Like this wonderful group of people who came to my mom's house to work on it. What amazing people they all are. My thanks goes out to these caring people.
Annette (Evelyn's daughter)

My first impression is the opening up of the view of the house from the street. It's amazing.
From the front room it's especially impressive with much more daylight into the home, with a cheerful feeling.
Kurt (son in law)

The sense of security is improved with the sturdy railings and the new stairs for my mom. It's a great relief. The new kitchen floor is beautiful. A great accomplishment for one day's work. I love the openness with the trimming of the trees. Wow - the backyard rockery looks great. Thank you!
Sue (daughter)

On a more laconic bent: y'all done a good thing.
Ken (friend)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A Successful Rebuild Day for Honeywell!


On Saturday, october 23rd, approximately 30 volunteers from Honeywell showed up to make a difference in the lives of a mother and her daughter.  200 hours of labor were applied in one day to complete a number of significant projects at the home of Evelyn, who is 97 years-old, and her daughter, Annette.  Honeywell volunteers replaced the kitchen flooring, completely reconstructed rotting front porch stairs, reinforced many areas of the porch structure, trimmed the trees, cleaned up the gardens and yard, replaced a leaky faucet, helped organize the home's clutter, repaired metal handrails, repaired toilet hardware, and installed a new vapor barrier in storage area.

Annette was overwhelmed with the results and nearby neighbors made a point to share how deserving Evelyn was for the support of Rebuilding Together Seattle, as she herself had a long history of helping others in the neighborhood.
"I would like to thank you all one final time for giving up your Saturday and offering your talents to support another very successful Rebuilding Together project," Gary Ballas, Honeywell Project Leader and RTS Board member, said to his team.

"I think it's telling that a woman who is self-admittedly never at a loss for words was literally speechless. We all had a good laugh over this fact - even Annette,"  he explained.  "Once the work was finished and people had cleared out, it all sort of caught up with her and she was in tears over the transformation. Annette and her mother have had some tough times,  and I was amazed at the improvement in her perspective from being around so many positive people doing something good simply because they knew they could."
Evelyn's daughter, Annette

Back garden and yard before
  Back garden and yard after
Front area before
 front area after
 rotting steps before
 during
 and after!
 kitchen floor before
 kitchen floor after
 The group, hard at work

GREAT WORK, HONEYWELL!!


Monday, October 25, 2010

Extreme Home Clutter Removal by Home Depot!

The Home Depot Foundation is sponsoring a Veteran Rebuilding Day next week on Thursday, November 4th.  Volunteers from Home Depot will complete work at the homes of three veterans in one day.  For a typical rebuilding day, many teams go in ahead of time to take care of some prep work.  Volunteers from Home Depot took prep work to the extreme by removing three cars from the backyard of a veteran in need!! The homeowner, Earl,  served in the Marine Corps and is a veteran of the Korean War.  Earl was already overwhelmed with the amount of help he was getting- and the rebuilding day hasn't even happened yet!!


Great Work Home Depot Volunteers!!

Monday, October 18, 2010

RTS Welcomes Kyle Weeks to the Development Committee

Kyle at our inaugural Beer & Wine Tasting event on October 1st

1. Why did you choose to get involved with RTS?  How did you first get involved?

The company I work for did a project back in June with RTS. The event was a lot of fun and I was immediately interested in getting involved again. Since then I’ve worked on two other RTS projects.

2. What do you enjoy the most about working with our organization?
I really enjoy the wide variety of people that get together for the same cause and desire to help someone in need. It’s amazing the work you can accomplish in such a limited amount of time when you have that many people working together towards the same goal.
3. What do your colleagues or other volunteers say about RTS? Why do they want to volunteer their time?

I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t enjoy helping out at the RTS events, and all are willing to help out again in the future. You get to give back, meet wonderful people, and have fun all at the same time.
4. What about RTS’ mission are you most drawn to?

I’m drawn most to the hands on attitude of RTS. I like that they get out there, do work, and are able to see significant results at the end of the day.
5. Do you have any other comments you’d like to share at this time?

I’m glad that I have been offered the opportunity to become more involved with RTS and I’m looking forward to the future with them. Thanks!

Thank you, Kyle!!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Thank you, Michelle Wilson & Alpine Mortgage!

RTS thanks Michelle Wilson & Alpine Mortgage for their donation this month to our organization! Thank you for continuing your RTS Mortgage Program, to provide more clients with essential home repairs.

To learn more about Michelle's program, email: michelle@alpinemtg.com

Thank you, Brewery Sponsors!


Rebuilding Together Seattle would once again like to thank Pike Brewing Company and Diamond Knot Brewing Company for their participation in our 1st Annual Beer & Wine Tasting. Thank you for making our event possible!

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