Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Thank You to Our Sponsors!!!

As we're really starting to gear up for our 2009 Golf Classic(September 17th), we would like to thank our generous sponsors! Our sponsors have made the Golf Classic poswsible through their generous contributions, and unending support! Without our sponsors, we wouldn't be able to run the Golf Classic, our largest fundraiser of the year, and we wouldn't be able to meet the needs of the hundreds of kids who are directly helped by the Golf Classic. Thank you so much for all your help and support!

Title Sponsor:
Holladay Properties in partnership with AmeriPlex Indianapolis and Purdue Technology Center

Children's Champion Sponsor:
Don and Jen Knebel

Children's Hero Sponsors:
Ice Miller, LLP
Katz, Sapper, and Miller, LLP
Westport Homes

Champs FORE Children Sponsor:
Anonymous

Box Lunch Sponsors:
Baker and Daniels, LLP
Crosser Family Foundation
Sams Club
Monroe Bancorp

Beverage Cart Sponsors:
Venture Logistics
Wells Fargo Advisors

Matt Breman Memorial Awards Sponsors:
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Bose, McKinney, and Evans, LLP
Sharp Business Systems of Indianapolis
Shelbourne Knee Clinic at Methodist Hospital

Prize Sponsors:
Circle City Millwork
Dealers Wholesale
K-Squared Consulting
MBAH Insurance
Michael Binder/Frost Brown Todd, LLC
The Sherwin-Williams Company
Timberland Lumber

Hole Sponsors:
Aspire CPAs, P.C.
IKON Office Solutions
Kinder Electric Co., Inc.
Krieg DeVault, LLP
M&I Bank
Pellegrino & Associates, LLC
Postlethwait Family
Reese Wholesale
Steve Pierce, Sunbelt Indiana Business Resources
Tabbert Hahn Earnest & Weddle, LLP
Vectren Energy Delivery
Venture Logistics
Weber Concrete Construction
Zink Distributing Company

Banner Sponsors:
Linda and Skip Adams
Stephen Becker
Century 21 Diversified Realty
Citizens Gas
Classic Concrete Co, Inc.
First American Title
Henry Poor Lumber
Jupiter Leasing
Kerman's Fine Flooring
ParaPRO, LLC
Kyle Trick

Check out our facebook page to see some of the cool items that have been donated for the Silent Auction at www.facebook.com/villageskids!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Helping Handbags!

Here at The Villages, we’re getting into the swing of a new idea from one of our donors, Elaine. She thought that it might be nice for kids to be able to give their grandmothers or other female guardians a handbag filled with goodies. We thought this was a GREAT idea too! From this idea came Helping Handbags. The Villages is collecting gently used handbags, so go ahead and clean out your closets ladies! In order to make the gift giving a little more even, we are asking that you do NOT donate expensive designer bags (Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, etc). It would ruin the atmosphere a bit if one woman got a Guess bag, and the woman next to her got a Prada bag. If you have any questions about whether a particular brand of bag is okay to donate, give Alex or Katee a call at 317-273-7575. As a general guideline, steer clear of anything you can purchase at Saks. We’ll take bags of all different shapes, sizes, colors, patterns etc! The more styles we have, the more fun it will be for kids to pick out a bag that they think their grandma/aunt/etc will really love!

We are also collecting small (think travel size) items for the kids to pick out to put in the handbags. To start you off with some ideas, I thought I would start a challenge. I challenge every woman who reads this to look through her purse and pick out the 5 things she couldn’t live without. Then I want each woman to go out and purchase these items and bring them to The Villages’ Girls School Road office along with their old purses to donate! To start you off, here are my 5: Chapstick, lotion, hand sanitizer, advil, and gum. I will also put a list down at the end of this post with things that would be great to have for the bags!

You can drop off the bags and items at The Villages’ Girls School Road office ( 652 N Girls School Road Indianapolis, IN 46214). Thanks for your help ladies!

· Mints
· Travel size lotion
· Hand sanitizer or wet wipes
· Tide To Go Pen
· Lipstick in a neutral color(like the kind you get at the make-up counter in the “Spend This, Get This “ gift bag)
· Chapstick
· Lip Gloss
· Mini packs of Tissues
· Pack of gum
· Change Purse
· Anything small that you find in your purse!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

New Teen Trend: Sexting

As technology becomes more and more prevalent in our lives and the lives of our children, we often find ourselves wondering what the next big trend will be. Currently, the new trend for high school age adolescents is something called “Sexting”. I’m sure your kids know what Sexting is, but for those of us that are a little older, I’ll explain. Sexting is the sending of sexually explicit text messages or pictures by cell phone. In an article presented by the Indiana Youth Institute, research showed that 20% of teens have engaged in Sexting, and that older teens are more likely to have engaged in Sexting than younger teens. This is a very disturbing trend, as some courts have decided to prosecute children who engage in Sexting as sex offenders.

It’s up to parents like you to monitor your children’s use of cell phones. Unlike phone calls, texts are saved on the phone, and can be sent to anyone else the owner of the phone wishes to send them to, even without the original sender’s permission or knowledge. Help protect your teens from making a mistake they might come to regret. I’ll put the link to the Indiana Youth Institute’s website at the end of this post, but for those of you who are busy, and don’t have time to read the article right away, I want to share some of its tips with you.

I know it can be difficult to ask your child to see their cell phone, or even to monitor their use of their cell phone, but this is the best way to prevent your children from sending Sexts. At night, when it’s more difficult to monitor cell phone usage, ask your children to charge their phone in your bedroom, or in a common room such as the kitchen. Ask your child to turn their phone off while they are at school, another difficult time to monitor cell phone usage. This also encourages your teens to focus more on class, and less on texting during class. Remember to set guidelines for cell phone usage with your children, and if they break those guidelines, have punishments in place, and stick with your punishments.

For more tips, and more detailed research on the subject, visit the Indiana Youth Institute’s issue Brief on Sexting at http://www.iyi.org/resources/doc/Issue-Brief-SEXTING-Aug09.pdf.