Quota Club of Northern Colorado

Quota of Northern Colorado’s mission is to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged women and children to assist individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing. Through fundraising and service activities, members seek to develop and support programs throughout our community.

Once again Quota NOCO rocked it over this past year! We not only met our budgeted goal, but we also exceeded our fundraising efforts. As our current fiscal year ends at the end of September, were awarded and allocated totaling $35,550 earned through our estate sales held throughout the year.

2022-2023 Annual Allocations

Special Projects: 

• Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department-Fire mitigation Preventative Services
• Mobile Laundry Truck
• Loveland Youth Gardeners
• Ft. Collins Children’s Theater

Scholarships:

Scholarships were awarded to students attending a variety of colleges who are working towards degrees and certificates to assist individuals who are hearing impaired after graduation.

Women and Children:

• Project Self Sufficiency
• Alternatives to Violence-Loveland
• Partners Program
• Crossroads Safehouse
• Family Housing Network
• Poudre School System Scholarship Fund

Deaf and Hard of Hearing:

• Host Day-regional get together for elementary students in Northern Colorado
• Poudre School District D/HH program-specialized literacy program
• Individuals in need of hearing aids (don’t need to also list this under Women and Children)
• Colorado Hands and Voices-support for parents of Deaf & Hard of Hearing children

Quota members continue to work hard to keep supporting those in need, always check back for upcoming Estate Sale news…

Members of Quota Club of Northern Colorado (formerly Quota International of Fort Collins) continue working to support services and organizations whose mission is to support disadvantaged women and children, and the deaf and hard-of-hearing in our community. While following Covid-19 guidelines and requirements, the members have been meeting twice monthly via Zoom.

From October 2019 to September 2020, QCNC approved $7,785 to support the following services, non-profit organizations and individuals. All allocations must be in line with the Mission and Vision of the Club.

 Childrens Theater – Interpreter 

Colorado School for Deaf and Blind

 Hearing Aid Bank – New Computer

PSD Yacker Trackers

Loveland Youth Gardens

Project Self-Sufficiency

Putnam School

Linton School 

Child’s Hearing Aid

 Baby’s Hearing Test 

Red Cross Wildfire Fundraiser: The QCNC Allocations Committee recently designated $500.00 to the local Red Cross Wildfire Fund. QCNC members also held a virtual silent auction to raise an additional $175.00. Members donated personal items to the silent auction and enjoyed the opportunity to bid and obtain “treasures”. Those who donated to this worthy cause were happy to depart with items they no longer needed.

Working Together Makes It Happen.

Quota International of Fort Collins 

At the September 11th business meeting, Past President, Shannon Richardson installed our new QCNC President, Kim Miller. Congratulations, Kim. We look forward to working with you!

Thank you, Shannon, for your dedication and leadership. We accomplished many goals during your term as President.

Mobile Laundry Truck Comes To Fort Collins/Northern Colorado

At the June 26th Quota dinner meeting, Judy Warren (QCNC Allocations) and Shannon Richardson, (QCNC President) presented a check for $5,000.00 to Woody Carlson and Pat Friehauf, in support of the Northern Colorado Laundry Truck. 

After retiring, Woody Carlson saw a story about a mobile laundry truck based in Denver. Carlson traveled to Denver and after seeing the operation, he decided to bring one to Northern Colorado. 

The truck will be outfitted with washers and dryers and will travel to various locations near schools where families, experiencing poverty or homelessness, can discretely utilize this service.  Parents will be able to drop off their laundry and pick it up at the end of the day; washed, dried and folded by volunteers.

Woody and Pat told the members that statistics show that clean clothes can help children, experiencing poverty or homelessness, to be more confident and perform better in school.  It also betters the opportunity for parents to obtain employment.

For additional information contact:  https://impact.unwaylc.org/NCLaundryTruck

A special Shout Out goes to the members of the QCNC Allocation Team for approving $5,000 in support of this valuable service to the community. Quota Shares!

 Courtney Carrick, from the non-profit organization SAVA (Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Center), was our guest speaker at the March 27th dinner meeting.

SAVA aims to reduce the incidence of sexual violence in our community through prevention education programming for youth.  Their programs help youth ages 8-18 create safer spaces for themselves and others by addressing the root causes of sexual violence, promoting healthy relationships, and increasing social activism and leadership skills.

We appreciate the opportunity to learn about SAVA and the services and support it offers to those in our community. For additional information:
http://savacenter.org

RECIPIENT – POUDRE SCHOOL DISTRICT

Supporting local PSD Schools through financial allocations, items needed for students, birthday “Fairies” for disadvantaged children and volunteers for events. 

COLORADO SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND BLIND

Annette Landes, from the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind Early Years Literacy Program, was our guest speaker at AN October  dinner/social meeting. During the meeting, Annette thanked the group for the generous on-going support QCNC has extended over the years. Since 2012, Quota donations have allowed EYLP to purchase materials needed by deaf children and an alerting device for a deaf mother, a car seat for a two-year-old deaf boy, dinners for families attending events and offered additional support as needed.

The Early Years Literacy Program provides thematic-based literacy instruction integrating developmentally appropriate skills for infants through five years of age who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. For more information go to: http://www.csdb.org and search for Early Years Project.

ELDERHAUS

Our guest speaker, Joanne Vande-Walle of ElderHaus, informed members of the services offered at  ElderHaus, a non-profit service who’s mission is to promote and sustain the independence of seniors wishing to remain in the community. To learn more about ElderHaus visit their website at http://www.ElderHaus.org.

NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR

Our guest speaker was Kelly Evans, Executive Director of local non-profit, Neighbor to Neighbor. The mission of N2N is to open doors and advance lives through house counseling, homelessness prevention and affordable housing. N2N has 4 key service areas: Renter Program-prevents displacement and provides budget education; Affordable Housing Program- N2N owns and operates 135 affordable apartments; Home Ownership Program- educates over 1200 1st time homebuyers each year; and just launched on March in collaboration with CSU is the HomeShare Program- matched senior homeowners with renters to allow the seniors to age in home and renters to have affordable housing. Attending Quota members appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Neighbor-to-Neighbor services and programs.

Once again, Quota was pleased to assist Project Self Sufficiency with their Holiday Party for parent participants and their children.  First a team of three Quota gals sorted through donated items and organized them into 170 gifts.Then dressed in holiday attire, reindeer antlers, and elf hats, over a dozen of us provided the opportunity for children of PSS participants to choose a gift for their mom or dad. Then a team of Quota’s expert wrappers put the finishing touches on each gift taking care to use the paper, bags, and bows that the children carefully picked.  Eighty-eight children from 56 families “shopped” for parents with our help. It was rewarding to see how proud and happy they all were to have a nice gift to give to their parent. In addition, ten members provided 600 cookies for kids to decorate as part of the holiday fun. It was a successful and satisfying day for us all.
—
Kim Miller, VP Service

Helping people hear better is the primary mission of QCNC and we really love it when we can help kids! So we were thrilled to be able to donate $1293.24 to the Thompson School District Audiology Department. The money will be used to purchase two new hearing aids and disposable ear tips to connect the aids to the ear. The district audiologist will be able to program these hearing aids to match the hearing loss of individual students who need to borrow them while their own hearing aids are being repaired. She will also be able use them to demonstrate the benefit they provide to students who have never worn hearing aids before. This will be a helpful tool to assist students and parents in deciding to purchase hearing aids and allow the audiologist the opportunity to counsel and assist families more effectively right in her office. By building a positive experience and appropriate expectations, the audiologist can prepare the students and their parents to have a successful experience when they purchase their own hearing aids.

Working Together Makes It Happen 

Many hands made quick work of fall clean up at the yard of one of our long time members. With the additional help from two “Quotations” (husbands), Don Jaffee and Jack Warren, the yard’s leaves were cleared and grass mown in just a couple of hours.  It was a quick two hours of “sharing” that made a difference for one of our own.

 Nan Elliott, from Front Range Community College, gave Quota members a demonstration of the Echo Smartpen and paper. Our chapter recently provided money to purchase ten pens for a loan bank at FRCC Office of Disability Services. The pen is a note taking and note organizing tool. It is used to write just like a pen, but it has a microphone in the stem and an optic device in the tip. The note taker uses special pixilated paper with icons at the bottom of the page. The icons, when tapped with the tip of the pen, control functions such as mic on/off and audio volume. As the student takes notes, the pen records what is said in the class. The student will write what he/she can, but knows that when something is missed, it has been captured by the pen’s audio recording and can be listened to later. By tapping the last word written, the audio begins to play from that spot in the lecture so the student can listen again to what was said. The pen comes with earbuds for listening to the recorded lecture and can be connected to a computer with software that allows the pen’s information to be uploaded to the computer so notes can be re-worked and organized into folders. Nan says there is such a demand for the pens, they can only allow students to check them out for a week or two in order to assess whether the student benefits enough that they want to purchase one for themselves.

Quota also recently purchased a Roger Pen microphone for a student at Front Range CC. This student recently learned that she has been gradually losing her hearing for several years which has impacted her learning ability. Now that she has hearing aids, she needs an assistive listening device to maximize her ability to hear the instructor’s voice over the background noise in the classroom. The Roger Pen can be worn by the speaker or placed on the desk in front of the student to pick up the voice of the person speaking into it. The sound is then sent to her hearing aids which have digital receivers that take the signal and send it through the hearing aids to her ears. The “focus” of the pen can be broadened or narrowed to pick up more or less sound so that the listener can hear several speakers or focus on one speaker. We hope this equipment will help this bright student be able to reach her potential in the classroom, at work and other difficult listening situations.

(Written by Kim Miller, Quota Member and Audiologist)

Quota Members Enjoy A Field Trip

On August 1st, members toured Loveland Youth Gardeners, a non-profit dedicated to cultivating skills and stewardship in young people through sustainable gardening and healthy living practices. Each year QCNC allocates funds to help support Loveland Youth Gardeners.

During the tour, members had the opportunity to meet the amazing teens who participate in this program and their dedicated staff. After observing the teens at work, and hearing their personal stories regarding the program’s impact on their lives, members left feeling even more excited to continue their support of this community service.

Click on this link to learn more about Loveland Youth Gardeners: Loveland Youth Gardeners

                       Alyssa McConkey, Executive Director (right), provided our guided tour.