Work Day at Monroe Harding

Attention Nashville-area Street Teamers! Here's a big chance for us to help out Monroe Harding!

They'll be holding a volunteer work day - come give your time, your hands, and your heart! This would be a great time to introduce your friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers to the fantastic work done at Monroe Harding. Please join us and help us spread the word!

Saturday, September 25th
8:00 a.m. until 12 noon
If you would like to sign up for this event or would like more information, contact Amber Clemons at (615) 298-5573 ext. 136 or email amberclemons@monroeharding.org.

Pepsi Refresh Challenge

A message from Monroe Harding...

"It’s time to start voting for Monroe Harding! Throughout September, we are in the running for a $250,000 Pepsi grant to help build a new cottage! Each month in 2010, the Pepsi Refresh Project is giving away millions in grants to fund good ideas that make the world a better place. It’s very competitive. We will need your votes and all of your friends votes EVERY DAY. Just click on the link below to cast your vote. Remember to vote everyday from all of your email accounts. AND PLEASE forward this to your friends, groups, etc. We need everyone voting everyday!"

Click here to vote!

Tuesday Night Opry!

Are you traveling to Nashville for Jimmy Wayne's appearance on this week's Tuesday Night Opry? If so, would you please consider looking over the 'wish list' below and seeing if there are any items you might be able to bring for Monroe Harding?

To celebrate and encourage academic achievement, Monroe Harding would like to have weekly pizza parties for their deserving youth. Your support through gift cards to pizza restaurants (Papa John's, Dominoes, ect.), as well as cash donations, would be greatly appreciated.

These are several items from the wish list that are neeeded immediately:

• Young Adult/Youth Appropriate Men's Clothing (Business casual attire & larger sizes needed immediately)
• Sports and Event Tickets
• Vehicles (Must be in decent condition)

For their upcoming Fall Fest, they'll need:

• inflatable bounce houses
• ponies for rides
• pumpkins
• food (chicken fingers, potatoes, spaghetti, fish)

Donations may be dropped off at Monroe Harding

1120 Glendale Lane, Nashville

Monday - Friday, 8:00-4:30

Please call (615) 298-5573 ext. 136 with questions.

* If you are not able to drop off donations, please contact nicole@projectmmh.org to arrange a pickup.

Informational Mentoring Meeting

We'd like to invite you to an informational meeting where you'll be able to learn more about Monroe Harding's mentoring program. Please know that attending the meeting doesn't commit you, we simply invite you to come learn more about the needs of the youth and what opportunities are available. We hope you'll join us!

Friday, August 27

11 AM

1330 Foster Avenue, Suite 100, Nashville

615-664-1509

If you plan to attend, please take the time to RSVP to Amy Rathburg at amyrathburg@gmail.com.

Mentors Needed in Nashville!

Do you have a couple of hours a week that you could dedicate to an at-risk child or teen? There are several fantastic organizations that offer mentoring opportunities. Below are just two examples of programs that are in great need of committed individuals!


Monroe Harding is in need of mentors for their Project S.H.A.R.E. program. It’s just one hour a week with an elementary age child at their school. The time may be spent working on homework, playing a game, having lunch, or just hanging out and being a friend to the child.

If interested, contact Laquita Harrison
Project S.H.A.R.E. Coordinator
Monroe Harding, Inc.
1330 Foster Avenue, Suite 100
Nashville, TN 37210
615-664-1509 ext. 26

Preston Taylor Ministries invites you to volunteer this upcoming school year. They are looking for volunteers for the following positions: afterschool tutor (once a week Monday-Thursday from 3:00-5:00 or 4:00-6:00--volunteer orientations on August 17th from 4-6 and August 18th from 11-1); tutor PTM high school students (Mondays from 4:30-6:00); lunchmate mentors (eat lunch once a week with a PTM student in the student's cafeteria); Bible Study and Breakfast mentors (new program that will be on Thursdays from 6:45-7:45am featuring one-on-one Christian discipleship and breakfast).

If interested in volunteering in any of these ways,

please contact Chan Sheppard at

615-596-4386 or cgsheppard@earthlink.net

If you're in the Nashville area, I strongly encourage you to consider giving of your time to this great need. Share the links and info with your friends and family, and make sure others are aware of this awesome opportunity. If you're outside of the Nashville area, check with your own local facilities and see what mentoring opportunities are available!

Clothing Drive

One of our fantastic Street Teamers, Lisa Rogers, has been working hard to organize a Clothing Drive for Monroe Harding. It will be taking place this coming Friday, August 6th & Saturday, August 7th. You'll find them in the parking lot of The Rugged Warehouse on Willow Avenue in Cookeville, TN.

Please help us spread the word, especially if you live in the area. And if you're around, drop by to lend your encouragement and give Lisa a big high-five for her work!

Checking in...

I'm checking in once again to see how everyone is doing. June was a busy month for us here in the southern region. We had an MMH project going each weekend and saw lots accomplished for our cause! Thanks to all of you for pushing through June with me!

There has been tons of fantastic Twitter activity happening on behalf of Project MMH! If you aren't already a part of the Twitter Team, please contact dreama@projectmmh.org and she'll add you to the team e-mail list which will keep you up-to-date on the latest plan of action over on Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter... a while back, Dreama posted a tweet about her "MMH goal for the week." I love that idea! When our Street Teams were first formed, us regional leaders spent some time talking with Jimmy and the national leadership team about our hopes and dreams for this project. Writing these ideas down and sharing them with others has helped keep me accountable to my goals, and has helped me to see them begin taking shape. So much has already been accomplished - and we're not slowing down!

One of my dreams is to see a dedicated team of local MMHers who will committ to one day a month of service at a local facility. We had such a great experience at our service project in Louisville last month - just think about the relationships we could build with each other on our team and those out in our community if we worked together consistently! To take that dream a step further... what if other Street Teamers in our region connected with a team of volunteers in their own community and dedicated themselves to a local facility in their area? Of course these are dreams that will take time to shape and establish, but we can begin working toward them today!

So, what about you? What are some of your own hopes and dreams for Project MMH? What do you want to see accomplished for teens in foster care? What steps can we take today to help us reach those goals?

We do have an MMH Message Board, which I have to admit I don't spend much time looking at. But maybe that would be a good place for us to begin connecting with each other. It'd be a good place for you to find out which Street Teamers in your state would be interested in joining forces with you on a project or event. Share what YOUR dreams are for Project MMH! Click here to visit the MMH Message Board.

I hope you're all having a fabulous week! Keep dreaming big dreams and let's make them a reality!