The above group of volunteers is very crcuial to the ongoing aftercare programs at the House of Hope. They prepare famiies for independent living, assit them in locating permanent housing and offer a host of on- and off-site supportive services that will help empower victims and minimize the root causes of domestic abuse.

The group provides a soup, sandwich, & dessert lunch on the third Thursday of each month Oct.- May for $6.00 and all proceeds go to a local charity. Christina brought the idea to the church, convinced the Vestry to try the idea, and spearheads the group. They do the shopping, cooking, serving, set up, clean up, advertising, and are the direct contacts with the sponsored group each month.

On Saturday, November 14, 2009, this group of 14 students spent the day organizing and cleaning our five donated goods storage rooms and our kitchen/food pantry. On Sunday, May 16, the students returned to conduct a spring clean up of our Peace Garden, a safe courtyard where victims of crime, and the staff who serve them, come to relax, meditate and converse in a healing environment.

ENERGY is a young professionals group who created the "Request the ENERGY" program where any non profit member of the Chamber can request volunteers for their fundraising event. ENERGY is committed to helping three organizations a month through this program to help give back to the wonderful community that we live in.

Every week, volunteers from the Vineyard Community Church deliver food to 20 families and another 10 families will pick up food. That is over 1450 households a year that receive food from this all volunteer food pantry. The members stock the shelves, pack the boxes, clean the refrigerators, pick up the food at the Food Bank and deliver the food all on their own time. It is with compassion and a servants heart that they sign up to deliver food on a regular basis and do double time at Thanksgiving and Christmas, delivering the regular deliveries and holiday meals as well as gifts for the children. They have been known to take money out of their own pockets and purchase requested items that the pantry does not have such as coffee, diapers etc. They also have built relationships, inviting people over to their homes, praying for their needs and offer help such as household items or furniture.

Mid Hudson Bereaved Parents of the USA (MHBPUSA) is simply a group of parents and their families who have suffered the loss of a child. We come together to offer solace and hope to each other as we learn to live with the deaths of our children. Each "veteran" bereaved parent holds a hand out to each newly bereaved parent and offers them a shoulder to cry on and ideas to help them cope with the pain of learning to live without their precious child.

Senior Girl Scout Troop 15 do not spend Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday or President's Day, both days off from school, shopping or playing video games. You will find them at the Lunch Box, a soup kitchen program of Dutchess Outreach, preparing and serving a meal for 150-200 people. For the last eight years, the troop has planned, shopped, prepared, and served at the Lunch Box. This is no easy task. They have to plan the menus, purchase the food, arrive early to prepare, serve for two hours, and then clean-up. For one serving, they make 10 pans of a main dish with a garden salad, pasta salad, dessert, etc. They also give fruit, hard boiled eggs, etc. to people as they are leaving knowing this may be the only meal they have that day. One summer, the troop maintained a vegetable garden and donated tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers,and potatoes to the Lunch Box. They wanted fresh produce to be available for the meals. The girls from the troop help put together a how-to booklet for other troops and youth groups wanting to volunteer at the Lunch Box. When not helping in the Lunch Box, the troop has held food drives, personal item drives, and diaper/formula drives for the Dutchess Outreach Food Pantry.

To many people preparing their personal income taxes can often be confusing, complicated and costly. For low income individuals the process is further hampered if they are unable to pay to have their taxes prepared. Because of these obstacles many people do not file thus missing out on important credits and or refunds and still others file incorrectly and do not receive the money they are entitled to. For many Dutchess County families receiving these credits and refunds mean the difference between living above or below the poverty line. As a volunteer for AARP Tax-Aide for the past six years Barbara Kaiser has assisted hundreds of Dutchess County residents file their taxes. It may be a retired senior on limited income who needs to file their taxes to ensure they receive the Enhanced Star Credit or a working family who would have missed out on receiving valuable tax credits and refunds if not for her assistance.

Also helpful in organizing data, did shifts on Half Moon boat during quad. Willing to do projects at home to help with events, conferences. Always showed iniative in making operation more efficient.

After watching his son and so many other children and their families battle cancer, Chip created a foundation to provide families, doctors, and social workers every resource possible to save the life of a child and, at the very least, to provide the child and family with hope.