Last year alone, there were an estimated 1500 people in Fulton County in need who were unable to receive traditional assistance through various organizations during Christmas time. It the goal of The Invisible Youth Network of Fulton County to help reduce those numbers and help the families who may not otherwise be able to find assistance. We are currently working with Fulton County’s Christmas Cheer program to generate a list through their over-flow. Their coordinator has agreed to help us by creating a list of those who are referred to her for help. If she cannot help them and they are not receiving help elsewhere, they are then referred to us. Our list is already starting to fill up!

The Invisible Youth Network is a nonprofit, charitable chapter in Fulton County. IYN is committed to recruiting youth 7-19 years old who are interested in   working with the community as advocates and volunteers. Our goal is to continue to motivate our youth to become engaged in community service activities that are in their best interests as well as those of our community and society as a whole. Our chapter has made it our main goal to help families in need during Christmas. 90% of all monies raised and retained by the chapter all year long will be put back into our Very Merry Christmas Celebration.

We are hoping to gain community support through our unique “adoption” opportunity.  We are asking for families, friends and co-workers to join forces and “adopt” a family in need for Christmas. Anyone “adopting” a family will be invited to Fulton County’s Very Merry Christmas Party to be held Dec. 19th where they will be able to meet their “adopted” family! Unlike most adoptions this is an open adoption! You will be able to meet and present the Christmas gifts yourself! This can be a very eye-opening, life changing experience! For more info on adopting a family please email renee@fultoncountyiyn.com or sara.nowak@yahoo.com.

How Can You Help?

* Encourage Co-Workers to join forces and adopt a family in need

* Encourage Family & Friends to go together and adopt a family in need

*Hold a collection drive at work (food, toys or money)

* Allow IYN to place ornaments with “needs” on your business Christmas Tree

* Allow IYN to set up a drop box or donation container in your business

* Make a monetary or toy donation

* Donate food items for Fulton County’s Very Merry Christmas Party for families in need.

*Volunteer - We will need volunteers for our Very Merry Christmas Party Dec. 19th. We will need help preparing food, entertaining, checking guests in, serving food and much more!

*We are also looking for gently used clothing, toys, books and blankets to offer these families 

If you can help in any way please do so! ALL help is appreciated! You just never know when the favor may need returned!

Adopt a Family.pdf (341.07 kb)

Business Christmas Help.pdf (220.80 kb)

IYN has committed to helping families in need in Fulton County who don’t qualify or can’t locate resources from other agencies this holiday season. An estimated 1500 individuals in need in Fulton County will still be without help after tradtitional Christmas assistance has been exhausted. The day after Thanksgiving we will be holding our biggest Toy Drive at Ace Hardware in Wauseon and we need your help.  It starts at 6am and will continue until we totally fill our 16 foot enclosed trailer. All toys will stay with children here in Fulton County. We will also sponsoring a "Very Merry Christmas Party" for the families we are able to help throughout Fulton County. Our "Very Merry Christmas Party" will consist of a Christmas dinner, gifts for the children and entertainment for every family we can help.  For questions or more information please email renee@fultoncountyiyn.com or sara.nowak@yahoo.com.

 **IF YOU CAN HELP US, PLEASE STOP BY AND HELP US STUFF OUR TRAILER!!**

IYN - San Diego is our parent organization. It is estimated that they have somewhere between 4,000-6,000 homeless teens walking the streets on any given day. They are facing the elements of street life every day and night, in every way! They are alone, afraid and hungry! Most of us cannot even begin to imagine what life must be like for these yougsters! Many of these youth stuggle to merely exsist from day to day. For more information on our parent organizationand their efforts in San Diego, please visit: http://invisibleyouthnetwork1.community.officelive.com/default.aspx.

IYN - Fulton County has agreed to help our parent chapter by collecting items and sending them as a care package for the holidays. Items we are collecting include: antibacterial hand wipes, knit hats, travel size hygiene items, socks, t-shirts, wallets to hold their identiication, water bottles and fast food gift cards in $5.00 denominations. A $5.00 gift card can feed a youth for 2 days!

If you are interested in making a donation, please contact Sara Nowak at sara.nowak@yahoo.com and let her know how you can help!

We have decided to help out Evergreen FFA with their efforts to collect food for 30 families (189 individuals) for Thanksgiving. Items we are collecting are boexd stuffing, applesauce, canned jellied cranberries, canned green beans and corn, 1/2 gallons of juice and cider, gallons of milk, margerine and pies. All food donations must be turned in by November 23. If you are interested in helping please contact renee@fultoncountyiyn.com.

Thanks to Tammy and Amigos Pizza for allowing IYN to use her business to hold a bake sale with all proceeds going to Kellen Keiser's family. For those of you who don't know, Kellen Keiser was a 15 year old young man from Fayette who fought a very courageous battle with leukemia. Our youth group held a bake sale for him and his family on Oct 1 and raised over $350 to help with expenses. Thank you to all of those who helped support our benefit!

Thank you Falor Farm Center in Delta Ohio for your generous donation to allow us to continue our mission of helping those in need in Fulton County!!!!

Nationally recognized Minael Oddo will be at Swan Creek Community Church in Delta on Friday July 16th for a fundraising comedy hypnotist show to benefit the Fulton County Humane Society. The doors will open at 6:00pm for raffles and dinner. The comedy show will start at 8:00pm. Show tickets are $12.00 and dinner tickets are $7.00 in advance for 1/2 chicken dinner with 2 sides. Dinner tickets will be $8.00 at the door. This is a family friendly event that you WILL NOT want to miss! Please email renee@fultoncountyiyn.com to purchase your tickets.

As many of you know there were many families affected by the tornadoes that ripped through Northwest Ohio on Saturday June 5th. There is a benefit being put together a benefit for those families. It will be held at the Delta Legion, Sunday June 27th from 3:00-8:00pm. IYN Fulton Co. has been invited to help out with children's activities during the benefit. The Invisible Youth Network will be assisting with the benefit, offering children’s activities such as duck pond, lollipop tree, ring toss; bean bag toss, sack race and face painting face painting. We will be accepting donations for the games and all the money raised from the games will be given to the benefit. 

After speaking with victim coordinators, we realized that there are many children without toys and entertainment. IYN has decided to hold a toy drive at the benefit. We are in need of toys for 11 months through teens. The greatest need is for toys appropriate for ages 5 years through teenagers. Suggested donations were things like footballs, baseballs, bats and gloves, basket balls, soccer balls, radios, cd's, card games, board games...and such. All toys collected will be given to The Open Door of Delta to disperse to the necessary families. Please help us pass along the word!!!

UPDATE!!! IYN contributed $111.00 from facepainting, games and balloons!! We also collected various toys for the children!! The benefit raised over $4700!! Whay to go!

So it was brought to my attention that I have been slacking on keeping my blog updated:) Sorry Robin & Jen:) We have had so many advancements in IYN here in Fulton Co. my head has been spinning out of control!!! Just to recalulate some recent events, after our meeting on Sat April 17th we went over to Noah's House (homeless shelter) and volunteered a couple hours of spring cleaning outside pulling weeds, cleaning up the yard and picking up sticks. On April 24th we held a very successful Dog Dip, raising 196.52 for the newly formed Fulton Co. Humane Society (considering the cold, rainy weather was not on our side). On April 25th we had to cancel our Soles4Souls shoe drive at Walmart due to rain and thunderstorms! With such great kids in our group and community support, we still managed to meet our goal! We raised $250 and collected 550+ pairs of used shoes! April 26th we had our meeting at Tedrow Methodist Church, after the meeting some came back to my house and we paired up the shoes and rubber banded all of the shoes we collected. This Saturday, May 8th we will be at Trinity Lutheran Church in Delta helping host a craft show, proceeds will benefit The Open Door in Delta. We are hoping to help raise enough money to allow them to furnish their new transitional homeless facility that will open this summer! Youth from IYN will be providing carnival games and face painting for the children, there will also be a bouncehouse. Dina's Belly Dancing will be performing at 1:00 as well! It will be a very fun event! I hope you can make it!! WE ARE ALSO SEEKING BAKED GOOD DONATIONS for our cake walk. Please contact renee@fultoncountyiyn.com if you would like to donate. Monday May 10th is our next IYN meeting. It will be at Tedrow Methosist Church at 6pm. We will be having a potluck dinner and discussing many upcoming events and opportunities. Saturday May 15th IYN will be hosting another dog dip at Tractor Supply in Wauseon from 10am -2pm. We will be accepting free will donations for the dog dip and nail trimmings. We will be holding a bake sale with goodies for pets as well as their owners. Heather from the Savvy Dog in Archbold will be bringing some pets that are currently looking for new homes!

June 27th we will be hosting a pet parade and pet talent show at Springhill Kennel, proceeds will benefit FCHS. Details will follow soon!!

I would like to thank Dani Rupp and Jeff Smith from Noah's House for coming out to our meeting and speaking to our group. They did a wonderful job explaining to the kids what Noah's is and who and how they help others. They gave a great speech to the kids and explained that the kids may not be able to help everyone but they can help "someone" and that is what matters! They invited the kids to come to Noah's House to take a tour and to help out with some spring cleaning in and outside of the house. The kids were very excited and intrigued.

Sara Nowak spoke to the the group about kicking off our Soles4Souls shoe drive. The members in our group were given envelopes to help collect donations. To date our chapter has raised $175.00 online for Soles4Souls. To donate online visit http://www.soles4soulsfundraising.org/IYN.Our chapter will be holding a live shoe drive on Saturday, April 25th from 3-5pm at Walmart in Wauseon. Footwear - it is a basic need that most of us take for granted every day. While most of the world does not have one adequate pair of shoes, Americans have an abundance of footwear sitting idle in our closets. Your consideration of simply cleaning out your closets can make a significant difference in the quality of life of someone in need. During our live shoe drive, we will be collecting donations for Soles4Souls and gently used shoes may also be donated.

Saturday, April 10th we will be hosting a fundraiser for our diaper cakes and towel cakes at Evergreen High School during a baton competition.

We are also working hard to find vendors/businesses for the May 8th craft show and business expo at Delta's Trinity Lutheran Church. All proceeds will go to the Open Door of Delta to help with the openeing of their new transitional homeless shelter and GED center. If you know of potential vendors please email renee@fultoncountyiyn.com.

Pen Pal letters were collected.

Next meeting is Saturday April 17th from 11:00-12:30pm at Tedrow Methodist Church. We would like to make a visit to Noah's house to help with spring cleaning after the meeting.