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.

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!!!!

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 once again thank Bethany Sherrard Photography from Wauseon for donating the time and energy to come out to Centennial Riding Center on March 13th to take pictures of our group! Bethany did a nice job with the kids despite the nasty weather she had to work with that day!! All photos listed here were taken by her. If you are interested in contacting her, her phone number is 419-494-1864 and her email address is, bethany.sherrard@gmail.com

I would like to thank Jenny and Allison Herr from Metamora for taking the time to stop out to our meeting on Sat. March 13th to share with the group the importance of organ and tissue donation. Jenny did an excellent job explaining to the group on a level in which they understood. Their story started on June 2, 2003 when Allison, the youngest of three was born with a rare pediatric liver disease called "Biliary Atrsia". At seventeen days old, Allison underwent her initial surgery for a bypass to excrete the bile from the liver. The doctors were very hopeful that because it was caught early and because the surgery was done at an early age, that she would just be able to continue on with life as "normal". Their emotional roller coaster began within three months. The bilirubin levels continued to climb, she became feeding tube dependent and was on numerous medications. They were referred to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Liver Transplant Team in November 2003, only to be told, yes you have a sick baby, yes she will need a transplant but she isn't sick enough to be put on the transplant list. Their goal was to get her to reach "one year old". When she was one, she could get all of her immunizations and then be put on the transplant list. Allison was finally listed on July 9, 2004 at one year, one month old. The family had to carry a pager at all times; they anxiously awaited a phone call or a page! Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into a year! They started to think that their day would never come when her second birthday came and went, she was so.. sick! They continued weekly lab draws and doctors visits too numerous to count! They had local doctor’s appointments and appointments in Cincinnati every two weeks. They watched Allison get worse and worse. At two years old, Allison was as jaundice as a pumpkin. She only weighed 15 pounds and had tiny extremities with a huge distended abdomen. All's they could do was to pray for strength for yet another day. Finally on January 21, 2006 at 12:10 am, when Allison was 2 years and 7 months old, they received a phone call from their coordinator in Cincinnati. It was a shock beyond reality! They had virtually given up but at this moment Allison was given her second chance, a new liver had come through for her! What a flood of emotions!

Allison's transplant went well. There were a few minor ups and downs the first year. She remains on anti-rejection medications. To see her today, you would never know what this poor little girl went through her first three years of her life. Today, she is full of energy and enjoys dancing, running, gymnastics, t-ball and school. Things that at one time all seemed completely impossible! These gifts that are often taken for granted, were all made possible to their family through the generosity of organ donation. They hope to meet their donor family someday and thank them in person for their gift of life to Allison.

Give Life! Become an Organ and Tissue Donor today!

         This is Allison Herr

      Allison Herr & Jenny

Hi all, I want to apologize for putting these notes out so late. I normally get this done directly following the meeting. Life has been busy so again, I apologize. We have a new addition to our chapter. Sara Nowak is a 22 year old senior at UT majoring in early childhood education. She is from Swanton and will be helping out with activities and meetings. She has volunteered to set us up a FaceBook group and has done a wonderful job! You can look us up on FaceBook by searching "Invisible Youth Network Fulton County". Please welcome Sara!!

During our meeting the kids received their pen pal letters back from St. Jude's, they were very excited. I gave them each their letter to take home and asked them to write a letter back and bring it to the next meeting. We discussed the chapter "collectively" being on the auxiliary board for the Fulton Co. Humane Society. As an auxiliary board member, Robin or I will attend their meetings and bring the information back to the group. Our group will assist the Humane Society with fundraising events and with their barn raising party when they are ready to build. We briefly discussed the Youth Outreach Center called "The Warehouse" in Delta. Myself and a couple of members have been up there to visit with them and we are considering partnering with them in some sort of way. We will be talking to them more about this next week. I would like to see us hold a meeting there once a month with their group. This may make it easier for Swanton and Delta students to attend meetings. Robin has volunteered to lead those meetings if necessary.  Jenny Herr and her daughter Allison were guest speakers at our meeting. Jenny spoke to the youth about the importance of organ donation. Allison was born with a rare pediatric liver disease called "Biliary Atresia" and desperately needed a liver transplant, more on that in a later post.

We talked about some fundraising opportunities for our chapter. We have decided to go ahead with an on-going fundraiser which will consist of selling diaper cakes and towel cakes. You may ask yourself what in the world are these? Well they are really unique, personalized gifts for baby showers, bridal showers, house warming gifts, wedding gifts and over the hill or retirement parties. For baby showers, they are "cakes" made out of disposable diapers and decorated nicely to look like a cake. They make great centerpieces and a very practical gift if you ask me. All diapers used in these cakes are able to be used when the party is over! Instead of spending tons of money on decorations never to be used again, this is a great alternative. The over the hill and retirement cakes are very similar except we use Depends adult briefs instead of disposable diapers and of course the "cake" is decorated with an over the hill theme. Towel "cakes" are created using either bath towel sets or kitchen towel sets. They are also decorated to look like a cake but would be given as gifts for house warming parties, bridal showers, wedding gifts, graduations or for any other purpose you see fit. Our towel cakes and diaper cakes can be fully customizable to your specific needs or themes, just ask! Another fundraising opportunity we talked about and decided to act upon is to set up and sell our “cakes” during the baton competition sponsored by the Twirling All Stars. The baton competition is scheduled for Sat. April 10^th, from 9am-5pm at Evergreen High School. Another fundraiser we are going to participate in is again, setting up and selling our “cakes” Saturday May 1^st at the 1^st Annual Craft Sale and Business Expo in Delta at the Trinity Lutheran Church. We will also be offering face painting and babysitting in the preschool room for donations so parents can enjoy the merchants and vendors and know their children are being cared for and entertained. All proceeds raised from this event will benefit the Open Door in Delta. Please contact me if you are interested in becoming a vendor, making a donation, donating baked goods, dontating a raffle items or volunteering to help with the show itself. I have all the registration information to pass along. Email me at renee@fultoncountyiyn.com.

After our meeting, we volunteered at Centennial Riding Center. We had 11 youth and 4 adults participate. The kids did a WONDERFUL job and the riding center was very pleased. We cleaned out all 8 stalls, raked the indoor arena, fed and watered the horses, brought hay down from the mound and even groomed a horse. The kids even were able to play with and love on the puppies and the barn cat. They loved it! I’m sure will be going back soon! I want to thank Bathany Sherrad, a photographer from Wauseon for coming out on that cold, nasty day to donate her time to take pictures of our group in action!! Thank you Bethany!!!!

 Next meeting will be Monday March 29, 2010 at Tedrow Methodist Church from 6:00-7:30.

 Hope to see you there!!