BonaResponds

What's Happening?
When things are happening quickly, the best way to keep up to date is our blog. Be sure to check it regularly.

Look for announcement on Winter Break trip soon!
January 5-17.

The Fall Break Iowa trip went very well. Here are some pictures and videos from the trip. And here are blog articles.

The Francis Weekend (October 4th) service day, was a success. And inspite of the cold weather (yes it was that cold inside!) the concert and speeches were fun as well! Be sure to watch the video of the BonaResponds story speech and here are some pictures.

Pictures and videos of fall 2008 local days are available here. Bridget working in Friendship

Looking back at Summer 2008

Pictures and blog entries of cleaning up after killer tornado in Newton County Missouri with HODR.org
Pictures and Blog entries from Cedar Rapids Iowa after their flooding.

Local Service day August 23rd! (see job descriptions and maps)

Schedule:
BonaResponds responds to needs and as such scheduling can be difficult. But here is a list of some of our known events

August 23	Freshman Welcome days	Introduction to BonaResponds, training, painting fire hydrants, parks etc.
September 6th	House Building Day	Small groups to work in West Clarksville and in Friendship.
September 13-14	Fall service weekend	many jobs and sites around the loca area..
October 4	Work day and New Orleans Jazz Concert!	Work first, then enjoy a jazz concert by New Orleans musicans who are coming to thank BonaResponds for all of the work along the Gulf Coast!
Oct 10-14	BonaResponds fall trip	Site to be determined based on need. Might not be decided until we leave!
January	BonaResponds Winter trip	Gulf coast--TBD
Feb27-March 8	BonaResponds Spring trip
March 28	BonaResponds Buffalo	with Villa Maria
April 24-25	BonaResponds Local Spring Weekend	2 days of good work and good fun!

Don't see a job on the week you want to work, email us, we may have something for you!

BonaResponds-From your home.
You can help BonaResponds from the comfort of your own home. Much of the work that makes BonaResponds run can be done from anywhere, so if you want to help, let us know. Examples of jobs you can do from home: Online marketing, Facebook searches, grant writing, Video production, grant writing, newsletter production, fund raising, PR and Marketing, t-shirt design, etc.

For more information or to help please email BonaResponds@sbu.edu.

A look back

It was a very succesful year for BonaResponds! We had three major trips, two major local events plus many smaller events. This summer we plan to stay busy, but for the next week or so it is time to catch up and get organized. Thank you to all the volunteers who made it such a great year and especially to Carrie Jackling who has been a leader since the inception of BonaResponds. Carrie graduated this year, but we all hope (and expect) that she remains active in some capacity.

A look ahead

The 2008-2009 school year promises to be just as exciting as our first three years have been! With trip dates and service weekends already established, we will go as far as you the volunteers are willing to take us. Our student leaders will include Emily, Laura, Steve, Caitlyn, Mary, Patrick, Phil, Mike, and many more who will step up and take on responsibilty as the school year gets closer. If you have ideas (for jobs or where to go for a trip), suggestions, etc, do not hesitate to email us.

	BonaResponds'
	Recent Trips

The trips are what made us famous! And with good reason. Service trips are a central part of BonaResponds. We'd love you to come along. They are open to all (students, faculty, staff, alumni, community members) and are an absolute blast.

BonaResponds Spring Break 2008- 63 volunteers went to Pearlington MS, Pass Christian MS, and Gassville Arkansas. Great work and great times. You can read all about it here and see hundreds of pictures here.

Winter Break 2008-Gulf Coast: 28 BonaResponders worked Pass Christian MS from January 2-11. Coupled with those from the Olean First Baptist Church it meant that there were people from BonaResponds working in the Gulf from December 28th to Janaury 11th. Daily reports from the trip are available here. Pictures are available here.

Fall Break 2007 BonaResponds-Ohio-was a great success! We worked on about a dozen homes in Bucyrus, Galion, Crestline, and Shelby. For about 600 pictures and many small videos and audio updates see our blog entries tagged Ohio.

BonaResponds Spring Break 2007: 60 volunteers left St. Bonaventure University on March 2nd for the Gulf Coast and has safely returned a little over a week later. Sixty participants joined the group to rebuild and revive the Gulf Coast from the destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

However, before making it the Gulf Coast, BonaResponds stopped in Enterprise, Alabama to help clear downed trees and debris caused by the tornado that hit the city on Thursday, March 1st. It was unbelievable to see the destruction caused by the tornado and the way the local community came together to respond to it. The entire trip was a truly rewarding experience. Blog entries of the trip are here, pictures are here and here.

more:

Pictures of the winter 2007 trip (where we helped build a volunteer camp at Randys)
The "big trip" where we took almost 300 volunteers in March 2006
The Buffalo snow storm trips (6 weekends in Buffalo)

Thank you letters

Essays and Reflections

Audio and videos

Fund Raising-Help us Help others!

Without funds BonaResponds is just a good idea. It costs money to get the volunteers to the sites, to feed them, and for supplies (for instance drywall, masks, water, etc. You can help. Mail Donations to BonaResponds, Box BY, St. Bonaventure NY 14778.

Help us as you shop. Shop through GoodShop and enter BonaResponds as your charity (hundreds of stores from Kmart to Wal Mart, from Travelocity to iTunes, from Dell to Amazon and Barnes and Noble). You shop, we get a percentage of the sale. And you do not pay any more!

Here are more pictures! (click on any picture for more pictures from that event)

Last semester

We helped a family from Franklinville that suffered a horrible fire and serious injuries. Pictures are here, blog entries here.

We did a mini day on October 13th. Here is a blog entry on it.

BonaResponds was very active in the creation of trails through Bob's Woods. On Monday October 1st SBU held a grand opening of the trails. You can read about it (and watch videos) here! Also we put in a half day of work on the trail when we got back from Ohio.

BonaResponds-Bradford---September 16 and August 25th. Here is more

Tools? Do you have unused tools laying around? Clean out the garage and donate them to BonaResponds! Rakes, Shovels, drills, hammers, paint rollers, brushes, brooms, chain saws, etc. Email BonaResponds to arrange a pick-up. Press Release A special thanks to Bob Keenan and Joe and Pat Coate who were very generous in giving us tools!! While the press actual drive is complete, we are always looking for tools!

More pictures here

Did you know? BonaResponds is open to anyone? You can help!!!

Click on any picture to see many more pictures!

BonaResponds' Local Service Days

In additon to many local one day projects, at least once a semester we have a large local day where we break into groups and go to many different sites. It is like being in the Gulf Coast without a 20 hour drive.

The next scheduled local service day is going to be Spring Service Weekend! April 19 and 20th, 2008 Come on out and help!

Or if you have an organization that wants help, email us!

Past Local days

Fall 2007 We had just over 100 volunteers at 11 sites. Pictures and blog entries

Summer 2007: The Summer Local Service day was a big success! Read about it here and here! Pictures here.

Spring 2007 BonaResponds had more than 100 volunteers working at about 15 sites! pictures of the day!

Fall 2006 we had three days! Pictures are here.

Also you can help by doing your shopping here. (You do have to enter BonaResponds as your charity), Then you can shop at Barnes and Noble, Road Runner, EBay, OfficeMax, Textbookx.com, Target.com, and MANY MANY other online sites. We get about 5% of the sale donated to us. (It will take a while to show up) Think about it, you were going to shop anyways, with one click you can help BonaResponds help others!

Want to donate? Or buy BonaResponds T-shirts, Hoodies, Stickers,or License plate holders? Email BonaResponds!

Check out the BonaResponds blog

Waiver form needed by all volunteers for any event

Necessary forms 1, 2, 3 that must be filled out for any trip.

For more information send email to: bonaresponds@sbu.edu

BonaResponds

Box BY

St. Bonaventure NY 14778