BACTES PEOPLE GIVE BACK
BACTES is devoted to building community – locally and globally. Central to that commitment, we encourage and support the efforts of our staff with causes they are passionate about. Here are some examples of the BACTES team at work in their communities.
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Homes and Meals for the Needy
BACTES Arizona
This year, BACTES Arizona has decided to support Habitat for Humanity, an organization that is close to the heart of a BACTES Arizona team member. Habitat for Humanity was founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a decent, safe and affordable place to live. Habitat and its homeowner families have built or rehabilitated more than 350,000 houses. A nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing ministry, Habitat invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build together in partnership.
BACTES Arizona also has a food drive each year at their annual Holiday Party. They started this tradition three years ago and it has proven to be quite effective. Each year their donation continues to grow.
Learn more about Habitat for Humanity here.
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Partner Supporting the Community
BACTES Colorado
Over the course of the past 18 months, the staff from BACTES Colorado has participated in several activities based on the inspiration of its team members. During the coming holiday season, BACTES Colorado will continue its support of Project C.U.R.E. and Warren Village.
PARTNER NEWS
BACTES Colorado would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of Colorado Springs Orthopedic Group, one of the partners we have had the pleasure of working with since October 2009. CSOG has played an integral role as a community leader and contributor to the Colorado Springs area. Among their charitable endeavors are offering free sports physicals for local high school students, donating physician time as team doctors, working with area soup kitchens, and participating with Project C.U.R.E. When CSOG transitioned to digital imaging instead of traditional X-rays in early 2007, they decided to donate their old X-ray processors, developers, and related equipment to Project C.U.R.E. so they could subsequently be distributed to needy medical facilities around the world.
We salute CSOG and look forward to the opportunity to learn of the new charitable activities they take on. CSOG's people and dedication to the community provides us with a true inspiration to continue helping our local neighborhoods! Above is a photo of Kirk Blad, CSOG's Operations Manager and other CSOG staff enjoying the time they spent at a local soup kitchen.
For more information regarding CSOG and the community outreach programs they participate in, please check out their website.
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Helping a Friend with ALS
BACTES Texas
Michele and Les Pastorella of BACTES Texas have been active in supporting and raising money through various channels for a friend who is a 50 year old U.S. Navy, Gulf War Veteran with ALS. ALS is commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease and it is a progressive, degenerative disease with no cure. Most people with ALS die within three to five years of diagnosis. While there are no known drugs or therapies that will reverse or slow down the progression of the symptoms of the disease, there are some new experimental therapies that offer some hope.
Michele and Les, along with others, have been raising money to pay for experimental therapies and have been contributing time and money to rehab a suitable wheelchair-friendly living space for their friend. Les has also accompanied their friend when he has needed to travel to access the experimental therapies. They have raised money through cake sales, link sales, motorcycle tee shirt sales, and slide shows, as well as several other fundraising events to help this friend through this difficult time.
Learn more about how to fight Lou Gehrig's Disease here.
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Supporting Sustainable Solutions in Africa
BACTES Texas, Austin
Ricky Restrepo of BACTES Texas in Austin recently came back from an extended and fulfilling trip around the South Pacific and Asia. Since then, he has decided to put his current focus and efforts into giving back to the places and people that made his experiences around the globe so wonderful.
On February 12, 2011, Ricky will embark on a two week trip that will surely change his life forever and he hopes that it will leave a positive imprint on the lives of others as well. He will travel to Tanzania, Africa to help the people there with sustainable solutions for food, water, health, and educational necessities. Ricky will be traveling as a part of an outreach organization based out of San Diego called Friends & Family Community Connection.
Learn more about Friends & Family Community Connection and their Tanzania Outreach programs here.
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Cheering Kids to Success
BACTES East, Massachusetts
Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. (PWLS) is a non-profit organization that provides youth football and cheer & dance programs for participants in 42 states and several countries around the world.
Danielle LaFleur of BACTES East volunteered her time to the Pop Warner organization this past summer/fall. The local head coach needed a choreographer and Danielle was more than happy to help out! Danielle had never coached a full team for an entire season, so it was truly a learning experience for her. They had a very small team of 12 girls, only four of whom had prior cheerleading experience, so they had quite a challenge ahead of them. The girls taught Danielle about communication and leadership, as well as how to lighten up a little. She is so used to the rush, rush, rush of work and school that she sometimes forgets it's okay to have a little fun.
Due to hard work, encouragement, and patience, the team was able to bring everything together at the end of the season and take 3rd place out of 6 teams at the Pop Warner NH State Competition. Danielle was so proud of them and felt lucky to be a part of bringing out the best in the girls.
Learn more about Pop Warner Little Scholars here.
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Coaching Kids
BACTES East, Massachusetts
Adam Webster of BACTES East, Massachusetts just finished volunteering his time as a Babe Ruth baseball coach. One of his friends asked him to help coach the fall season and knowing he was going to be around his home town for the first time in a while, Adam figured it would be a good way to stay occupied. He also hoped that he'd have a great time teaching the kids how to be better baseball players, as well as better people.
Coaching was very rewarding right away, but it didn't really hit home for Adam until parents started coming up throughout the season to personally thank him and his fellow coaches for volunteering. The parents praised the coaches because the kids were paying attention and listening so much better than in previous years. This was the most rewarding part of the experience and has encouraged Adam to participate in more activities like this in the future.
Learn more about Babe Ruth League Baseball here.
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Helping a Neighbor
BACTES East, Massachusetts
Joyce Quintal of BACTES East and her husband Joe got to know “Ron”, a gentleman who worked at the post office in their town and came to Joe's small family restaurant for lunch. Ron lived alone and had decreasing eye sight caused by Macular Degenerative Eye disease. Joe and Joyce started helping Ron with little things he needed around the house, all the while being very cautious about his feelings to be sure he was okay about accepting help. Five years later, Ron's eye sight became increasingly debilitating. Joyce talked with Ron and helped him visit eye specialists who then operated. The operation helped Ron for about three years so that he had tunnel vision but could see better than he had seen in years. Then his eye sight started slipping away again, this time with nothing to improve it. He was declared legally blind two years ago.
Joe helps with Ron's meals and Joyce visits him weekly to help with his bills, shopping, and other household errands. She takes him to doctor's appointments and to classes at the MA Council for the Blind. Ron and Joyce were trained in how to walk together, with Joyce being his eyes and leading him. Ron also received lessons on how to walk with a walking stick for the blind. This relationship started out small and has fully blossomed into a wonderful experience for Ron, Joe and Joyce, their three grown children and two grandchildren. It is time consuming but very rewarding. The family has grown to be more appreciative of the things they sometimes take for granted.
Learn more about community programs at Perkins School for the Blind here.
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Helping Locally and Globally
BACTES Colorado, Denver
WARREN VILLAGE
During the Christmas season, the BACTES Colorado team will help Warren Village with their ongoing efforts to assist under privileged single mothers and their children. We were introduced to this organization by Karen Trabert, a 3-year team member. Our duties are to help the kids pick and wrap gifts that they will be able to give to their parents on Christmas Day. For all of us, we found this to be a particularly enjoyable experience because we had the opportunity to work directly with the kids. It was great to see the looks on their faces when they found out they would be able to give something to the parents that have given them so much.
Warren Village exists so that low-income, single parent families achieve sustainable personal and economic self-sufficiency. People who are homeless have not only lost their home, they have also lost their connection to the community. Safe and secure housing, combined with self-help services gives stranded families the opportunity to regroup and become valuable members of society. Warren Village has provided shelter to over 3,500 families since it was established in 1974 and has been cited as a national model for its combination of housing with on-site family services, Early Childhood Education and school-age programs.
PROJECT C.U.R.E.
In November, the BACTES Colorado team participated in medical supply packing for Project C.U.R.E. Because of tragedy around our globe, there is a tremendous need for medical supplies in various countries. Christina Proud, a 4-year team member, introduced BACTES to Project C.U.R.E. in November of 2009. Since that time we have participated in several packing sessions that benefited areas in and surrounding the Haiti earthquake. PROJECT C.U.R.E. (Commission on Urgent Relief & Equipment) was founded in 1987 to help meet the need for medical supplies, equipment and services around the world. PROJECT C.U.R.E. builds sustainable healthcare infrastructure by providing the medical supplies and equipment that medical personnel need to deliver healthcare to their communities. Since its inception, PROJECT C.U.R.E. has delivered medical relief to needy people in more than 120 countries.
Learn more about Warren Village here.
Learn more about Project C.U.R.E. here.
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Teaching Tech to Seniors
BACTES East, Michigan
About three years ago Paul Malefyt of BACTES East, Michigan, retired from Ford Motor Company after working there for 30 years in Information Technology. While he had a variety of experiences during that time, one he most enjoyed was assisting people with the use of technology.
Paul heard that the local senior citizens center (Services for Older Citizens) provided free technology instruction for seniors on Friday afternoons. Since Paul had some available time, he offered to help out. The teaching turned out to be fairly challenging, with interest in everything from how to use a mouse, to demonstrating the wonders and power of the internet. He never knows what sort of help someone might need and just hopes that someone doesn't spring an iPad on him … they may just have to teach him!
Learn more about Services for Older Citizens here.
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Passion for Coaching
BACTES East, Michigan
Craig Cotter of BACTES East, Michigan started volunteering as a baseball coach 25 years ago. Early on, he coached in the Baseball Recreation Leagues of Arizona before he even had a family. He then moved back to Dearborn, Michigan and coached in their Recreation baseball leagues, as well as coaching at a couple of Catholic School Jr. High Schools. He now coaches his youngest son's school team as well as his travel team and he plans on continuing to coach even after his son is grown.
Craig's coaching passion comes from his father who coached all three boys in the Cotter household. He encouraged Craig to coach at a young age because he knew he loved baseball and it was a great way to give back to the community, by encouraging and molding young men into not only better baseball players but better people. Craig volunteers a great deal of time into coaching but it never gets tiring, because he loves it. He has had the chance to impact many young men's lives, some of whom are married now and coaching themselves or playing sports in college. He has run into a few of his former players or their parents time and again and it's always great to see what they are up to. Craig will never get sick of hearing “Thanks for what you did for me,” or “Thanks for what you did for my son.” It brings a tear to his eye at times. He is so very grateful for the opportunity to coach, because it's his passion.
Interested in coaching youth baseball? Learn about Little League here.
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Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
BACTES Corporate
The American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk is as unique and special as the stories that motivate our dedicated walkers, donors and volunteers. Each step we take is personal. Each donation is helping to save lives and each volunteer helps create a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays. BACTES Corporate once again participated in the Annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in San Diego, California this year.
BACTES set a goal of $2,000 and began fundraising a couple of weeks before the event. BACTES Founder and CEO Bill Bailey offered to match donations up to $2,000. On the day of the event BACTES had raised $2,735.00 and – with Mr. Bailey's generous contribution – they were able to bring the total to $4,735!
On October 17th, BACTES Corporate and their friends and family congregated at Balboa Park along with 20,000 other participants to walk in support of finding a cure. Thousands upon thousands of people were there in support of their mothers, daughters, grandmothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, cousins, nieces and of course themselves. Every year the walk is an empowering event and confirms once more that you can accomplish anything in numbers!