Regional Meeting

Fellow VISTA Maureen and I planned and hosted our spring Ohio Benefit Bank Regional Meeting on March 30.

Forty-two people (mainly Ohio Benefit Bank counselors and site administrators from across Lucas County) attended the meeting. My goal was 50, but last time we had 30, so we beat that.

We had five guest speakers:

Julie Grasson from CareNet (sliding-scale fee healthcare for uninsured, low-income Lucas County residents;

Scott Cluckey from Great Food For All (boxed food for anyone (no income limits) at discount prices to strech dollars/food stamp dollars -- he drove 3+ hours to speak, wow! thanks!);

Tiffany Zinn from Northwest Ohio Development Agency (IDA matching funds, housing grants, loans, foreclosure counseling, etc);

Amy Carles from Ohio Consumers' Council (consumer liasons for utility assistance);

and reps from Lucas County Department of Job and Family Services (county office that handles food stamps, medical assistance, etc.)

We were excited to give away four door prizes donated to us by awesome generous donors: gift certificate to Cake in a Cup (cupcake shop); gift certificate to The Andersons; free bread for a year (!) from Country Grains Bread Company; and four Toledo Mud Hens tickets!

We were shocked by that last one, but apparently they get so many requests they enter everyone into a lottery and we won! I can't count the number of places we dropped off request letters to, but it all worked out in the end with some great prizes.

I thought it went off very smoothly. Glad it's over.