2014 NWS Week of Service

NWS Week of Service Main Web Page

NWS Week of Service Facebook Page

• Serves more than 350 cups of soup daily
• Prepares over 100,000 meals annually
• Provides emergency clothing and showers.

Employees from the Anchorage Forecast Office, as well as the Alaska Aviation Weather Unit, cleaned up 8 garbage bags of debris from a roadside in Anchorage.

Several different NWS offices in Anchorage (Forecast office, Alaska Aviation Weather Unit, River Forecast Center, and Alaska Region Headquarters) participated in some baking contests to collect canned goods and clothing donations for the local soup kitchen and food bank. There were several different kinds of cookies and pies that were judged, then employees "bought" cookies or slices of pie with food or clothing donations. This is always a popular activity during the Week of Service!

Anchorage Downtown Soup Kitchen

Adopt-A-Highway

Baking for Food Donations

Baking for Food Donations

• Collected and delivered 3 bags of needed items. 
• Took one bag of nearly outdated/expired food items from the Fisher House to a Food Bank in Eagle River. 
• Performed landscaping duties consisting of weeding ?and general cleaning to improve the appearance of the facility. Total landscaping time was 2 hours and 15 minutes.

On September 28th, 2 staff members and a spouse participated in the Feed My Starving Children, MobilePack Event. This is a global effort to feed starving children and families. https://www.fmsc.org/

On September 29th, a staff member, spouse and their registered therapy dog visited residents at an Alzheimer's Care Facility.

On October 3rd, a staff member and their spouse served as safety/security attendants at the New Braunfels, TX High School marching band competition with over 4,000 people in attendance.

On October 4th, 5 staff members and 2 spouses participated in a TxDOT Adopt-A-Highway trash pick up along FM758 near the weather office.

Also, our office is participating in the CFC donation program with several members already making contributions.

On Wednesday October 1, five staff members volunteered their time and talents at the Dakota Zoo. They donated over 20 hours of community service while laying fence in the new Wolf Exhibit, set to open next spring.  Being a non-profit organization, the Dakota Zoo relies heavily on the volunteer efforts of many generous people.

On Monday October 6, three staff members helped prepare and serve around 50 lunchtime meals at the Ruth Meiers Soup Kitchen.  Ruth Meiers provides three meals a day, seven days a week, to individuals and families in need living at the facility.  Volunteers in the community assist in serving three meals a day, seven days a week.

We began in December 2013 with a collection of different Christmas gifts for Foster teens of the Texas Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) organization of Cameron and Willacy Counties. CASA helps change the life of foster teenagers by reducing the time they spend in foster care, and decreasing the emotional impact of child abuse. We continued in February with our first shoe collection for Soles4Souls. This organization collects used and new shoes and clothes to give individuals that are in need. For our first time collecting, NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley collected around 20 pairs of shoes of different sizes for women, men and children. In March, a group of volunteers got together to attended the annual Whataburger All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Breakfast with all the proceeds benefiting KRGV Channel 5 Teach the Children charity. This was the 5th year that we participated in this event, which netted a total of around $25.

During the actual week of service in 2014, we collected a box of different food items for donation to the Ozanam Center in Brownsville and we prepared a hamburger/hot dog picnic meal for around 60 homeless residents. The Ozanam center provides individuals and families with housing assistance, food and clothes. The residents and workers at Ozanam appreciated all that we did for them and for taking the time to help in the kitchen.

In addition to this, 5 NWS employees and 3 family members prepared a meal of lasagna, bread, salad, cookies, and brownies for the 20 family members staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Burlington on Friday, October 3rd.

The CCF relies heavily on hundreds of volunteers every year for trail work, removal of invasive plant species, and other work in the mountains near Salt Lake City.  More information about the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation and its efforts to improve the environment can be found at https://cottonwoodcanyons.org and https://www.facebook.com/CottonwoodCanyonsFoundation.

On Monday, September 29th from 4 PM through 6 PM, staff from CBRFC and Western Water Assessment assisted the Green Urban Lunch Box program by harvesting produce and weeding at a community garden in Salt Lake City.  The volunteer group helped to pick 210 pounds of tomatoes, squash, and peppers.  Volunteers also pulled weeds from an already-harvested watermelon patch, in preparation for planting of a cover crop for winter.  The gardening volunteer group included Michelle Stokes, Ashley Nielson, Paul Miller, Valerie Offutt, and Stacie Bender from CBRFC, and Tim Bardsley from Western Water Assessment.  Several family members also provided valuable gardening assistance.

Green Urban Lunch Box volunteers assist with gardening and fruit harvest, and produce is donated to local food banks and other programs.  More information about the Green Urban Lunch Box can be found at https://thegreenurbanlunchbox.com/fruit-share-program.

On October 2nd form 6:30 PM through 8:00 PM, the Salt Lake City WFO and the Colorado Basin RFC delivered boxes of food from the Utah Food Bank to area seniors who receive these boxes each month.

ERH also repurposed 305 pounds of colored paper that was deemed unusable, delivering it to four non-for-profit local organizations that serve young children, homeless teenagers, elderly people who reside at a day care center during the day, and persons with mental disabilities.

On September 29th (Monday), WFO Wilmington, OH participated in an Adopt-a-Highway cleanup on Ohio State Route 73 northeast of Wilmington.  Joining them for the cleanup was US National Weather Service Eastern Region HQ director Jason Tuell.

On September 11, several WFO Gaylord employees and spouses visited a local veterans housing complex - called "Patriots Place" - to assist with fall landscaping improvements and to create a new "Memorial Garden".  This was in conjunction with the United Ways "day of giving". 

During the two weeks leading up to the NWS Week of Service, they held a food drive.  All of the food collected was subsequently delivered to a local food pantry.

In addition to this, they have ongoing volunteer opportunities with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources volunteer workdays, which help control invasive species and preserve environments for native species.

On Saturday (October 4th), Jenni Laflin, Spencer Mell, and Michelle Robertson Mell ran in a muddy Pumpkin Run 5K.

In addition, Tim was the June Nelson Elementary School Youth Basketball Coach and a referee for the basketball season and tournament.

Finally, he volunteered in refereeing for the City League basketball.

From July 21st through September 13th, NWS La Crosse, WI conducted their 5th annual school supply drive. Their staff brought in around $1,500 worth of school supplies during this drive. In addition, MichaelsEnergy in La Crosse donated 1,225 folders.  There were enough supplies donated to provide school supplies to 7 different schools (5 elementary and 2 middle/high) in northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota, and southwest Wisconsin.  These supplies were delivered from September 22nd through October 3rd to the following schools:

1. B. A. Kennedy Elementary - Prairie du Chien, WI (Crawford County) 
2. Boscobel Elementary - Boscobel, WI (Grant County) 
3. Brookwood High - Ontario, WI (Monroe/Vernon County) 
4. Cora B. Darling Elementary/Middle School (Allamakee County)
5. Jefferson Elementary - Winona, MN (Winona County)
6. Logan High - La Crosse, WI (La Crosse County)
7. Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton Elementary - Ontario, WI (Monroe/Vernon County)

During the past 5 years, they have donated supplies to 25 different schools in their 28 county forecast area.

Also for this week, one of their forecasters knitted 84 hats (preemie to adult).  On Monday (September 30th), these hats were delivered to the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) at Gunderson Health System and Mayo Health System - Franciscan Healthcare, and remaining hats were donated to New Horizons Shelter & Women's Center.

From September 21st through October 4th, the staff will be participating in a friendly food drive competition with 11 other NWS offices (Des Moines, IA; Detroit, MI; Flagstaff, AZ; Green Bay, WI; Kansas City, MO; Lincoln, IL; Marquette, MI; Milwaukee, WI; Northern Indiana; Quad Cities, IA/IL; and St. Louis, MO) and the Missouri Basin River Forcast Center (RFC).  There are 3 different categories to this competition (number of food items, weight of items, and number of other items).  They brought in 54 lbs and 59 items.  Locally, this food was delivered to WAFER. 

On Monday (September 29th) and Tuesday (September 30th), the staff volunteered at WAFER which is their local food bank.

On Saturday morning (October 4th), a group from the office ran in a 5k for the Nashville CARES group.

We have had a lot of interest for our first year participating in the Week of Service.

Between ILM and MHX, around 350 lbs of food was collected. ILM will be donating their collection to Nourish NC, a local non-profit which helps feed children within New Hanover County (NC) of whom are less fortunate.

In addition, Teresa Murphy ran in the Bill Cross 5K Run/Walk for Backsnack. This event raises money to give children backpacks full of food to prevent them from going hungry on the weekends.

After the video, guests were taken into the operations area to see and hear about all of the equipment used to create forecasts and warnings. Visitors then went into the computer room, where they could see and hear about the incredible technology it takes to receive and transmit all of the data. Visitors then explored the NWS Paducah display tent, where numerous handouts were available. In the tent, on display was a tornado machine, a Van de Graaf generator, and numerous posters covering some of the more significant weather events experienced in our region. Guests were also able to see demonstrations with the Flood Plain Model. Every piece of equipment outside the office had signs describing what it was, and signs with various tidbits of office and weather information were scattered across the grounds.

There were numerous other displays dealing with safety and preparedness. The Child Safety Trailer focused on fire safety and actions to take during severe weather. A television in the trailer had a mock warning come across the screen, and kids were asked what actions they needed to take at their home. The Travelling Safety Adventure trailer covered a wide array of safety issues, covering topics from weather preparedness, precautions to take with electrical cords, and other safety issues for the home.

Mobile communications trucks from Sikeston, MO and DuQuoin, IL allowed people to take tours and shared with them the vital roles they can cover in both natural and man-made disasters, and the technology they can transport to locations dealing with disasters. Mercy Regional ambulance service of Paducah had their Mass Casualty Bus on display, and shared with visitors how they could handle transporting more patients during larger accidents or disasters. PHI Air Medical of Kentucky landed a helicopter next to the office for people to check out and take pictures.

A very popular stop was the Power Line demonstration. The demonstration showed the power and dangers of power lines, which was emphasized by live examples of tree limbs catching fire, hot dogs cooking after touching the power line, snaps, pops, and stories about mistakes people have made when dealing with power lines, along with debunking myths.

A weather spotter group from Poplar Bluff, Missouri set up a tent and helped the NWS spread the word on how to become a weather spotter. HAM operators had a tent to share ideas and encourage people who had an interest in getting a HAM license. There was also a tent with volunteers available to help visitors program their weather radios.

Kids were given a “passport” when they arrived at the Open House. The passport had six different stations for kids to visit. When they visited the station, their passport was stamped. When the passports were completed, kids returned the passports to the NWS tent where they were given a prize. Many visitors commented on how interesting all of the displays were and how much they had learned. The Open House was considered a huge success!

They also collected used coats that were delivered to Diane's Cleaners in Moon Township. They clean them for free and deliver them to the West Hills Food Pantry, for distribution to those individuals in our area that are in need.

On Saturday, October 11th, 4 individuals from our Pittsburgh Office participated in this service, which included digging post holes and putting new posts and mile markers in place and painting of new posts, along a public community biking/running/walking trail in our area.  This was very hard work and was much appreciated by the President of the Montour Trail Association, Dennis Pfeiffer and trail volunteer Nadeem Mira who also assisted our office volunteers, Les Day, FET; Evan Bookbinder, ITO; Kathy Knupp, ASA; and Nancy Santilli, Janitor.

The Children’s Book Bank strives to improve the literacy skills of low-income children through active family reading. They accomplish this by giving books to children before they reach kindergarten age. They collect, repair and package the books and make them available to families free of charge.

The CCF relies heavily on hundreds of volunteers every year for trail work, removal of invasive plant species, and other work in the mountains near Salt Lake City.  More information about the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation and its efforts to improve the environment can be found at https://cottonwoodcanyons.org and https://www.facebook.com/CottonwoodCanyonsFoundation.

On October 2nd form 6:30 PM through 8:00 PM, the Salt Lake City WFO and the Colorado Basin RFC delivered boxes of food from the Utah Food Bank to area seniors who receive these boxes each month.

Between ILM and MHX, around 350 lbs of food was collected. MHX will be donating their collection to The Matthew 25 fund, which helps Newport residents in extreme financial circumstances as well as provide food.

In addition to the Adopt-A-Highway cleanup, WFO Wilmington, OH, in conjunction with the Ohio River Forecast Center, took up a collection for two local humane societies.

Vanessa Pearce volunteered for "The Amazing Race" - shoe & clothing donation for poor.

Several people donated food, cash or promised to contribute through Combined Federal Campaign to the Kansas Food Bank.