New Year meeting February 24, 2011

Happy New from Trey's Transitions.

It's been several months since our last meeting and I would like to give you an update on the progress since that time.


Several board members have been very busy addressing issues with their personal lives as well as working very hard to continue efforts getting the word out about our program. We planned a meeting for February 24, 2011 at the Richland County Public Library. The following members were present: James Irby and Charley Spencer. The following members were engaged in activities and not able to attend: Milton Kimpson, John Hancock, Lyn Whitehead and Jerrett Slacum. There was no report from Beverly Clyburn, The Criossants or Tyree Smith.


We reviewed the old business from the previous meeting and discussed new business. We could not vote on the new business because we did not have a quorum. We decided to contact the board members to get their input on the new business and then vote on the issues.



Old business:

• Trey's Transition is now on Facebook (FB). A donation campaign has been set up under the "CAUSE" tab for FB members to give to the program. Check it out when you get a chance. It's under James Irby wallpaper. Several FB members have donated, send well wishes for our success and prayers.


• The Re-cycle "Can"paign is moving along slowly. Neighbors, friends, and family have given alittle over 2000 aluminum cans for Trey to crush into cash!!! He's crushed about half that number so far, and needs more to keep in shape as well as raising the number of pounds before taking them to the recycle center. The more he takes at one time the higher the $ amount per pound. So tell others to keep the cans moving his way.


• Pennys from heaven funraiser has promoted arouund $110. The pennys have come from those in the community that I have shared about Trey's Transition. Some have given what they find in their car ash tray, others have collected from their desk drawers at work, while others found more than pennys inside their furniture at home. We were luck to get more than a few pennys from that donor.
• We continue to receive small donations from those interested in the development of the program. Thanks to The Gothie and Propst-Murphy family for their donations.


• The golf tournament was cancelled because we did not do enough in preparing for the event. We need to address efforts for a successfull event that will continue to promote advocacy for adults with special needs as well as developing our program.
• Exploring locations for the program in Irmo or Columbia area.
  

New business

Golf tournament is back on with plans for the event in early Spring of this year. Charwood County club maybe the setting for the event. Kelly Lucas, Event coordinator has been in touch with me about plans for the event. We need to decide on the specifics about the golf event i.e. sponsor and tounament price, prizes, and catering. A decision needs to be made by the next board meeting March 17, 2o11 in order to have enough time to pull the event together.
There are a number of indivduals each board members know that would be interested in participating. We agreed for each board member to commit to raising $2000 for the event. Members can earn the funds by getting golfers or sponsors to participate in the tournament

• A head start on learning about the beginning of adult day care. I shared about my learning about a new adult day program, Golden Years Adult day program off Leesburg Rd. in columbia, SC . Shemika Rivers is the director, recently received her license and able to accept clients thru private pay at this time until she has $10,000 in capital that DHHS now provides before she can attend medicaid waiver training for her to accept waiver clients in her program. Ms. River is eager to assist adults with special needs. Trey attends the program 2 days per week at this time. She can be reached at 803-783-7272.

• I spoke about adding the means for us to communicate meeting dates as well as completing the quarumn for us to vote. Survey Monkey is a application available for us to communite our interest and needs for the program existance.
• We spoke about having another board meeeting next month as well as introducing a means for the meeting to move forward even when I'm available to attend.
• I shared about plans to have my birthday wish to FB members, asking them to give donations to Trey's Transions. Thanks to all those who provided donations to our cause.

Meeting with United Way

A lunch meeting was held today with Wes Hayes, Campaign Manager for the United Way.


We discussed our missions to strive in helping those in our community and efforts to collaborate with each other. The next step will be for him to meet with the board of directors to address specifically what we can do to assist each other toward our missions to the community. http://maps.google.com/places/us/sc/columbia/main-st/1800/-united-way-of-the-midlands?gl=us





Lunch went very well. Wes got a chance to meet Trey. We enjoyed good food at the Fuji Cafe' on Broad River Road in Irmo. I spoke with their manager about Trey's Transition to see if they would become a sponsor. They share plans to contact us later about their efforts to support the program as their business grows.



Wes plans to set up an opportunity for me to meet with Karen Oliver who also works with the United Way in efforts to coordinate services within the community.



I will keep you posted on this effort.



I've learned that one of my friends, Doug Kratz is president of a local golf association. We've talked about maybe getting together a golf torunament in effort to raise funds and "fun" for Trey's Transition. We will take this up at our next board meeting.



The next meeting is planned for the second Thursday in December, 9, 2010.
Charley hopes to have SKYPE back online. The location has not been confirmed yet.
Discussion has come up for us to have a working, eating board meeting. We can't bring food into the library.

Let me know your thoughts before the third week in November.

Thanks and keep us in your prayers.

board meeting and open house success

Here is an updated on the previous activities for Trey's Transition.

There was a board meeting at the Richland County Public Library, September 23, 2010.
The Following board members were present: Milton Kipmson, James Irby, Trey Irby, John Hancock, and Charley Spencer. Absent: Lyn Whitehead, Beverly Clyburn, Jerret Slacumm and Tyree Smith.

Discussed old business-updated fundraising opportunities,having the Business Account set up at Bank of America,the Pay Pal, Network for good and FaceBook accounts set up for Trey's Transition "Cause" being a good idea and demonstration on how the accounts were set up; the need for the donation button to be included on the website instead of just having the link. We talked about the excitement being created by these efforts. This effort will allow donors the ability to send $ to the account for the funds we need to get the building and start up cost to meet state regulations. We talked about this effort will continue to let others know about the need for young adult programs. I shared the need for at least $600,000 as start up cost for one year of the program for up to 20 individuals.

We discussed other ways to raise funds including contacting those from the community with large amounts of funds to commit to the cause i.e. Oprah Winfrey, Robert Mickle, and Steve Mungo to name a few of possible donors. We talked about getting Wofford alumni assistance as well. Plans are being made for board members to contact those mentioned to assist our efforts monetarily or as volunteers.

Trey's cousin, Alston Branndon Major, Jr., and family gave aluminum cans, his grandmother, Henrietta Irby and co-wrokers gave pennies "from heaven".
We welcome any and all donations and volunteer time for our efforts.

We talked about whether to own the property or leasing options and the most appropriate location should be based on the property at this time and not just to be in the Irmo area.
We agreed to look at all possible options to obtain the property that will meet our collective needs for the program.

I shared about the open house @ Dutchfork High School next week and plans for me to update them about the progress of Trey's Transition and to ask for volunteers and funds to help develop this opportunity.

Trey and I attended the Open House at Dutchfork high school. There were several parents, volunteers,teachers, school adminstrators, assistants, therapist and interns at the function. Rhonda, case manager for Helping Hands, presented information about their two day programs in Columbia as opportunities for adults with disabilities.

I shared about the issues and activities about Trey's Transition. The audiance received the information very well about the programs identified. Some parents shared ideas and advise on how to increase opportunties for funding for Trey's Transition and to keep them updated on the programs progress. I gave each of them a brochure about Trey's Transition.

I spoke with a family member (Cory Jackson) and Brantley Barfield about adding the donation link/button to the website. We're still working on completing that project so visitors to this site can click on the donation button straight to the Network for Good location.

Thanks to the Face Book supporters, Cory, Ms. Essie Ford, board members and others for keeping Trey's Transition apart of your lives.

Our next board meeting is scheduled for October 28, 2010 Noon to 1:30 pm at the Richland County Public Library. We hope to see you there or to hear from you about your interest and ideas for this program to prosper.

Donation Link to be added to Blog and on Facebook

I'm excited to report that we are now linked with Network For Good for non-profits to assist with the opportunity for Treys Transition to receive donations for the start up costs for the program. Go to https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/ExpressDonation.aspx?ORGID2=26-0143149

The donations will go toward the purchase of the building and expenses to get the building up to code to meet the state regulations/compliance as well as our board expectations for safety. The building will have around 2000 square feet of space to accomodate the number of young adults we plan to serve at this time. The cost for the buildings in the Columbia area average around $600, 000 or $2500 per month to lease. This figure does not include the cost associated to meet the state standards. An additional $20,000 maybe needed if the building does not have an approved sprinkler system no more than one year old. Our research for grants has not produced any funds for renovation costs to new or existing projects. We beleive this is one reason why there are not many adult programs available. We also believe that having support from the community shows grantors there is an interest for this effort. This is why it's important for you to show your support by donation or volunteer your time in our effort.

Here's the link for donation.

https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/ExpressDonation.aspx?ORGID2=26-0143149


The FaceBook is set up in my account in the "Causes" section in my name, James Irby.
Thanks to everyone that has already made commitments to support this endeavor to those in this community and the state.

Plans are being made for our next board meeting in September, a few fundraisers i.e. cake drawing and another fish fry in Beaufort , SC as well as in Columbia.

We are making application for a grant with the Developmental Disability Council of South Carolina. We need to show a collaboration effort with other organizations in the community as well as match 50% of the amount they maybe willing to fund our program. We are asking for $30, 000 to assist our program efforts. We are already in collaboration with Goodwill Baptist Church in Beaufort SC. Discussions are being coordinated for us to work with several other organizations in the community i.e Sharing God's Love, The Boys and Girl Scouts of America, The America Red Cross to name a few as well as around the state. These efforts will hopefully promote a greater awareness about the transition service needs for young adults with special needs.

If you are reading this blog and would like to collaborate with us, please contact me by email @ james_irby2000@yahoo.com. I will forward your interest to our board of directors for consideration and we thank you for your interest.

James Irby
Executive Director

P.S. Thanks to Eleanor, Ken, Kahlul, and other staff members of Guest Services @ the Hilton Myrtle Beach Resort for extending themselves to Trey during his stay.

Summer Fish Fry and Board Meetings

It's been a few months since our last update to the BLOG about Trey's Transition. Much has happended to several board members since the event in February. Some board members have had shifts in their employment, a few others have received promotions and others are still maintaining their status. I'm pleased to hear that during our national and state's economic struggles, we're hanging in there. To those out there that are struggling to find employment or that job that will produce an increase in your bank or sanity, continued success.







Thanks to Robert Crossiant for taking outstanding pictures from the Fish Fry and posting them on the blog. Special thanks to all those who participated ( including the Cadets for the Youth Challenge Program) and donated their time, money and effort to make our first event a success. Thanks to the board members for completing the evaluations about the planning for the event. This will give us an opprotunity to build on future events.

Trey's Transition fan base is beginning to grow. More people are becoming interested in the effort to see the program to become a success for Trey and other young adults with special needs.

Congratulations to all the graduates from Kidergarten all up to those that now have their degrees from Colleges and Universities around the country. Good luck on your journeys and with the plans that have been laid out for each of you.




Our board meetings have recently been held by phone or email transactions instead of at the Richland County Public Library or other familiar locations. During those meetings, decisions were made for us to continue efforts to promote fundraising toward the building and operating costs. A decision was made for us to continue plans for a fish fry in the Spartanburg Area.



The event was to be held June 19, 2010. However everything didn't come together like we thought it would. Therefore the event will have to be postponed for another time this year.



There was a plan for a fish fry in the Beaufort area. Those plans are being coordinated for just before the K-12 students go back to school in August.







Our next board meeting is scheduled for June 24 @ the Richland County Library.
We have establised a business account now @ Bank of America on St. Andrews road, Columbia, SC. Thanks to the fine folk over there (Margie Mitchell, and Gayle Rabon). This effort will give us opportunities to make and receive transactions for fundraising.






Please let me know if you or anyone you know that would like to donate a building or funds to purchase a building in the Irmo area. We need a building with 2500 to 3000 square ft, plus enough space for parking at least 10 vehilces.







We are still pursuing grants to help fund our efforts. The main issues being accepted for grants right now fall on the grantors giving their funds to existing organizations instead of start up programs like ours.







Looking forward to seeing you on the 25th @ RCPL, or to contact me by email @ james_irby2000@yahoo.com to discuss issues before the meeting or to learn how to be involved as a board member or to make a donation to our efforts.







Enjoy the warmth of the Summer sun, because winter is just around the corner- February :)!!!

Please remember the sick, those who care for them, and those traveling the highways both day and night.


James, executive director

2010 Spring Fish Fry

Fish Fry photos