I wanted to share that we have a new board member to Trey's Transition. His name is Karl Wilkes. Karl is an American artist that lives in the Columbia SC area and known throughout the nation for his historical paintings that educate others about cultures from yesterday, and today! His expressions have touched the lives of many and we hope that his work on the board will expand the mission we have to the community to touch the lives of others about transition services for young adults with special needs.

Welcome Karl.

Here is the golf registration form for those of you that have made contact but not able to receive the golf event information.

This will be a captian's choice golf event on June 15, 2011 beginning at 9 a.m. The cost for this event will be $50 per player or $200 per team. Golfers, and volunteers will enjoy 18 holes of golf at Charwood Country Club, located just off Fish Hatchery Road in West Columbia, SC. You will be treated to lunch, prizes, and information to enhance your awareness or take back to your community about the transitional service needs for young adults with special needs. Register early, or make a donation for the event by contacting James Irby at 803-732-5734 or by email to jamesirby8@aol.com for more information about participation for this event or about Trey's Transition.

Thanks you for your support.

Trey's Transition Golf Event

Trey's Transition will be hosting their first golf event to raise funds to develop the day program in the Irmo area. The event will be held June 15, 2011 beginning at 9 a.m. at the Charwood Country Club, 222 Clubhouse Dr., West Columbia, SC 29172, Phone: 803-755-2000 . http://local.yahoo.com/info-13409058-charwood-golf-club-west-columbia;_ylt=AssWaNWL3Yt75dsfuVUvZeaKNcIF;_ylv=3?viewtype=map

Please make plans to play, volunteer, donate or sponsor this captian's choice event. Sponsors may have their business displayed on a tee box sign or banner at designated locations of the golf course for maximum exposure.

Come have some fun, eat a good lunch, win a prize or 2 and learn about the growing need for services to assist young adults with special needs to be productive citizens in their home and community.

Contact James Irby by email at jamesirby8@aol.com or by phone at 803-732-5734 to learn more about registration information.

An AFIRMATION of thought

We are about to create something new in the life of the adult daycare service industry.

After months of exploring options to obtain a location, and space for Trey's Transition, a wonderful thing has ocurred.

I was having lunch with a good friend of mine. His name is Sam Nagi. Others in this community call him Dr. Nagi. We talked about visions of things we would like to see happen for our community. He wants his church to grow and to develop an emergency shelter. I shared our vision of a safe, functional, and progressive program to help young adults with special needs to enhance their abilities. He and I agreed to look at space in his church as a possible location for our program.

Trey and I attended their bible study later that evening and afterwards looked at several rooms with Sam and several church members that were eager for a program such as ours. One church member has a teenage son with autism. We rejoiced at the thought of our two organizations working together.

We agreed to have a meeting with members from both organizations (hopefully at the church) in effort to come to some conclusion of us working together. Here are a few other facts about the location that hopefully will encourage the board to consider the location for our program at this time.

• The church has a wheelchair ramp that is accessible to the area where the program would exist.


• The area(s) would have enough space to accomodate more than the number of individuals we would plan to start with.


• We would be able to assist the church in making one of their bathrooms accomodating to meet the Federal regulation.


• There will be enough parking for our program that would not compromise the church members.


• The church is located in Irmo and within the Lexington 5 school district.

"Every thought to make and every word you speak is an afirmatiom"

Louise L. Hay

We are well on our way.

The board members have been sent the a draft for the golf event flyer for one of this year's fundraisers. We hope to finalize the flyer and begin the campaign of endorsing the event to the public to participate in the event.

There was an event held April 1, 2011 at the Gateway Baptist Church in Irmo, SC . The church sponsored "the Joy Prom", which is an ocassion for special needs individuals to dress up and attend a Prom that some of them did not get to attend while attending school. The event was a huge success ( my son's personal opinion). We enjoyed being able to talk with other caregivers, church members, some old friends, and met some new friends about our experiences in a wholesome atmosphere.

He and others were greeted by church volunteers, annouced one by one while stolling down a red carpet to the flash of cameras, and a crowd clapped and cheered them into the party area. Pictures where taken, greetings were made by many at the church that were helping out or there with others who were in attendance. A DJ played music that appealed to everyone. Refreshments were provided, there was dancing, dancing and more dancing. The best part of the event was Trey and others got to have a great experience , got caught up with some old friends and will recall this event as a great night to remember.

Thank you Gateway Baptist Church for extending your church, time, effort and hearts for making all this possible.

Our next board meeting is being scheduled for April 8 or 9th depending if we can have the meeting at the church.

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.