LLI Gives Back
October 26, 2022
LLI Collects Cereal Donations for Cranford Family Care
LLI employees recently participated in the Cranford Fire Department’s boxed cereal collection to benefit Cranford Family Care. Since 1936, Cranford Family Care has been offering temporary assistance to Cranford, NJ, residents in the form of groceries and financial support.
The LLI staff donated 93 boxes of cereal by collecting monetary and physical cereal donations. Before delivering the cereal to Cranford Family Care, the Cranford Fire Department held a cereal box domino run which was attended by members of the community.
May 22, 2020
Staff & Their Families Lend Support During COVID-19 Crisis
When COVID-19 stay-at-home orders made it necessary for them to work remotely, LLI employees increased their community support efforts. The staff, who had gotten into the habit of making PB&J’s every month to send to St. Joseph’s Coalition for the Homeless in Elizabeth, are now making the sandwiches from home.
Each week, St. Joseph’s packs in excess of 500 bags of groceries for their Emergency Food Bag Requests. To support this effort, LLI staff and their families collected donations, which they used to purchase cases of oranges that St. Joseph’s Soup Kitchen requested because they are an easily transportable food for the homeless. Dreyer’s Farms of Cranford assisted in the purchase. An average of six cases of oranges and sandwiches are brought by LLI staff to the Elizabeth Coalition once a week.
Alannah and Margaret Iacovano after making and packing sandwiches for the food pantry program.
When the Wischusen family noticed that most of the people at the Elizabeth Coalition did not have access to face coverings, they started sewing face masks. They make them from donated cotton sheets that have a specific thread count and then seal each mask in a ziplock bag with additional disposable filters. The family makes and donates
two to three dozen masks each week.
For anyone interested in creating a bag of groceries to donate to the food pantry, here is a list of items requested by St. Joseph’s:
May 13, 2020
Hero Spotlight
Nicole Brush, daughter of LLI bookkeeper Cindy Brush, is a nurse at St. Peters University Hospital who has been taking on extra shifts during the pandemic to provide care for those who are critically ill with both COVID-19 and other illnesses. She has been distancing herself from her loved ones to protect them from becoming ill during this time. Nicole is a 2006 graduate of North Brunswick Township High School and a 2017 graduate of the Middlesex County College Nursing Program, and she is currently furthering her nursing education. Nicole’s positivity and can-do attitude make her an inspiration to her friends and family. A heartfelt thank you to Nicole from all of us at LLI Advisory Group!
November 24, 2018
One Simple Request for One Simple Wish
The LLI team recognizes how blessed our families are and hopes to raise awareness (and funds) this holiday season for a group that needs our help. One Simple Wish is a non-profit that has been helping many of the 500,000 children in foster care by granting their simple requests. Some of the requests are for toys, shoes, gluten-free snacks, sheets, and duffle bags (to help foster children transport their belongings to their foster homes). Won’t you help One Simple Wish grant these special requests to children who need some love sent their way? To make a donation, please visit www.onesimplewish.org/giving/lli
April 28, 2018
LLI Advisory Group Supports National MS Society Walk
LLI Advisory Group was proud to form a team and participate in Walk MS: Clark 2018 to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research. The walk was held on April 28th at Oak Ridge Park and featured 20 teams, 632 registered walkers and many, many dogs.
LLI Advisory Group was inspired to form a team in support of their co-worker, Cindy Brush, who has been bravely battling this unpredictable and often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Calling themselves “Walkers with Calculators,” the LLI team met in matching t-shirts and hats and raised $2,870.
At the end of the day, MS Walk: Clark raised $67,712.21 to fund critical services and groundbreaking research, and to move us closer to a world free of MS. For more information or to find a walk near you, check out:
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=WLK_HOM_splash
December 4, 2017
LLI Teams with CASA of Union County to Collect Holiday Gifts for Children
For the holidays, LLI is teaming up with CASA of Union County to provide some special gifts to children in out-of-home placement. CASA of Union County recruits, screens, trains, supervises and supports community volunteers to advocate for children (birth to age 21) who have been removed from their home due to abuse, neglect or abandonment, and placed in foster homes or residential facilities. CASA volunteers are the voice for the child, ensuring their best interests remain the priority while working toward establishing a safe, stable and permanent home as soon as possible.
When a child has suffered abuse, neglect or abandonment, they can find it difficult to trust. Yet a consistent presence by a caring adult – a CASA volunteer – tears down walls and builds a foundation of trust. Children who have been assigned a CASA volunteer are more likely to find a safe, permanent home, more likely to be adopted, half as likely to re-enter foster care, spend less time in long-term foster care and are able to receive more needed services. At the time of the nonprofit’s inception in 2005, there were nearly 1,000 Union County children in foster care; today, the organization has helped reduce that number by almost 50 percent.
While CASA volunteers work to ensure stability for kids in chaos, this holiday season you can ensure these same kids have a special gift to call their very own. Not a hand-me-down or a leftover from the foster child before them, but something new just for them to open, to enjoy, to keep. To send a gift, simply log on to Amazon.com and search wish lists for CASA of Union County, or click the link below. With a couple clicks, a wish comes true and Amazon.com’s smile logo is truly apropos!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2H1URCQ0GJKBB/ref=bnav_topnav_lists_1
To have items shipped directly to CASA, you must select them as the recipient for shipping:
CASA of Union County, Inc.
1143-1145 East Jersey Street – 2nd floor
Elizabeth, NJ 07201
Deadline for gift collection is Friday, Dec. 15, which gives time for CASA volunteers to deliver the gifts you send to their CASA youth just in time for the holidays. Thanks for opening your heart this season to a child or teen in out-of-home placement.
If you would like to know how to help in a larger capacity, such as becoming a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) yourself, log on to www.casaofunioncounty.org.
December 3, 2017
LLI Staff Sends Holiday Cards to Active Service Members
In honor of Veterans Day, LLI staff members spent their lunch hour writing holiday cards to active service members. Sixty-five cards were written to service members to brighten their holiday season as they spend it away from their families.