Assistance League Of St Louis

What a great organization!!! Besides have great fun with all the people that donate their time to Assistance League, I have felt a great sense of pride in knowing how much we are helping the community. Giving back feels great!!! I have been a volunteer for over two years, and I still am amazed at all the things that we do---from providing uniforms and/or shoes to thousands of students each year, to fun activity packets to kids in the hospital, to cuddly bears given my first responders, to overnight bags to women and kids in shelters, to unique items purchased for organizations that might have slipped through the cracks. I enthusiastically tell everyone about the Assistance League of St. Louis!!

I have been an Assistance League volunteer for more than 10 years. This organization offers a variety of opportunities to use your talents with hands on activities. My current favorite is working at our resale shop, Fantastic Finds located at Mason and Olive. This shop is a major fund raiser for our philanthropic programs which serve children and adults in the St. Louis area.

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I joined Assistance League when I retired in 2008 as a way of giving back to the community and staying active. I have met a wonderful group of committed women and have been able to be involved in some wonderful programs. Everyone is so generous with their time and energy---not only to those we serve but also with other members. Participating in the programs never seems like work---everyone makes it fun. If you're looking for volunteer opportunities, Assistance League is number one!

We have been receiving the AL Activity Kits featuing "Al Bear" for sometime, and they have really made a possitive difference. These kits which we receive from Assistance League of St. Louis really seem to break the ice with the siblings of our NICU babies.
Our parents/families are often too worried and focused on the baby in the NICU, to remember to bring along an activity or something for the sibling to concentrate on or play with. The siblings at the bedside are afraid: the NICU is a very scary place, lots of wires and alarms. Children are very aware of how the parents are feeling, anxiuos, scared, worried, and they take these feeling to heart. The activity books help occupy the siblings so the parents can visit with their babies, plus it makes them feel special and loved.
I remember one girl inparticular who couldn't beleive she could keep the coloring book, crayons and bendable toy tiger. She was so happy she couldn't stop smiling, This had really made her day.
We also give the kits to children in our waiting area when they are waiting for a family member to deliver. It is very difficult for children to wait patiently hour after hour for a family member to give birth to a baby.
These kits have been invaluable in helping siblings, parents and nursing staff have a possitive experence in our NICU and waiting area.
Thank you,
Carlotta Corso-Klippel

Assistance League of St. Louis is a philanthropic organization that serves children and adults in the St. Louis area. We are an all volunteer organization, we have no paid staff. The professionalism, enthusiasm and loyalty of our members is the most impressive thing about us. Our 300+ members work to raise funds that stay in the St. Louis community and help make lives better for those we serve. It also provides an opportunity for our members to develop new skills and competencies in an atmosphere of true volunteerism.

I am a volunteer tutor at Loyola Academy, a non-profit middle-school (sixth through eighth grades) serving financially under-privileged male students. Loyola's mission is to "end the cycle of poverty through education." Over 80% of these young men live at or below the poverty level and are on reduced lunches. They attend school at Loyola for nine and one half hours each day and for five-weeks during the summer. This intense program is designed to prepare them for success at college preparatory high schools.

Assistance League has aided Loyola Academy in two major areas: school uniforms and computers, both of which the Loyola student families can not afford to purchase. Assistance League Operation School Bell has provided the much needed uniforms for these young men in past years. Last summer, Assistance League donated numerous computers, printers, scanners, and monitors to Loyola. Loyola students, teachers and administration were so excited to receive this generous donation, which has greatly enhanced Loyola's educational mission. Most of these young men do not have any type of computer at their home so they need to have access to these tools at school. Assistance League's computer equipment donations provided additional resources and tools needed to aid these young men in their daily pursuit of a good education. I would like to thank Lynn Dolan, current President of Assistance League, for offering this equipment. One evening Lynn and I were discussing the Assistance League projects and I mentioned to her that I had recently started volunteeering as a tutor and grant writer for Loyola. Lynn contacted me the very next day to offer the equipment to Loyola because Assistance League had been fortunate enough to receive a grant for new computer equipment.

I have also attended the Assistance League annual auctions and have seen the tremendous amount of work expended to raise the funds to support the League's projects.

The Assistance League and its volunteers are truly God's Angels. They have inspired not only other volunteers but also the children, whose lives they touch on a daily basis.

I joined Assistance League two years ago after retiring from IBM. This organization is a great volunteer group who do an outstanding job of providing services and support to children in need and they support four women's shelter. It is very rewarding to provide volunteer hours to such a fun organization.

I have been volunteering for 10 years now with Assistance League after I retired as a nurse. This non profit organization is run like a fiscally responsible business while helping so many disadvantaged children and adults in the St. Louis community. We are unique because our members run this organization without any paid staff. They put in more than 46,000 service hours last year.

In Assistance League's almost 25 years they have clothed thousands of disadvantaged school children in the St. Louis area through Operation School Bell. Their other programs include providing teddy bears for first responders to give to children in crisis situtations, providing athletic shoes to disadvantaged children and overnight bags to women in abuse shelters.

Assistance League of St. Louis is an all volunteer organization that helps many people in the community. Children are provided with school clothing and shoes, abused women are provided support, teddy bears are given to frightened children during times of stress, children and adults are given "fun stuff" to occupy their time as they await testing in a hospital setting. These services and many more are provided by a group of women willing to work toward making life better for those less fortunate.

Assistance League has transformed my life in one short year. I have experienced a wonderful sisterhood among the membership. Everyone is a caring and hardworking volunteer who wants to reach out in our community and help the less fortunate. We are an all volunteer organization with no paid employees. Our members work so hard to serve our community. Everyday I spend working with the other members make me so proud to say "I am a member of Assistance League.''

Assistance League of St. Louis is a fantastic all volunteer organization. We affect all segments of the St. Louis population through our philanthropic programs. We provide new uniform clothing, underwear, and shoes to needy public school children. We distribute activity kits to both children and adults in area hospitals. We give teddy bears to children in emergency situations and gift bags of essential items to women in abused shelters. We serve as a community resource for unmet needs for many individuals and agencies in the area each year. Assistance League of St. Louis is recognized by the Better Business Bureau as a professionally managed non profit organization.

Assistance League is an all volunteer nonprofit organization with no paid staff. It is an efficiently and professionally run organization that has obtained the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Allliance seal. Assistance League operates specific ongoing programs to meet specific needs of children and a adults in the St. Louis area. For example, Operation School Bell provides new school uniform clothing for disadvantaged children in area public schools; Project ROSE provides personal items to abused women in local area shelters; and the Outreach program addresses one-time or short-term needs. Assistance League volunteers have ample opportunity for hands-on service in the operation of the programs and also work hard to raise the necessary operating funds.

This organization is so wonderful and vital to the City of St. Louis. The hard work and dedication of its volunteers continues to amaze me. They do such great work, for such a great cause!

This is the most professional organization I have been envolved in! Our programs meet unmet needs in the St. Louis community. Our programs provide uniforms for kids, shoes for kids, personal items for women in abuse shelters, teddy bears for kids and adults in traumatic situations, activity kits for children and adults in hospital settings and help with unmet, short term needs not covered by our other programs.

ASL of StLouis provides school uniforms for almost 3000 inner city every year (almost 40000 since starting in 1990!). We also provide shoes for about 1500 school children, essentials for several women's shelters, teddy bears for children in crisis, activity packages for children in emergency rooms. All this is done with NO PAID PERSONNEL!
I have been volunteering for 60 years and have never worked with people as dedicated, as caring, and as positive as these women!