Caring Quota Style
Quota connecting and caring results in GREAT IDEAS.

AUSTRALIA
Partnerships Create New Chances to Share in Australia

UNITED STATES
Many Hands Give Important Help

AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES
Quilts That Provide More Than Warmth
Quota Spirit Blooms Where It Is Planted

AUSTRALIA, THE PHILIPPINES, AND THE UNITED STATES
Reaching Around the World with Quota Bears

AUSTRALIA
Partnerships Create New Chances to Share in Australia

By joining forces with other organizations in service, Quota clubs bring many hands together for important work while sharing their Quota spirit. Three clubs in Australia recently had this GREAT IDEA and found partners in caring and sharing in their communities.

Quota of Nambour, Queensland, which Service Director Audrey Lyttle says is a dedicated club, helped clean up the Nambour Railway Station for "Clean Up Australia Day," but they were not alone. Members of the Nambour Chamber of Commerce, Police Citizen's and Youth Club of Nambour High School, and the Waverley Palmwoods Masonic Lodge joined the effort. All these hands together made short work of a subway station covered in graffiti and grime. Somehow, they even made tiling from the 1960s shine!

Quota of Goulburn, New South Wales, found their partnership in an existing GREAT IDEA—Relay for Life. The Cancer Council in New South Wales promoted the event in the community as a way to defeat cancer, lessening its impact on local families immediately and, ultimately, finding cures that make cancer curable. Goulburn Quotarians not only catered for a full 24 hours during the walk/run baton relay, members of all ages took part in the relay itself. They were also very visible—thanks to the large Q's embroidered on their relay shirts, another GREAT IDEA that caused many racers to ask about Quota and its work.

In another part of New South Wales, Quota of Bateman's Bay, built a partnership with an organization called Life Without Borders (LWB). At first the Quotarians donated equipment and funds to this group's work with disabled clients of varying mobility, but after meeting with the activities coordinator, the Quotarians discovered that LWB needed more than just supplies. Their GREAT IDEA was to turn this partnership into hands-on service, and ever since, club members have spent Tuesday mornings hosting scrap-booking classes for LWB clients, many of whom are non-verbal and all of whom have some form of mobility impairment. These Quotarians are helping these folks in need get the most out of their lives, a mission Quota shares with Life Without Borders. What a perfect partnership!

UNITED STATES
Many Hands Give Important Help

Quota clubs around the world fill many needs for many people and have been giving for decades. However, four clubs in the United States have found new ways to meet basic needs in their communities, and their GREAT IDEAS may well inspire other clubs to find new ways of sharing and caring.

Quota of Tacoma, Washington, has been working with My Sister's Pantry, one of the largest food banks in their county, for many years. However, when the pantry lost their long-time home, club members knew they had one very important contribution to make—helping this important community resource relocate. Quotarians donated moving costs while continuing their hands-on work at the pantry, serving hot meals and distributing clothes and groceries to those in need.

Quota of Bossier City, Louisiana, found out that a local group home didn't have a library and decided no child should grow up without the joy of reading. They put together a community book drive with the help of a local television station and some dedicated college students. Now, the young boys, aged 7 to 17, who live at the Hope Youth Ranch near Shreveport have piles and piles of books for fun as well as serious study, all thanks to the Quotarians of Bossier City.

In New Haven, Connecticut, the focus wasn't on books to fill a library but on walls to make a home. Quotarians there spent time in hands-on service at two Habitat for Humanity projects, hammering nails, shoveling plaster, and loading dumpsters. Not satisfied with helping construct future homes for families in need, club members also provided lunch to crews and volunteers at both sites. When it came time for Habitat's Tool Drive, the New Haven Quotarians remembered their service and knew they could help once again—this time by donating a new wheelbarrow filled with new and "gently used" tools, so the Quota spirit can keep on giving even when club members aren't there in person.

In Cambridge, Maryland, Quotarians decided to focus their efforts on women looking for jobs to support themselves and their families. By partnering with a local program designed to help women enter or reenter the workforce, the club put on "Outfits for Opportunity," a rummage sale that passed on donated professional-wear to women who needed it. Cambridge members spearheaded event planning and ran the sales table. They even collected coupons from store ads that attendees used as "cash" to purchase their new outfits. And with whole suits going for $10, every woman in attendance went home with a new outfit for interviews and workdays. Some even went home with three! This project was made up of a whole host of GREAT IDEAS that came together for one successful, meaningful day for women in need.

AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES
Quilts that Provide More than Warmth

Handmade quilts have been symbols of care and community for centuries, and Quota clubs on two different continents have recently used quilts both as a way to come together as club members and as a way to show their Quota spirit to the world.

In Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., Quota club members Carolyn Deering and Hazel Kath made a quilt version of the American flag. Not only did this quilt show off the patriotism and quilting skills of these ladies, but when it was auctioned, the proceeds benefited Angel Flights, a national organization based in Oklahoma that arranges flights for medical and charitable purposes. The Atlanta Quotarians were most impressed by the group's own charitable efforts on behalf of Hurricane Katrina victims, which helped inspire their own volunteer work to create the beautiful quilt.

In Australia, District 35 Quotarians worked together in a similar effort by assembling an angel quilt that included blocks made by each of the 10 clubs in the district. This quilt was raffled off at an event hosted by one of the clubs working on the quilt project, Quota of Narooma. With over Aus.$2,700 raised, the fund-raiser was a great success—and an amazing way to raise awareness of Tuberous Sclerosis. The proceeds helped produce a DVD about this painful illness, including diagnosis and treatment information previously unavailable in the country.

Two Quota clubs in District 34, also in Australia, have had the same GREAT IDEA for a few years—hosting annual quilt shows that display their talents and help their communities. Murgon and Maleny in Queensland both displayed handcrafted items to the public and sold them to benefit Quota. Beyond offering beauty and warmth to the lucky folks who took the quilts home, these Quotarians raised thousands of dollars for future service.

While Quota of Boonah, also in Queensland, didn't make a quilt, club members were inspired by a quilt that a nineteenth-century town had used as a fund-raiser to start another GREAT IDEA. These Quotarians created a signature board where local residents could sign their names for a few dollars each in support of heart health. The board went everywhere with the club, and they eventually raised Aus.$5,500 to give the Boonah District Hospital a much-needed heart monitor. While this essential service is invaluable for the future of the community, the Boonah Quotarians also united people of all ages around an important health issue that can touch any life. In fact, three teenagers signed the Board in honor of their grandfather while a grandmother signed in honor of her coming grandchild.

AUSTRALIA AND THE UNITED STATES
Quota Spirit Blooms Where It Is Planted

Creating, maintaining, and sharing gardens is one GREAT IDEA that many Quota clubs have had, each group putting their own, unique twist on flowers and vegetables.

Quota clubs in Parkes in New South Wales, Australia, and in Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.A., put beautiful gardens on display in a Tour of Gardens for Sioux City and an Open Gardens Day in Parkes. Sioux City Quotarians included flower and vegetable gardens in their tour, featuring everything from barely cultivated wildflowers to climbing roses to "bio-dynamic" vegetables. They also organized a Garden Fairy Market where local vendors sold garden-related items, a GREAT IDEA on its own. Across the ocean in Parkes, Quotarians also opened a variety of gardens to the public, but each one had something special added on, from booths selling jewelry or handbags to morning and afternoon tea. The best part was a strolling a cappella singing group that moved from garden to garden entertaining visitors.

Quota of Tenterfield, also in New South Wales, Australia, focused their efforts on a single garden and a fashion show. The Quotarians and their many guests enjoyed an afternoon of clothes among flowers just in time for Christmas shopping. The best benefit, however, was not the ease of holiday shopping but the funds that went to expand the local nursing home, offering more rooms to the elderly in need of care.

Three other groups of Quotarians built gardens for other community organizations, sharing nature that brightens many lives. In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, U.S.A., the local Quota club connected with the YWCA, specifically to work with their early childhood center and Homestead, a place for single, disadvantaged women. And it was at Homestead that the Quotarians created a beautiful flower garden for the female residents who even took up watering duties during the week to leave only weekend maintenance to Quota members.

Another residential program—this time in Eureka, California—now has a garden built by its local Quota club. Quotarians there worked with Launchpad, a youth shelter for at-risk teenagers, to create a space for vegetables, green plants, fruits, and flowers. Shelter residents take great pride in tending their new garden and enjoying the fruits (and vegetables) of their own hard work and built out of Quota spirit.

In Armidale, New South Wales, Australia, the garden focus wasn't so much on eating as it was on all five senses. Quota of Armidale built a "sensory garden" complete with garden furniture for Challenge Day Services, a local group working with disabled clients who can now experience nature and the legendary generosity of Quota.

AUSTRALIA, THE PHILIPPINES, AND THE UNITED STATES
Reaching Around the World with Quota Bears

Quota Cares Teddy Bears have been giving comfort to children around the world since 1993, and these cuddly mascots, emblazoned with a large "Q" and sporting a ribbon, are designed to show kids that someone cares about them enough to share a teddy bear. Not surprisingly, many Quota clubs have found imaginative ways to use Quota Bears to spread the Quota spirit.

The Quotarians of Venice, Florida, U.S.A., have a life-sized teddy that comes to all their events. Quota the Bear has become the official Quota representative around town, entertaining kids and posing for photos at all sorts of local events. At a recent Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by Quota, the Lions Club, and Venice Mainstreet, Quota the Bear danced the Hokey-Pokey and the Macarena with local children before he was serenaded with his own theme song—"Hello, Quota" sung to the tune of "Hello, Dolly."

Quota of Geelong in Victoria, Australia, had their own life-sized teddy bear at their Doll & Teddy Show fund-raiser. The very successful event brought dolls and bears of all kinds together for a display visited by children and adults alike—and some of the bears even got to come out and play with visiting children. Every club member took part to help make this experience all it could be, which gave the club more than Aus.$7,000 to use in other service.

The Quotarians of Manila, the Philippines, didn't have stuffed or life-sized bears for their recent fund-raiser. Instead, they had small, bear-shaped coin banks! Each member took home a bank to fill with loose change, brought full banks back, and took home empties to fill up again. After five months of coin collection, Quota of Manila had quite a large bankroll drawn from the bellies of their little bears.

Two other Quota clubs do in fact give stuffed Quota Cares Bears to those in need—but with a twist. Quota of Taree's Margaret MacLean, in New South Wales, Australia, recently made 50 bears and donated them to the Children's Ward at Manning Base Hospital where their bright colors and patterns are cheering up children. The "Quota Care Bears Taree" hand-stitched in the back of each lets recipients know they can always count on Quota. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.A., two local Quotarians deliver hundreds of bears a month to two local hospitals. Nurses there give the bears to those in need of comfort, including children who are victims of trauma and those scared and alone because their parents are patients.

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