First Year of Birthday Parties a Success

Since September of 2007, we’ve been holding birthday parties for each child at St. Joseph Children’s Home in his/her birth month. The birthday parties come complete with a party at Gattiland and a $100 shopping spree to a store of the child’s choice and a personalized cake for each child (cakes by Tammy Heck).

These monthly birthday parties are one of our ongoing activities. For more information on what we do, click here.

Shoe Purchase for All St. Joseph Residents

In March of 2008, Star Duck Charities used the remaining funds from the Jeans Drive/Benefit Concert (having already purchased each of the forty residents a pair of jeans) to buy each child a pair of shoes. Thanks again to all who attended, businesses who donated prizes, and Jefferson Animal Hospital. The folks at Shoe Carnival on Hurstbourne Lane in Louisville have agreed to host this event.

Five Year Anniversary Dinner

Though individually we have been serving St. Joseph’s Children’s Home for many more years, the summer of 2012 marks our 5th Anniversary as an official service organization. We have seen many great successes in this period, though certainly our proudest moments have been the countless times we have spent happily interacting with the children who need it and enjoy it so greatly.

It is in celebration of these five years – and our continuing commitment to provide the children of St. Joe’s with positive male interaction, birthday celebrations, necessary goods and the simple experiences which every child deserves – that we announce our Five Year Fundraiser Campaign.

The campaign will culminate in a keystone evening of food and drink at Germantown’s favorite new restaurant, Eiderdown on Monday, July 9th. Tickets, which are very limited, will be $50 and include a dinner chosen and prepared by the chef at Eiderdown, as well as drinks. There will be a very short presentation with dinner at 7:30 and a silent auction for the duration of the evening. Doors will open at 6pm.

If you are interested, we encourage you to act fast, by contacting us at info@starduckcharities.org, or by reaching out to someone you may know on the board.

We can accept payments of cash, check, and credit card through paypal on this website.

A heartfelt thanks to James, Heather and crew at Eiderdown Restaurant for their willingness to help us with this event. It will be fantastic.

The Year So Far…

Well, actually we haven’t even mentioned our Christmas Party with the kids in December 2011 yet! Not only were there cookies and hot chocolate (with whipped cream, sprinkles and all the fixin’s) but we made arrangements to bring Santa, presents, and a horse-drawn carriage to take everyone around the grounds of the children’s home. This is the second year we’ve brought Christmas to the kids in this way. We believe rather than just giving the home a donation, a unique experience and the opportunity to interact with caring and positive adults is a far more valuable Christmas present. We hope to continue the tradition next year with your help.

-The Birthday Program has continued to be a favorite amongst both the kids and the charity. We can always count on a lovely Sunday afternoon hanging out with these great kids. Pizza parties and Mr. Gatti’s Game Room make us all feel like kids, and taking the kids on a $100 shopping spree afterwards is always a joy to facilitate.

St. Joe’s always tells us that we are one of the few things these kids can count on, outside of the Home, that is consistent and positive and we’re humbled and honored to help. It’s often that we hear about a kid who’s new at the home and he or she can’t wait to meet “the guys who take us out for our birthday party.” We hope to keep this going for a long long time. the kids most certainly deserve it.

-Annually, St. Joe’s hosts a volunteer appreciation dinner to which we are invited. It is a fun evening particularly because the kids who we get to spend great times with actually help prepare the dinner, as well as act as the “wait staff.” But the best part is when they put those roles aside, sit at the table and eat with us and share a great meal. This year we had the treat of sitting with a couple of outstanding kids (who had us in stitches) along with another inspiring community volunteer. We can’t wait for next year!

-The St. Joe’s Picnic in August is of course, a huge day for the home, and as usual, we spend a lot of our energy soliciting donations to help stock not just our booth (The Duckpond!), but other booths as well. We are one of the few organizations actually soliciting donations so as to require no up-front investment from the home. Any money brought in from our prizes at the picnic will be 100% profit for St. Joe’s.

This year we have been incredibly fortunate to have all of the regional Dollar Tree stores collecting throughout the summer on our behalf. With the incredible amount of inventory they have given us, we are guaranteed not to have to spend any of our, nor St. Joe’s money on inventory for the Picnic for this year and beyond.

Vicki Webster, manager of the Westport Road Dollar Tree and a longtime friend of Starduck Charities, is chiefly responsible for this relationship, and for that we are eternally grateful.

-Unquestionably, the single most fun any of our board members have had this year was the day in May when we took the kids from St. Joe’s to Lazer Blaze on Shelbyville Road. It’s safe to say the kids would say the same thing. Together, we played three 20-minute sessions of laser tag and had an absolute blast. Girls and boys from 5-15 were running around with us 30-somethings in the labyrinth wearing our target vests and carrying lasers. But along with that hardware, everyone was brandishing an enormous smile. High fives and congratulatory backslaps were the order of the day! We can’t wait to go back – and we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the management and staff at Lazer Blaze. Their generosity was staggering.

MP3 Player Purchase

With the new year comes new projects. And with the help of donors we were successful in purchasing 33 MP3 Players for those residents at St. Joe’s who don’t have what has become a staple to today’s youth. One of our missions is to help these kids live a healthy and happy life, both at St. Joe’s and school. Todays kids have all kinds of technological gadgets and these kids should be no different. many thanks to those who helped out. This was obviously a big investment but the expense is well worth it.

First Annual Christmas Party at St. Joe’s

Star Duck hosted the first annual St. Joe’s Christmas Party. Thanks to your donations we were able host a Christmas party for all the kids at the home. We began with a round of board games while drinking hot chocolate that the kids were able to customize with their favorite toppings. Ike manned the cookie table where he cooked up a number of smores sandwiches. Bags of treats were given out by Star Duck volunteer Rob Woodford to whom we are deeply indebted for being one of Santa’s Helpers. Finally, a horse-drawn sleigh took everyone for a tour around the Frankfort Ave. area. The crew at Star Duck are already looking forward to next year’s party!

Mission for 2010

In December of 2009, board members for Star Duck met with St. Joe’s administration to discuss our goals for the forthcoming year and beyond. Star Duck board members were taken on a tour of the facility and participated in talks of what St. Joe’s hopes to be in the next ten years. The consensus was that the greatest need and therefore the emphasis of our charity should be with activities that involve the residents. In January of this year, the board voted unanimously to not only continue its birthday program that has been a cornerstone since the charity’s inception but to develop additional off campus activities that involve all of the St. Joe’s residents. This means more fundraising and more donated time from volunteers. We hope that as Spring moves on and we plan more activities that you’ll join us by pledging your support. Cookouts, sporting events, movies are all being planned as part of an initiative to become even more involved with these great kids. Check back with the website from time to time to see what is being planned. As always, feel free to email us and ask how you can help.

LEO Annual Fundraiser Concert to Benefit St. Joe’s

As was so instrumental to last year’s bedding drive, this year’s benefit concert presented by LEO, 91.9 WFPK, Mom’s Music and MERF will once again donate a portion of proceeds to Star Duck Charities to provide improved residential necessities for the kids at St. Joseph Children’s Home. Performing will be Louisville legends Bodeco, the ever-talented Tyrone Cotton, and “whatever-you-want-to-call them-but-wow-are-they-incredible”Liberation Prophecy. The show at Headliners Music Hall in Louisville gets going around 8 PM.