louisvillechristmas_albumart

Louisville Covers Christmas Album benefits Star Duck Charities and St. Joe’s

This Man Records, run by Timothy Sauer, has brought many from the Louisville music community together to record a really great album of Christmas music.  In keeping with the holiday spirit, Tim chose to donate the proceeds from album sales to Starduck Charities.

We’re thrilled and humbled.  We plan to use the proceeds the same way we use 100% of our donations: working directly with the kids at St. Joseph’s Children’s Home.  This money will help fund our birthday program (in it’s 8th year), our seasonal outings with the children, our holiday on-campus parties, and our commitment to help fill any other material need they require of us.

Pick up a copy of the record at Guestroom Records, Better Days Records East, Matt Anthony’s Record Shop, Block Party, and Revelry.

Here’s the track listing:louisvillechristmas_albumart

1. Christmas Tree- Brenda
2. Winter Wonderland- The Watson Twins
3. Christmas Time Is Here- Wombo
4. White Christmas- Billy Nelson
5. River- Fire the Saddle
6. Jingle Bells- 1200
7. Last Christmas- The Pass
8. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence- Maximon
9. You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch- The Deloreans
10. Run Run Rudolph- Justin Paul Lewis & Anthony Tarullo
11. All I Want For Christmas Is You- Plastic Bubble

Produced by Timothy Sauer. Mastered by Kevin Ratterman.
Cover art by Carrie Neumayer. Art direction by Lacey Guthrie.

 

 

Buy a copy, love the music, support St. Joe’s.  Merry Christmas!

LaserBlaze

Lazer Blaze

A relatively new addition to the list of activites hosted by Star Duck, laser tag and mini golf is quickly becoming one of the more popular events for the kids and volunteers alike. Many thanks to the crew at Louisville’s Laser Blaze. For the second year in a row they have been very gracious with their time and facilities.

bowling

Bowling!

Every year Star Duck hosts kickball, dodgeball, football and other games with the kids at St. Joe’s. This winter has proven to be particularly cold so for the thrid year in a row Star Duck hosted a day of bowling.

birthday

Birthday program

Since our inception, Star Duck has run its birthday program. If you are a child at St. Joseph Children’s Home and you have a birthday you get a party. For seven years Star Duck volunteers take those children with a birthday to Gatiland followed by a shopping spree at Target. Many thanks to those who have donated to this wonderful program.

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.

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.