Warm-hearted: Dress A Child Inc. volunteers buy winter clothes for needy kids

Impoverished children - 600 of them - will be getting new clothes this week, thanks to Dress A Child Inc.

As part of the organization's annual project, 60 volunteers began shopping at Prescott retailers Nov. 1 for pants, warm long-sleeved shirts, underwear, socks and parkas for school-age children in the quad cities, as well as in Congress, Seligman, Ash Fork and Mayer. The children also receive vouchers for shoes.

In the past, Dress A Child Inc. gave new clothing to children at Christmastime, but switched to fall this year, said director Karyn Poole. "In response to feedback from donors, schools and shoppers, they wanted the clothes earlier," she said. "It's cold by Halloween, so we are targeting Thanksgiving now."

Dress A Child Inc. began in 1967 when Prescott-area nurses Bonnie Kempf and Agnes Cook noticed that some of their patients' children were without clothes for the cold weather. They asked Chapter 5 of the Arizona Nurses Association for help. Together they raised money by selling handiwork on the Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza and at the Salvation Army. They were able to buy clothing for 17 children that first year.

As the demand grew, Kempf, Cook and Chapter 5 invited the community to participate, and the response was overwhelming, Poole said. Over time Dress A Child Inc. established partnerships with many of the area schools and community agencies that serve children. Referrals for clothing needs must come from these entities, Poole said.

Kmart, Target, JC Penney and Walmart on Gail Gardner Way in Prescott are cooperative partners, Poole said, adding that Walmart and JC Penney offer financial incentives to Dress A Child Inc. to shop with them. The Prescott Chapter of the American Sewing Guild also donates hand-sewn items such as robes, pajamas, embroidered T-shirts, vests and dressier coordinated outfits to augment the purchases, Poole said. Shoppers then deliver all the items back to the schools and community programs for distribution to the children.

This past Friday evening, Alysa Cudney and Meg Goodall were browsing JC Penney to buy clothes for youngsters on their lists.

Cudney, a first-semester nursing student at Yavapai College, became a volunteer for Dress A Child Inc. through a student nursing association. She was picking out clothing for five boys, and said, "I think it's important for somebody who is going to be a nurse to be an advocate for the community and get involved in community service."

The boys on Cudney's list ranged in age from 3 to 11 and though she found choosing clothes for them a "hard task," she has some experience since she has shopped for cousins and brothers before.

Goodall, the family advocate for Chino Valley Head Start, was on her third annual shopping trip for Dress A Child Inc., this time looking for clothes for nine children.

The experience is "really rewarding," she said. "It just adds more to my job. A lot of times I see the worst circumstances that families are in, and I actually get to do something that helps them" as a Dress A Child Inc. volunteer.

Dress A Child Inc. is an all-volunteer organization, and though its board members are nurses, volunteer shoppers are not necessarily of that profession.

The nonprofit organization depends on monetary donations to sustain its mission to provide warm clothing for needy children, Poole said.

Those interested in volunteering their time or contributing financially may log onto the Dress A Child Inc. website at www.dressachildinc.com or send an email to kapoowi@gmail.com. The clothing for each child costs about $60, Poole said.

via: the daily courier

Yavapai County supervisors try new voting centers

PRESCOTT - Supervisor Tom Thurman handed his ID to Desi Zurcher Monday morning during a demonstration of a new vote center at a Yavapai County Board of Supervisors meeting in Prescott.

Zurcher, an election office technician, ran it through the check-in system then asked if he would like to vote on a touch screen machine or paper ballot.

Thurman then received one from a ballot-on-demand printer nearby.

When Thurman asked what would happen if he tried to vote at a different vote center, Zurcher - who put together the poll worker training program - showed him his name highlighted in red as already having voted. "If people insist that they haven't voted, they can fill out a provisional ballot and that will be compared to the vote center data to determine which is valid," said Ana Trujillo, the Yavapai County Recorder.

The Board of Supervisors will vote at their meeting Monday, Nov. 21, on whether to use vote centers in upcoming elections.

"In traditional voting, you are assigned a polling place in your precinct where you have to go and vote in order for your vote to count," said Lynn Constabile, elections director for Yavapai County. "In a vote center, all the polling places are interconnected so you can go anywhere, vote, and your vote will count."

Supervisor Carol Springer asked what safeguards exist in the system. "It's always been a sore spot with me when I read about states like Illinois where lots of dead people vote," Springer said.

Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who attended the meeting, said his office receives information from Vital Records and passes it along to the counties each day.

"We receive information from the Department of Health Services about people who pass away, look through obituaries, and have spouses sign affidavits daily," said Karen McCracken, registrar of voters for the county.

Vote centers make sense for Yavapai County where 53 percent of registered voters cast their ballots by mail, reducing the need for polling places, Constabile said.

She noted that in 2010, the county reduced polling places from 95 to 50, and that vote centers would save the county more money, by reducing the number of polling places to only 30.

Two kinds of vote centers are proposed - urban and rural, Constabile said.

Urban vote centers in Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, Dewey-Humboldt, Clarkdale/Jerome, Cottonwood, Village of Oak Creek, and Sedona would be near where people work, have as many as four check-in stations with the entire county's voter registration list loaded on them, touch screen machines, and ballot-on-demand printers so that you can choose whether to vote on the touch screen or on a paper ballot for your precinct, Constabile said.

Rural vote centers in Seligman, Ash Fork, Bagdad, Beaver Creek, Congress, Kirkland, Mayer, Williamson Valley, Cordes Junction, and Black Canyon City would have two check-in stations each, paper ballots for that precinct, and touch screen machines that contain all of the ballots anyone who lives outside that area would need, Constabile said.

If the board approves the vote centers, the department suggests using them in the upcoming Presidential Preference Election and renting the printers from the City of Phoenix for $15,000 for that election before determining if the county should rent or buy, Constabile said.

When Supervisor Chip Davis asked how long the ballot-on-demand machines could be expected to last, Constabile said they had a life cycle of at least five years and cost $60,000.

via: verde independent