Start 2016 right - VOLUNTEER

Details

Published: Monday, 19 January 2015 17:38

Holiday rush is over and you and your children need a new project. Giving can be most rewarding when it hits close to home. Use your special skills, creativity and excess stuff to create your own way of giving. You may not think you possess special skills or "super powers" to help others, but you really, really do. I know you cannot leap buildings with a single bound, fly through the air and catch someone falling from the sky. That is only in the movies (rather old ones at that).

How about volunteering to work on one of the many Snell Isle Committees that really need volunteers. If that is not what you want to do, think really, really hard. I'll bet you can find something you can do to make life a little better for someone else in need. Take a moment to think of what special talents you do posses. OK, now how can that talent help someone else in need? Do you garden, paint, clean, woodwork, carve? Are you a good card player, good at chess/checkers/other games? Good conversationalist, especially on the phone? Do you walk regularly? Then we need you.

Here are some things you might never thought you could help doing:

• Assist an elderly neighbor with some basic fixes around the house.

• Help a neighbor in need with some easy gardening chores.

• Plant a special flowering plant that both of you can "nurture".

• Pick almost any organization – a church, legal aid center, soup kitchen - and chances are they could use some help.

• You can play cards or chess or board games with a shut-in.

• You can read to the blind or a shut-in.

• You can learn sign language to communicate with the deaf.

• You can shop for groceries for someone and deliver them.

• You can you deliver newsletters for a neighborhood association.

• You can make a daily phone call to those unable to go outside.

We need people just like you. Most importantly, WE NEED YOU. Whether you can give an hour of your time or a full day, there are people desperate for your help and for you to use those wonderful skills that you have. We just need you to come forward and VOLUNTEER.

This is what being a good neighbor is about. Let's show St. Petersburg we all have the right stuff. You never know when the situation might reverse and you become that person in need. Please volunteer now to help SIPOA or any organization, because together we can do . . . anything and we can help anyone.

Lock it or lose it - be safe

Details

Published: Wednesday, 20 August 2014 11:15

Lock it or lose it – do not become a target just because you “forgot”.

St. Pete police have been dealing with a rash of auto burglaries over the summer. The St. Petersburg Police Department estimates that 90 percent of all auto burglaries occur in unlocked vehicles. On one recent weekend, they received more than 20 calls about break ins. Police say the majority of burglaries are attributed to several groups of kids who roam around, looking for unlocked cars. The department made 71 arrests for auto burglary in July.

With that in mind, police are asking folks to remember to keep their car doors locked and to make sure valuables are left out of sight. That’s why they’re out in force, working to remind residents they can do their part to take a bite out of crime. Officers intended to walk door-to-door to hand out information on auto burglary prevention.

They also have an automated call scheduled to go out to residents. Here’s the text of the call’s message officers are hoping residents will take to heart: “This is a public safety alert from the St. Petersburg Police Department. We’ve seen an increase in car burglaries in your neighborhood. Almost all of the cases involved cars left unlocked. Please lock your car doors and keep valuables out of sight, especially between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. Call police if you see anyone suspicious in your neighborhood.”

Remember to lock it up and take valuables inside with you or store them locked and out of sight. Stay safe. It takes only a few seconds to lock things up. If you forget and lose it, it will take days and weeks or months of paperwork, insurance claims, forms, etc. and you may never see your stolen item again. Be safe – lock it up.