Love Knows No Bounds

This has been an extraordinary year for Love Knows No Bounds, one filled with great change and new beginnings.

In the same week we said a fond farewell to LKNB founder Catherine Martinez, we
were granted our tax-exempt status, making us an official not-for-profit
organization! To bring greater awareness of and support for our mission, in
June we launched a vibrant new website, www.loveknowsnobounds.org,
which was soon followed by an improved presence on Facebook and Twitter.  Get updates, see photos, and more at: http://www.facebook.com/LoveKnowsNoBounds.

We are deeply grateful to all of our volunteers, donors, advisors, partners, and friends for the life-changing opportunities to serve amazing and resilient people!  This is what your support makes possible:

New Orleans

• To get beloved elder Miss Audrey back into her home, we collaborated with IthacaCollege group ReNew Orleans (formerly Audrey’s House), Cornell GEEKS, andLehman Alternative Community School (LACS). Because of our efforts, Miss Audrey will be back home by mid-January 2012!
• With many schools still closed and few positive outlets for youth, gang violence is on the rise in the 7^th Ward. To help combat this, we started a project to create a sustainably-built, solar-powered, community-empowerment center. The center will provide strategic programs for youth empowerment, such as academic support, GED preparation, mentorship for young entrepreneurs, employment preparation, and summer camp.
• To provide respite for community leaders, we collaborated with the PeaceWeavers of Bath, NY, to bring five Katrina survivors to their gorgeous retreat sanctuary for a week in August. During another respite trip to Ithaca in June, our New Orleans partners, Pastor Bruce and Deborah Davenport, marched in the Ithaca Festival Parade, officiated a wedding, were declared Honorary Ithacans by Mayor Carolyn Peterson, and feasted on love, laughter, and relaxation every step of the way.
• The PeaceWeavers and LKNB helped a family refinance their home at a favorable rate, and avoid losing it due to predatory lending that’s still prevalent in NOLA. This home is of special significance, since LKNB, LACS, and PeaceWeavers helped rebuild it.

Southern Tier, NY

• Following the devastating flood in early September, we helped families clean debris out of their homes in Owego and Johnson City, ripped up damaged flooring in Vestal, helped the Whole in the Wall restaurant in Binghamton re-open by providing skilled labor assistance, and distributed truckloads of home furnishings, clothes, and other essentials in Owego. During 2012, we will help rebuild homes, collect and donate more home furnishings, and create respite opportunities for our friends to the immediate south.

It is so easy to forget that recovery is a long and grueling process. People who are determined to keep their homes often deal with insurance loopholes, overwhelmed local agencies, trauma, extreme stress, brutal weather, and lack of funds. Long after the cameras stop rolling and the rest of the world has moved on, LKNB reminds survivors that they are not forgotten, helps them manage these challenges with strength, and return home. We think of ourselves as the “second wave,” but our friends in New Orleans call us, “The Cavalry.” We’ll take that, too!

We are so grateful to get to do service work that we love with people whose courage and tenacity so often move us to tears. Thank you for supporting our work and giving us the opportunity to help people rebuild their lives after catastrophe.

With deepest gratitude,

The LKNB Leadership Team

P.S.  We know money is a challenge for everyone.  That is especially true for
families recovering from catastrophe. Please consider giving what you can this
holiday season. A gift in any amount makes a world of difference. For example:

• $10 buys flowers or food plants for a garden.Gardens are especially healing on many levels for disaster survivors.
• $25 buys two sheets of sheetrock. These are theonly walls we like to build J
• $50 buys lumber for trim. Love may have nobounds, but rooms do.
• $100 buys an interior door. Help open new doorsof relief for disaster survivors!
• $200 rents a truck to distribute homefurnishings to disaster survivors
• $500 sponsors a week-long respite visit for acommunity leader

Contributions can be made on our secure website www.loveknowsnobounds.org,
or by sending a check made out to LKNB to:  Love Knows No Bounds, 230 Rachel Carson
Way, Ithaca, NY  14850