I would like to greet you as the New Nova5 Chapter President with our first newsletter for the new Pioneer year.  I hope the New Year finds you in the best of health and looking forward to spring.

Our mission as Pioneers is to provide rewarding community service experiences and fellowship opportunities for all of active employees, retirees, partners and families; to provide value to sponsoring companies by generating branding visibility, building teamwork and developing leadership skills of employees.  In addition our goal is to be well known as volunteers meeting a variety of community needs.

Our commitment is to answer the call of those in need, homeless, shelters, veterans, senior citizens, nursing home residents, Domestic Violence, food pantries and most of all, educating our children.

I am sure that everyone is aware that the Pioneer dues are $22.00 per year which averages out to the cost of less than a cup of coffee per day.  How are the dues being used?  The Pioneers touch so much many lives with the support of your dues.  We purchase yarn for our volunteers who in turn make lap robes for seniors, hats, gloves, scarves for the homeless and baby blankets for hospitalized babies and layettes for babies of unwed mothers.  Also, we do all we can to enrich the lives of those in need, i.e., providing food to pantries and the list continues.  Household items are purchased for veterans discharged from the Veterans hospital to their new apartments.

During the summer months some Clubs sponsor annual barbecues for the veterans and nursing homes.  The Pioneers purchase Long Johns and distribute them along with knitted hats, gloves and scarves to the homeless in the New York City boroughs.  School supplies and dictionaries are purchased and distributed to various schools within the boroughs.  Through our volunteer efforts our mission is to contribute life enrichment to the lives of those in nursing homes, domestic violence, shelters and veterans homes.  This is only a partial list of how the dues are used to help our communities.

Please take a moment and read this newsletter to get a better understanding of just how many lives the Pioneers touch.

We are asking in the spirit of the Pioneers that you join us in affirming a clear and simple truth:  There are men and women, elders and children in the communities we serve who have far less than us–people with a pressing, sometimes desperate and always legitimate need for your help.