Royal Neighbors of America Makes A Difference with dramatic home improvement project in Rock Island's historic Broadway District

11/2/2007

Contact: Rita Toalson, FLMI, ACS, (309) 732-8376

Royal Neighbors of America employees and its local chapters orchestrated home improvement efforts on St. Joseph the Worker House in Rock Island’s historic Broadway District to help create a comfortable living environment for women and children in transition.

On Make A Difference Day, October 27, in a celebration of neighbor-helping-neighbor, the group, along with neighborhood volunteers, converged onto the site to help refurbish the home’s exterior by painting and landscaping.

The home offers services and transitional housing for homeless women and children in a home-like, healthy, loving, and supportive environment and provides connections to local services that assist families.

In addition to donated supplies and manpower, employees also raised money in two unique ways to help benefit the home and its resident families. Royal Neighbors’ softball team accepted pledges based on the number of hits the team made throughout the season. Plus, as part of its Halloween festivities, employees purchased candy-grams for co-workers. Sister Roberta Bussan accepted a donation of more than $800 on behalf of the families living at St. Joseph the Worker House.

Last year, Royal Neighbors held a fund-raiser for Travis Hearn as its Make A Difference Day project. More than $20,000 was donated to Travis, who was seriously injured in a high school football game last fall.

Make A Difference Day is a national day of volunteerism sponsored annually by USA Weekend Magazine on the last Saturday of October.

Royal Neighbors of America is a non-profit fraternal membership organization that insures lives, supports women, and serves communities. In addition to being able to purchase insurance products, its members also participate in a variety of locally based volunteer opportunities, and are eligible to receive benefits such as scholarships and disaster aid.

Headquartered in Rock Island, IL, Royal Neighbors serves more than 240,000 certificateholders, has $2.1 billion of insurance in force, and is licensed to do business in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

For more information about Royal Neighbors of America, call (800) 627-4762, or visit the Web site at www.royalneighbors.org.