AOK | Alliances and Outreach for Kids
AOK 2024-2025 Season!
Alliances and Outreach for Kids (AOK) is a volunteer organization that works to promote and support a variety of enriching learning experiences for children in the Mankato area.
Summer 2025 Volunteer Opportunities at MY Place!
AOK
Volunteer Opportunities
Members of AOK are encouraged to sign up to volunteer for area kids in a variety of ways! Maybe you'd like to read to a MY Place student, man the front desk for a couple hours, help set up classrooms for the day, or drive one of the vans. Click on the links to the right, or contact Staff at MY Place to volunteer. Perhaps you'd like to help a couple hours at Wooden Spoon for South Central MN Food Recovery. Or, maybe you might like to donate an item on the My Place Wish List, or donate to AOK's Feed and Read fund for books for kids! Try it once! No long term commitments. You can volunteer on YOUR schedule, however you like! You'll make a big difference to area kids!
AOK -- We Get It Done!!
To Volunteer at MY Place
Email: staff@myplacemankato.org
Busy Winter!
AOK members had a busy fall and winter! Besides meetings, meals and speakers, there was much volunteering and fundraising! From baking and frosting cookies with MyPlace kids, to walking in the MYPace Mile, teaching kids how to make porch pots, organizing stuff at MYPlace, volunteering at Food Recovery and the Backpack Food programs, and raising money for Feed and Read by working the concessions at the MSU basketball games! We are true to our motto: "AOK--We Get It Done!"
A Look Back....
AOK began in the fall of 2019. We started as a small advisory group, who met in the spring and summer, and held our first full meeting in November, 2019.
Shortly after, COVID-19 hit the world hard, and our organization had to be creative in order to stay together and flourish.
We didn't let COVID keep us down, and the organization met outdoors when the weather cooperated, we connected by email, zoom, phone calls and texts, and soon a great idea came forth to keep us busy during the first full year of the pandemic.
Kat displays a handmade face mask, one of hundreds sewn and artfully decorated by AOK members in 2020 as a very successful fundraiser that helped support our Feed and Read program!
We Did a Podcast!
Four members of the AOK Advisory Committee were recently invited to do a community podcast with APX Construction Group. The Build Blue Podcast featured Kinney, Beth, Peggy, and Cindy, speaking about AOK's history, projects, and members. Take a listen!
Donate to AOK
Help AOK to help area children. Let us choose where best to best use your donation.
1. Make your check out to AOK
2. Give your check to an AOK member,
-or-
3. Mail your check to:
Alliances and Outreach for Kids
P.O. Box 2133
North Mankato, MN. 56002
Thank you for your donation!
Donate to Feed & Read
Help support the Feed & Read program in cooperation with FOCP.
1. Make your check out to:
AOK
subject line: for Feed & Read
2. Give your check to an AOK member,
-or-
3. Mail your check to:
Alliances & Outreach for Kids
P.O. Box 2133
North Mankato, MN. 56002
Thank you for your donation!
Donate to My Place
Help support the Mankato Youth Place (MY Place).
How:
1. Make your check out to My Place
2. Give your check to an AOK member,
-or-
3. Mail your check to:
My Place
(attn: Erin Simmons)
709 South Broad St.
Mankato, MN. 56001
Thank you for your donation!
AOK 2023-2024 Season!
What's Been Going On?
• Helping MY Place move to its new building!
• Designing the new Reading Cubbies and Books Area!
• Working with food recovery for So. Central MN Food Recovery!
• Raising funds for Feed and Read Books!
• Getting together with Friends and Colleagues!
New Books Corner
at MY Place
New Reading Cubbies at MY Place
A-OK is Featured on the Front Page of the Mankato Free Press! • (December 8, 2022)
Business Title
Our organization was the feature story in the front section of the Thursday, December 8, 2022 issue of The Mankato Free Press, in a great story by Mike Lagerquist.
It can also be found on-line HERE. You can also find a link to it from our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/AOKMankato/
December Meeting / Holiday Social
Our meeting on Monday, December 5, 2022 raised $1535.00 from our Silent Auction and appetizers, to go towards the Feed and Read program. Total raised for the project this year was: $3213.00. Way to go, members!
Following the meeting, member volunteers
this week sorted books, and delivered them
to the Backpack program for area students to
receive before Christmas break. Check out
our Facebook page for lots of photos of the
December meeting and Social!
We have so much to celebrate!
Our September AOK silent auction raised $838.00 for the Feed and Read! Heartfelt thanks to those who contributed by bringing items and for members bidding on them. Our clever and creative members play a huge part in this success. Very popular in this last auction were certificates for gardening help by master gardeners, a cake made especially for you at a future date, herbs harvested and bottled from a member’s garden, fall decor items, one-of-a-kind wine bags, fall baking, knitted hats, and so much more. Thank you. Winter is coming. What a good way to gather goods reads for cold days.
We celebrate the continued growth of AOK. Thank you for bringing new friends and ideas to our meetings. If you have not yet paid the $25.00 dues, here are two ways you may do so: 1) You can make your check out to AOK and mail it to our treasurer:
Peggy Januschka, 208 Crestwood Drive, North Mankato 56003. -or- 2) You can bring your $25.00 check to our AOK meeting.
We celebrated the good meal provided by members for our Potluck dinner: One of the best things in life is to break bread with friends. Thank you for the wonderful and diverse cooking!
Be sure to check out our Facebook page to catch up on the latest activities of A-OK!
March, 2022 Meeting
A-OK finished off our fall meetings with a buffet luncheon on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, at Bridge Plaza in downtown Mankato. This new building has a beautiful gathering room which was nice and cozy on a very wintery day! Fall events we have participated in have included collecting, sorting and hauling books from Mackin Distributing Company for the Backpack Foods program; member volunteer shifts at the Backpack food program and Wooden Spoon foods distribution program; helping to do fall cleaning at My Place; and helping with the My Place Holiday Carnival and food/clothing distribution. We will meet again after the Holidays, on January 19, 2022. Check our Facebook page for up-to-date information!
Winter 2021-22
October, 2021
December 2021
November 2021
December 2021
October, 2021
November 2021
A-OK (Alliances and Outreach for Kids) held its first full meeting since COVID on Monday, September 13, at the North Mankato Warming Room, with a large group of members in attendance! This spacious new building next to the North Mankato swimming pool will house our upcoming fall meetings. Dates of upcoming meetings can be found on our Meetings Page! More information on upcoming events will be posted soon! Welcome back, everyone!
September, 2021
Spring/Summer, 2021
Mask*querade Fundraiser for My Place!
A-OK held a special spring Pop-up fundraiser on April 23 and 24, with a new spring collection of the BE Dazzling artist-designed face masks. The sale was very successful, and 100% of the proceeds went to benefit My Place.
Special thanks go to the many A-OK members who sewed the masks, the artists who hand-painted them, those who underwrote the overhead supply expenses, the many who advertised the sale and brought friends, the ones who worked at the sales, and all who had a hand in helping to make this sale a tremendous success!
Special thanks go to Curiosi-Tea House in North Mankato who gave us the space to sell, and a big thank you to our fearless leader Beth, who keeps inspiring us in wonderful ways!
Spring Masks For Sale!
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A-OK’s talented mask makers have created a new spring line of the BE Dazzling face masks, this time to support My Place! The masks have a new design that is easier to wear and also accommodates an optional second mask underneath. They come in three colors: blue denim, grey denim and beige. All masks are 100% cotton and come with nose pinchers for a better fit. Best of all, the masks are a bargain at our $15.00 price!
The designers of these beautiful one-of-a-kind hand painted masks are Sandi Ekstam, Lynn Callahan, and Colleen Patterson. Sewing designers are Kinney Eberhart, Nancy Blethen, Lucy Lowry, Peggy Januschka, Sheila Opsal, and Sandi Ekstam. Colleen Callahan Inda designed the logo and labels, with Beth Christensen and Lynn Callahan coordinating the package printing.
Our Pop-up sale took take place at:
Curiosi-Tea House, 1745 Commerce Drive!
Spring, 2021
Feed & Read Fundraiser!
Wow!! Our Mask sale Pop-up Fundraiser earned $2955 on Friday and Saturday, October 30 & 31!
Many Thank You's go out to everyone who bought masks, those who spent many hours making them(!), those who organized and manned the sale, those who worked behind the scene, and a special Thank You to Curiosi-Tea House of North Mankato, who hosted our space!
All proceeds from the sale will go to purchase children's books for December's Winter Break Feed and Read Program, in co-ordination with the FOCP BackPack Food Program. Well done, everyone!
My Place Update
(Sept. 2020) My Place has finished its summer season and is currently into it's school year schedule, which began on September 8. They are in need of items to support the new school year. If you would like to donate, below is a list of currently needed items.
A-OK is a proud supporter of My Place.
Donations can also be made online at: myplacemankato.org
A-OK members volunteered recently to help organize closets and storage areas at My Place (formerly the Boys and Girls Club of Mankato).
If you are interested in signing up for our email, click the A-OK button link, or reach us at: AOKMankato@gmail.com
A-OK address: P.O. Box 2133,
North Mankato, MN 56002
