Collin County
Welcome to Altrusa Collin County
Altrusa is an international non-profit organization, making our local communities better through leadership, partnership, and service. We strive to create better communities worldwide. Altrusa is made up of civic-minded people who find great joy in enhancing the lives of others. We welcome the involvement of new members who want to advance their skills, meet new friends, volunteer along with community leaders, or simply want to add meaningful new experiences to their lives. Contact us to find out more about becoming an Altrusa leader.
Mission Statement
Altrusa International of Collin County, Texas, Inc. is an organization of diverse volunteers who serve the community, focusing on literacy, leadership development, and fellowship.
Our History
Our club was established in 1996. Our group of professional women follows the objectives of the international organization, which include promotion of literacy, leadership development and ministering to those in need. Each year we research organizations and individuals in Collin County who are in need of our hands-on assistance and monetary aid.
Service Projects
- Providing hundreds of books to Forman Elementary School, fostering their reading program through the Bluebonnet Books project and providing incentive recognition and prizes to readers
- Packing meals for Meals on Wheels including packing and decorating Harvest Boxes at Thanksgiving time
- Donating food and funding to the North Texas Food Bank & LovePacs for school kids and donating to NTFB’s annual peanut butter drive
- Sponsoring Streetside Showers for the homeless in our local area
- Gifting hand-knitted red scarves to orphans for the Red Scarf Project
- Donating to Hope’s Door women’s shelter of Plano
- Supporting Traffick911 to rescue local minors from trafficking
- Packing school bags for St. Elizabeth Church outreach
- Delivering meals to the Plano Police and McKinney Police Depts.
- Hosting monthly Bingo & cash prizes to Plano Community Home
- Donating to Support Your Troops of Plano
- Sponsored Physics Camp for Girls at UTD (2011)
- Donation to R&R Ministries, Plano (2023)
- Collected and sent out 1000 pairs of shoes for the homeless
- Donated hand-made blankets to Warm Up America
- Made and donated scores of face masks early in the Covid pandemic and provided sanitizing/cleaning products to teachers during the pandemic.
Beyond our local area, international charities we have supported include:
- Dress A Girl – making sundresses for girls in Africa
- Feed My Starving Children – packing food to be distributed to impoverished people around the world
- Days for Girls – sewing and preparing female hygiene kits for African girls (which allows them to attend school at times when they normally could not)
- Donating to Samaritan’s Inn following disasters
- Sponsored an African teacher (2013)
Expanded details about our projects:
Forman Elementary School is a PISD school in east Plano. Our projects and activities include:
- Library assistance
- Bluebonnet reading incentive program http://www.txla.org/groups/tba
- Bluebonnet Bash Award's Ceremony
Plano Community Home--East provides low income assisted living. We organize monthly activities to entertain, educate and involve residents of the home.
Make-A-Difference Day Literacy Projects
http://www.usaweekend.com/diffday/index.html
- For the last fifteen years, USA Weekend Magazine and its partners have sponsored Make A Difference Day as an annual event. Our project is literacy focused with various agencies.
Collin County Committee on Aging
- We contribute boxes of food for their Fall Harvest Boxes.
- This year we are also helping to pack "Shelf Stable Meals" to be delivered by Meals on Wheels during the holiday season.
- To find out more about the Collin County Committee on Aging go to http://www.cccoaweb.org
Kiva
- Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions,
- Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.
- To find out more about Kiva go to http://www.kiva.org
Days for Girls
- Days for Girls increases access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, cultivating social enterprises, mobilizing volunteers, and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter stigmas and limitations for women and girls. Together, we're creating a world with dignity, health, and opportunity for all. Our movement has reached more than one million girls — and counting!
- With your help, we can reach Every Girl. Everywhere. Period.
- https://www.daysforgirls.org/
Feed My Starving Children
- Founded in 1987, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is a Christian non-profit that provides nutritionally complete meals specifically formulated for malnourished children.
- https://www.fmsc.org/
Plano LovePacs
- 1 in 5 children in North Texas have food insecurities. LovePacs is determined to change that. With over 250 volunteers serving 13 communities, we're helping to ensure children have food over school breaks.
- https://www.lovepacs.org
Warm Up America
- If you can knit or crochet a square, you can knit or crochet for charity with Warm Up America.
- By breaking down the task of making blankets into manageable parts (7 X 9 inch squares) for knitters and crocheters of all skill levels, more people can be involved in helping to make blankets for charity.
- Warm Up America also accepts donations of adult hats, scarves and baby clothing.
- https://www.knittingforcharity.com
Foster Care to Success Red Scarf Project
- Annually, approximately 5,000 foster children turn to Foster Care to Success (FC2S) for the support they cannot get from a parent or guardian – like financial backing for college in the form of scholarships and grants, care packages and family-like encouragement, academic and personal mentoring, and help with internships and employment readiness skills.
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Do you like to knit or crochet? Whether you are a beginner, an expert or somewhere in between, your handiwork can send warmth and encouragement to a student from foster care. The handmade red scarves in our Valentine’s Day care packages become treasured keepsakes that our students wear for years.
“Your hands are a window into your heart and soul. There is love in every stitch, and a handmade scarf is like a hug. The FC2S Red Scarf Project gives us each an opportunity to show that someone out there truly cares about our foster youth.” Lily Chin, Master Knitter
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https://www.fc2success.org
Collin County Meals on Wheels