Project Linus National HQ -- vouchers yet?

[golf]

I signed up to do blankets for the National Headquarters of Project Linus. The Hands on Network gave me until April 1 to complete my blankets, which would have given me plenty of time before our September trip. However, we just decided yesterday to reschedule our trip to next Sunday (2/21) instead. I mailed the blankets today to the headquarters in Illinois. My question is... has anyone sent their blankets to PL National Headquarters? If so, how long did it take to get your vouchers? Did they verify pretty quickly or do you have to wait until after your date of service has passed (April 1 for us). I am really hoping we will have them before we leave, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Thanks!

 

[LaurenT]

I signed up to do blankets for the National Headquarters of Project Linus. The Hands on Network gave me until April 1 to complete my blankets, which would have given me plenty of time before our September trip. However, we just decided yesterday to reschedule our trip to next Sunday (2/21) instead. I mailed the blankets today to the headquarters in Illinois. My question is... has anyone sent their blankets to PL National Headquarters? If so, how long did it take to get your vouchers? Did they verify pretty quickly or do you have to wait until after your date of service has passed (April 1 for us). I am really hoping we will have them before we leave, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Thanks!

Log in to manage your account at Hands On and edit your service to reflect today or tomorrow as your date of service! Then HON will send an e-mail to Linus Headquarters asking them to verify, once they do that, it will reflect in the system a few days later. If you leave the date as April, it will not happen in time because Hands On will not send the e-mail requesting verification until after that date has passed!
You could very well have your voucher in time if you change the date right away!!

 

[golf]

I did try to change the date of service, but unless I am missing something, it is not changeable. I went into "manage account" and tried to edit the opportunity, but there is no option to change anything but the participants.

 

[LaurenT]

Is there an "edit" button below the primary volunteers name? I did my linus project for a local chapter, and I changed my date from Feb 5 to Feb 1 because I am leaving on the 23rd and wanted to make sure there was enough time to get the voucher...
It could be that they've changed it..or maybe National Headquarters operates differently.
Have you tried calling them to explain your situation? Certainly worth a shot!

 

[golf]

As far as I can tell, there is no edit button anywhere. I'll try calling or e-mailing today. Thanks!

 

[december]

It sounds like yours was set up like mine. I did the book drive for the USO, and shipped books to Qatar. I had until March ? (6th maybe), a deadline instead of a specific day of service. There was no where in my info for me to change a date. I mailed my packages, then emailed the paperwork (shipping verification, request for verification from the USO, pics of our family working on the project) to them, and had my vouchers within a matter of days. I'm sure I got my vouchers well before the books made it to Qatar! It looks like the organizations all had different options for setting up their opportunities.

 

[BradyBz12]

Just confirming that the organization cannot verify your service until the date in the system, even if you do your service much earlier. We did blankets for a local PL chapter and sent them in about a month before the date I'd picked. The coordinator told me to go in and move up the date, which I did (sorry I can't remember exactly how I did this) and she could then verify and we got our vouchers shortly after.

 

[tyzzle]

Hello, I too signed up to do the Project Linus through the HQ. I signed up last week and after reading about some of the issues people had I went in and tried to move my date up right away (it is one week before I leave). I found I couldn't. So before I started the blankets, i emailed the contact person in the instructions and explained the situation and asked if she would be able verify when I sent in blankets. She replied (very quickly) that she would be able to verify me upon receipt. I hope this is true. please let us know how your experience goes.

 

[lklasing]

I did my blankets for PL last weekend (out of St. Louis, MO - not the national HQ - don't know if that matters). The date said "on or before April 6" or something like that. I had the same concern as I had heard that projects couldn't be confirmed until the date had passed. Like you, I did not have the option to change the date. However, I mailed them in on Monday, they were received on Wednesday, and I have received confirmation directly from PL that the service has been confirmed. While my vouchers have not come in yet, I can tell that PL did, in fact, confirm us at the GAD screen now says that the date of service has passed and that it might be two weeks for the vouchers to come in - different than what it said before I sent the blankets.

Long way of saying that it may be different for each group, but hopefully you'll get lucky like we have.

Good luck!

 

[BabaGanoush]

Just as a heads up in general, the website asks that you complete the volunteer work at least 2 weeks prior to your planned use of the voucher to allow the HandsOn Network time to contact the organization, verify your service, and update your account. This may seem like a prolonged amount of time but they are currently swamped with interest and are having to verify thousands daily.

So, you may or may not have enough time to become verified and receive your voucher. It could happen because sometimes the verification does not take very long, but unfortunately, there is not a contact number that will speed up the process. I know... because I tried. Probably the best thing to do is contact the volunteer organization directly and confirm that they have you listed as completed and have submitted that to HandsOn. Otherwise, it is a waiting game.

 

[BabaGanoush]

Hello, I too signed up to do the Project Linus through the HQ. I signed up last week and after reading about some of the issues people had I went in and tried to move my date up right away (it is one week before I leave). I found I couldn't. So before I started the blankets, i emailed the contact person in the instructions and explained the situation and asked if she would be able verify when I sent in blankets. She replied (very quickly) that she would be able to verify me upon receipt. I hope this is true. please let us know how your experience goes.

This is what I would do. Ask her to also let you know when she verifies receipt (sort of like getting a receipt for purchase). At that point, if you can, allow two weeks for the verification process to occur. After two weeks, if you are not verified, call the Disney GAD support team and ask them to have the HandsOn network contact Linus to verify. I believe they can do this even if the date you listed on the site is farther away.

 

[BabaGanoush]

Also, I do believe you can move up the date but I think you have to cancel out your current volunteer opportunity and then re sign up with the same organization with a different date. I think.

 

[lklasing]

Just to update with our experience - I signed up on Friday, Feb. 5 to make blankets. Our GAD registration indicated that the blankets had to be received on or before April 5. I had the exact same concerns about that late date, as our trip is in March. I couldn't change our date - that just wasn't an option the computer gave me. But, we made our blankets and shipped them off on Monday. They were received by PL on Wednesday. And happily, we got our vouchers yesterday (Saturday). So, while they say to allow 2 weeks, it appears to be a much quicker process. And, while this might not be true for all organizations, ours was able to confirm ours long before our "on or before" date.

 

[Pixiedust34]

It sounds like yours was set up like mine. I did the book drive for the USO, and shipped books to Qatar. I had until March ? (6th maybe), a deadline instead of a specific day of service. There was no where in my info for me to change a date. I mailed my packages, then emailed the paperwork (shipping verification, request for verification from the USO, pics of our family working on the project) to them, and had my vouchers within a matter of days. I'm sure I got my vouchers well before the books made it to Qatar! It looks like the organizations all had different options for setting up their opportunities.

Do you have a link that explains the book drive volunteer opportunity? That sounds interesting! TIA!

 

[december]

I found it by typing in Norman Il on the GAD site. You are supposed to collect 6-8 books per person, but we ended up with 70 books for the 5 of us. Here is the info from the site:
Opportunity: Story Time from the Front Lines (for residents of the United States only)
Serving: HandsOn Network
Verifying Organization: USO - World Headquarters
Interest: Arts & Culture, Children & Youth

Show details Hide details Since before the U.S. entered World War II, the USO (United Service Organization) has been the bridge between the American public and the U.S. military. In times of peace and war, the USO delivers its special brand of comfort, morale and recreational ...

About this Volunteer Opportunity:
This is a volunteer project that can be done in your own home. For this project, you will download a toolkit with all project directions, a guide to self-managing the project, and resources to make the project meaningful and fun for your family. Upon completing the project, you will ship or mail the results of the project to the verifying organization.

Get the Toolkit!
Enter your information below to receive an email with instructions on downloading the Project Toolkit documents. After reviewing the toolkit, if you decide to commit to this project, use the "sign up" link in the email to sign up for the "Give a Day. Get a Disney Day." program. Your project results must be received by the verifying organization within 60 days of the date you sign up for the program.
Project Description:
Since before the U.S. entered World War II, the USO (United Service Organization) has been the bridge between the American public and the U.S. military. In times of peace and war, the USO delivers its special brand of comfort, morale and recreational services to the military.

Volunteer choosing this opportunity will collect new and gently used books from a selected list, to send to troops in USO centers in Southwest Asia as part of the United Through Reading Military Program hosted by the USO. Optionally, the toolkit has fundraising ideas so support direct purchase of the books. Families are also invited to write notes to Military Children and Troops to show their support.

The concept of the United Through Reading® Military Program is to connect deployed military parents and adults with the special children in their lives. Service members read books aloud while being recorded on DVD. The recorded DVDs, along with the books, are then sent to their child(ren).

Military families are dealing with the challenges of long term separations which can place extreme stress on the family and can result in low morale for both troops and family members. By connecting the family through reading, this program ultimately raises morale for the military parents and families by strengthening bonds with the children in their lives

 

[golf]

Ok- I e-mailed the contact person in charge of the Project Linus National HQ opportunity and she got back to me right away and let me know that they do not have to wait until our date of service (the mail in by date) has passed to verify our service. She said they verify service right away-- usually the same day and then Disney has up to two weeks to send out the vouchers. Unfortunately for me, the post office tried to deliver on Saturday and left a notice for them to pick up my package or have it redelivered and it can't be redelivered until at least Wednesday (because of President's Day). That only gives me one day for Disney to send out vouchers before our trip. I'll keep my fingers crossed! Hopefully we get lucky!

 

[CaptMarge]

Hi golf, how were you able to sign up via the PL National Headquarters? Our local chapter is clearly dropping the ball as they will not confirm or return ANY emails or phone calls! Any help would be appreciated!

 

[golf]

I'm not 100% sure how I ended up with the National Headquarters... I think that I entered my state abbreviation incorrectly and since it wasn't a valid state, it gave me the opportunities for people who don't have volunteer opportunities near them. The Project Linus Headquarters is located in Normal, Illinois 61761, so I imagine if you put that info in, you might be able to find it. Otherwise, try putting random letters in for your state abbreviation and see what you get!

 

[dpknoll]

I also did the USO book drive and it was a wonderful experience - we collected over 40 books for my family of 3. Our completion date was on or before April 3rd. Everything was mailed out yesterday and then I immediately emailed our contact all our verification information and asked her to confirm via email. She emailed me back within hours and said she verified our service. Today our status changed from need to complete day of service (or si=omehting similar to that) to date has passed waiting for verification so hopefully our vouchers will be here soon. It is a great project and a very worthwhile cause =) and the people there are wonderful and easy to work with.

 

[golf]

I got my vouchers this morning! It took just a little over a week, including shipping time. I think it would have taken a little less time, but we had some bad timing with President's Day-- it delayed our package delivery by 3 days. After PL recived our blankets, she verified the same day (Tuesday) and I had my vouchers this morning (Friday)!