Backpack Blessings - Partnering to Facilitate DNOW Youth Retreats

With a leadership background as Atlanta-based FirstView Financial CEO, Jerome Uffner has extensive payment technology services experience. Community involved, Jerome Uffner supports the nonprofit Backpack Blessings, which focuses on the needs of children in providing Blue Bags. These combine nutritious food with books, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and fun items that enrich lives.

One of the value-added aspects of Backpack Blessings is its work as mission partner with annual Christ-focused DNOW (Disciple Now) youth retreats. Events organized provide a sense of fellowship to middle and high school students, with participants initially meeting at the Mt. Bethel Sanctuary. After students learn their “host family” assignment, they are welcomed into households that provide them with a break from their everyday lives and have a worship focus that brings God front and center. 

Among the activities organized are projects that help community members in need, including cleaning, light construction, yard work, and serving food at local parks. These activities reinforce the practical nature of their mission and the importance of helping those out who are less fortunate.

Backpack Blessings Provides Food to Students in Need

Jerome Uffner serves as the general manager of prepaid for FIS in Jacksonville, Florida. Outside of his professional obligations, Jerome Uffner is a member of the board of directors of Backpack Blessings, a charitable organization that provides food for students in need from the Cobb County School District who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches, but who may lack access to food on the weekends. 

The organization focuses on building trusting relationships with the students that it assists. Volunteers fill backpacks with food that meets children’s basic nutritional needs, as well as treats and other items to help them feel special and appreciated. The backpacks may also contain items such as books, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. Every Friday, the backpacks are delivered to students, ensuring that they have food to take home over the weekend.

Schools served by the program include Fair Oaks Elementary, one of Backpack Blessings’ partner schools. During one visit in 2017, students at the school received Girl Scout cookies as a surprise treat and subsequently expressed their gratitude through thank you notes. 

For more information about this organization, please visit Backpackblessings.org.

CashLynks Assists Non-Banking Customers

Jerome Uffner, recently the head of Atlanta-based FirstView Financial, specialized in providing electronic money transfer services. While previously serving as director of retail card products at Link Systems, Jerome Uffner helped introduce the electronic funds-distribution platform CashLynks, a platform that expands the availability of direct deposit.

Not everyone who is offered direct deposit accepts it. Some employees decide not to belong to a bank because of unpleasant experiences, while others refrain from opening checking accounts because of a poor credit history.

CashLynks combines the benefits of direct deposit and debit cards, reducing payroll costs to employers and preventing the possible loss of paychecks. Businesses can also use it to handle cash advances, bonuses, and reimbursements. Those with CashLynks cards can use them to withdraw money from most ATMs, place long distance calls, and make point-of-sale purchases.

For these transactions, cardholders pay convenience and other fees, which are smaller than those charged by financial institutions and check-cashing operations. There is no time limit for keeping funds in CashLynks accounts.

The system resides on the Web, saving companies the expense of purchasing software. Clients access a secure website to load money, see transaction reports and balances, and order new cards.

Scenic Running Routes in and near Atlanta

Jerome Uffner, an Atlanta-based entrepreneur and executive, enjoys running in his free time. As a resident of the greater Atlanta metropolitan area, Jerome Uffner has easy access to a number of scenic running routes. According to experts, some of the best of these are:

Silver Comet Trail

Named for the Silver Comet passenger train, the Silver Comet Trail stretches for 61.5 miles along the path of an abandoned railroad line. Atlanta-area runners can pick up the mostly paved, tree-shaded route at the trailhead in Smyrna, where there is ample parking.

Morningside Nature Preserve

While located in Atlanta, Morningside Nature Preserve offers a picturesque, natural setting that makes visitors feel as if they are far from the city. A round-trip on the preserve’s running trail is only 2.5 miles, but runners can easily extend their route by exploring the myriad offshoot trails. 

Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area

Options abound at this 48-mile-long, 10,000 acre outdoor destination, which sits north of Atlanta. Runners can embark on a 5k along the Chattahoochee River, enjoy the popular 8.5-mile loop between Cochran Shoals and Sope Creek, or select from countless other possibilities.

Red Cross Rolls Out New CPR Training Dummy

Based in Dublin, Ohio, Idea Buyer, LLC, assists entrepreneurs by helping them bring their ideas to fruition through design, development, manufacturing, and distribution guidance. A philanthropic organization, Idea Buyer supports the efforts of the American Red Cross.

In December 2017, the American Red Cross debuted a new device that it believes represents the next evolution in CPR training. The organization rolled out a new training dummy named BigRed that features illuminated feedback to indicate whether a trainee is properly administering CPR. These lights can show how deep the chest compressions are going, how well the blood is circulating based on the compression, and provides overall feedback about the quality of the trainee’s technique. 

In addition to the illuminated features, the training dummy has a head that tilts, a chest cavity that rises and falls with realism compared to a human chest, and true-to-life nasal and oral features. To learn more about BigRed and how the Red Cross believes it will revolutionize CPR training, visit redcross.org/bigred.

Green Light Acquisitions Focuses on Legal Cannabis

An executive in the payment industry, Jerome Uffner recently served as CEO and president of FirstView Financial. Jerome Uffner also serves as an advisor to Green Light Acquisitions (GLA), a company that works with payment solutions and other aspects of the legal cannabis industry. 

The legalization of cannabis in the U.S. has created major opportunities for business. Thus far, 30 states allow medical marijuana use and nine states plus the District of Columbia allow recreational use. The drug is still illegal on the federal level, but the legal business is booming at the state level. 

In 2017, the legal cannabis industry generated about $9 billion in revenue, and some estimates project its value will rise to $22 billion by 2020. The industry is in a position to create many jobs, from growing to selling, and money that previously spent on illegal drugs is now being taxed. 

GLA has worked to raise funds to help the legalization process, contributing $28 million so far. As the industry continues to grow and prohibition continues to weaken, GLA intends to partner with other companies to address all aspects of the legal cannabis industry.

The Joint Prepaid Expo and All Wireless Expo Conference

An advisor to Green Light Acquisitions, LLC, Jerome Uffner previously held leadership positions at companies such as FirstView Financial, LLC, TransCard, and InComm. With decades of experience in the payments industry, Jerome Uffner has spoken at events such as the Prepaid Expo.

In 2018, the Prepaid Expo will take place alongside the All Wireless Expo, giving attendees the opportunity to view exhibitions from a diverse range of prepaid and wireless service companies and to attend advanced conference sessions. The two-day event also benefits businesses by allowing them to network with potential clients.

Hosted at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, the 2018 Prepaid Expo will begin at 9 am on Tuesday, August 21, with conference sessions to last until 5:30 pm. The exhibit hall will open at 11 am and run until 5 pm, opening again the next day from 10 am to 2 pm. On Tuesday evening the expo will host a networking party for attendees.

For more information about the Prepaid Expo or to register for the event, visit www.theprepaidexpo.com.