The story below is from our November/December 2018 issue. For the full story Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Kindness is contagious. Just ask the people who live in the Roanoke Valley who have a big heart with so many opportunities to give. Here are just a few ways to support the community that you and your family may wish to consider this season.
Courtesy of Joshua Gabrielson
Anticipating the holidays brings joy to many people. Special times with loved ones and friends, decorations, baking and fulfilling wish lists with the art of surprise, all mark the coming of the season. Yet for some, the holidays may be challenging. Together let’s spread the joy and ease the challenges through giving, especially with our time. Show our children and others that through giving, we can help our neighbors and grow in compassion and gratitude for what we do have.
Kindness is contagious. Just ask the people who live in the Roanoke Valley who have a big heart with so many opportunities to give. Here are just a few ways to support the community that you and your family may wish to consider this season.
Roanoke Valley Gives is an initiative of the Foundation for Roanoke Valley. Donors make a one-time financial contribution on a specified day to an organization of their choice. Contributions are made via each participating organization’s own fundraising page rather than Roanoke Valley Gives receiving them directly.
The Foundation for Roanoke Valley Program Officer, Michelle Eberly, sums up the initiative by stating, “Roanoke Valley Gives brings the community together to support the needs in the area.”
For a complete listing visit rvgives.givebig.org/c/rvgives/p/participatingorganizations.
Two exemplary outreach programs that serve others during the holidays include the Community Christmas Store and Blessing Bags.
The Community Christmas Store (CCS), started in 1993, focuses on “families with children and senior and/or disabled adults who live at or way below the Federal poverty level.” Managed completely by cheerful volunteers, an empty, designated building is changed for a short time into a mini-department store decorated for Christmas and filled with clothes, toys and household items, to enable eligible parents and guardians to shop for their families.
“CCS is 100 percent reliant on the generosity of our community as well grants and other fundraising activities. Roughly 90 percent of all funds received go directly to the families served.” This year’s goal is to serve 600 families.
Volunteers are always needed to help with fundraising, setting up and operating the Community Christmas Store. Set up may include: putting shelving together, decorating the store, shopping for new goods and stocking shelves. Operating may involve purchasing items specifically for eligible applicants or supporting shoppers that day.
Contact information: Angie Apgar, the 2018 President for the Roanoke Valley CCS at 540-598-6532 or visit their Facebook page, Community Christmas Store of the Roanoke Valley, for current information and to download their 2018 brochure.
Courtesy of Joshua Gabrielson
Blessing Bags
Blessing Bags, Helping People Grow, began in early 2016. The program focuses on the homeless and those living in extreme poverty in the area. Joshua Gabrielson, the program’s founder, moved by the homelessness in downtown Roanoke, wanted to find an unfilled niche.
Rather than just giving a few dollars here and there and knowing that food and clothing banks already existed, he decided to put together travel-size hygiene products in quart-size bags. These items may be purposefully used to freshen up at the local Y or shelter location or even to help prepare an individual for a potential job interview.
Blessing Bags works with several other organizations who locate and distribute the bags to the homeless. This program has been so successful in Southwest Virginia that Joshua has been contacted by many other organizations outside our area to start Blessing Bag programs in their respective area. His program even supplied four hundred bags to the hurricane victims in Puerto Rico last year.
Asked about ways people can help, Joshua says, “We’re working to expand and would like help financially to provide a storefront to house donated items, prepare the bags and provide a place to drop off donations easily. Our current goal is to secure the program and expand.”
Contact information: Joshua Gabrielson at questions@blessingbag.net or visit blessingbag.net for more information.
Be a Santa to a Senior, Brighten the Holidays for Seniors started in 2004 by the local Home Instead Senior Care, a company devoted to meeting the needs of an aging population, the Be a Santa to a Senior program focuses on adults, age 65 plus, throughout the Roanoke Valley who may be needy or lonely around the holiday times. Seniors are identified by Home Instead representatives who collaborate with the local Agencies on Aging, retirement communities and social service agencies. Recipients complete an application where they may choose two items from a long wish list. Then Santa’s Elves provide a visit and Christmas gifts to brighten the holiday season.
Speaking to Doretha, 76, a past recipient of the program, says, “It’s a really good program and I’ve received some really nice gifts such as towel sets, beautiful silk pajamas and a jogging suit. At this age, people forget us sometimes.”
She enjoys inviting in “Santa’s Elves” for a visit to show family pictures, especially a photo of her grandson, whom she is particularly proud of for his naval service. “I enjoy them all (Santa’s Elves) and look forward to this Christmas!”
There are various ways to be involved. Information is online, easy to use and just a click away. Options include taking a tag from a public tree location and purchasing gifts, volunteering in the distribution center and/or delivering presents and joining Santa’s Rescue Squad to purchase additional gifts for those tags not returned with gifts.
Liz Shelton, this year’s organizer for the program, says, “Home Instead is always on the lookout for companies to sponsor a tree and to partner with them” in this heartwarming initiative.
Contact Information: Liz Shelton at 540-281-2257 or visitbeasantatoasenior.com for more information.
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