Big Give: Fast Approaching our Give Day!

I just want to thank you all for your continued support of our Big Give efforts. I am proud to say that we have reached and surpassed many of our goals for the Faith Mission Homeless Shelter (in Elkhart, Indiana). We have had so many great supporters and we look forward to promoting all of you in January for giving so much.

Our Big Give is scheduled for Saturday and I will be heading over there around 11 AM to present the donations. And what a donation I will be presenting! I can't wait to share with you some clips of our big day, but this is what we were able to gather for the shelter.

1. All of the appliances on the Faith Mission Wish List were donated by Kenmore. What a huge blessing that is for the shelter and it brings me great pride to say that I work with this amazing company. Kenmore donated the following appliances (approximately a $7,500 donation):

• 7- 2’wide Dishwashers
• 4- 1’10” wide under cabinet Refrigerators
• 4- 30”-32” wide standard Refrigerators
• 10- small to medium handing microwaves

2. Through our monetary donations we were able to order the supplies for 100 Welcome Kits for the residents. These welcome kits will be given to each new resident and have all the supplies needed for their personal care. I will have to do a separate post on what I have learned through a give of this size on ordering and great resources that I have been able to find. A special thanks to all my amazing friends who have been rallying together to help me pull this off. Your thoughtful donations, the efforts of your time, the items you have given- NO WORDS! I wish to thank you each individually. You all are amazing and I thank you for your efforts!

3. We have numerous miscellaneous donations of hats, gloves, clothes, medications, pillows, and other great goodies to add for our Big Give. Thank you to each of you for helping with those!

4. Our family also wanted to give something that would bring joy into the resident's hearts. I talked with the director and asked him to run it by the others to see if they would be open to my idea for our family gift. After a discussion among the higher ups, it was decided that a Nintendo Wii would definitely be a gift of joy and would be a wonderful addition to the shelter. My children and I made a trip over to Target and none of us could contain our excitement about giving one of these to them. This was money that our family had set aside, in the event we would not be able to reach our goals for the Big Give, and we are very excited to donate this. That would not have been possible without everyone's support and devotion.

In short, I am proud. I feel successful. I feel great hope for what one person is able to accomplish with the support and love of her family and friends.

Many great life lessons were learned through my Big Give:

For example:

"Your house is smaller than what you think it is. 100 kits is a lot of stuff."
"Your children's enthusiasm for giving will always surpass your own. Learn from them."
"Doing a charitable act raises your awareness for how great the world's needs are. Instead of feeling defeated, feel proud that your small steps are still giant steps toward the right path."
"You aren't superwoman, even if you think you are. Giving to others...yeah, you will totally feel like a super hero. I promise you!"

Labels: Big Give