When looking back at our Outreach this year, I am amazed by how generous our Center is and how diversified our giving was. We had 3 months that we gave food: February to Sister Carmen Food Bank; April to the Louisville Food Share; and of course, November for the Thanksgiving Food Drive for Boulder SafeHouse. (Thanksgiving Dinner for 25).
Two of our months included gifts to A Precious Child, a local Broomfield organization that helps low income and foster children with school supplies and Christmas gifts. Our July Outreach was the fifth year we have donated backpacks and school supplies to the Fill-a Backpack campaign. For December, we dedicated our Angel Tree Gift giving to many of these same children. We were able to give 21 children the gifts they requested for a total over $1050.
The October Outreach, we collected funds for SmileTrain, an international effort to provide operations to repair cleft lip/or palates to children in developing countries. This is the leading birth defect in these countries and leads to children being unable to eat or attend school. Even though the doctors and nurses donate their time, each operation cost $250. The board was overjoyed to see the response from our participants. We set a goal of $500 to pay for 2 new smiles. We collected $1389. The Board donated $111 from our Unexpected Income Tithe fund enabling us to send $1500 to SmileTrain, enough for SIX Smiles!
We collected fun items for our neighbor the WOW (World of Wonder) Children Museum (May); 100 pairs of shoes to Soles4Soles (June); 10 pairs of glasses to the Lions Recycle for Sight (September) and Teddy Bears (17) and stuffed animals (12) to the North Campus of the Children’s Hospital (August). We collected 40 treats and toys, larger bags of dog and cat food, laundry detergent and 8 large towels and a large bag of rags to Every Creature Counts (March). We supported the Water Protectors of Standing Rock with a $410 donation to the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) for legal defense of arrested protesters.(January).
In January 2018, we will begin a new year of outreach by supporting the Sister Carmen food bank by donating food and personal items. We are aware that the winter months are often slow for food donations.
If you have any suggestions for agencies we can support or would like to serve on the Outreach Committee, please let Rev. Jyoti or a board member know.
Thank you to all who supported our many worthy causes this year! Thank you to our Outreach Committee: Julie Herring, Maureen Detmer and Barb Weirich.