Yesterday (tomorrow as I’m writing this) was Giving Tuesday, one of the handful of post-Thanksgiving events – like Small Business Saturday – established as a counterpoint to the over-the-top consumption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
While Small Business Saturday asks you to shop with locally owned stores, who need your support much more than the corporate businesses who host Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, Giving Tuesday attempts to tap into the charitable feelings that accompany the holiday season.
It’s a big deal for non-profits and other charitable organizations. According to the Associated Press, last year and the year before the day of giving raised around $3.1 billion for charitable organizations.
But while this is wonderful news for the charities who fundraise around the seasonal event and associated hashtag, as our article on Shoes4Kids in this issue so astutely notes, need doesn’t ever take a holiday.
Those same kids who need warm socks and dry shoes for the winter season will need appropriate footwear come summer too.
And food.
While many of us are struggling with how to make space for all our leftover turkey and ham, debating on what to keep and what to toss, too many of the kids in our county are struggling with food insecurity and going to bed with empty stomachs. Outside of school lunches, and breakfasts if they can get to school early enough, these kids are never really sure when their next meal might come. During the summer months, when the rest of us are enjoying vacations and the warm weather, they’re looking forward to the school year starting back. Not because they’re necessarily eager to learn (though some of them undoubtedly are), but because they crave the regular predictability of a daily school lunch.
It’s heartbreaking. No doubt.
So, what can you or I do about it?
Well, we can start by looking around at the folks in our communities who are working to alleviate the problems these children face. The school resource centers in our local elementary, middle, and high schools are a great place to start. Reach out to the school nearest you and ask them what you can do to help them fulfill their missions. Ask what they need, and then help them meet that need.
Project Merry Christmas is another local organization that helps ensure children who would otherwise go without during the holiday season have presents under their trees. Bethany House, based out of Olive Hill, also helps meet food insecurity and clothing needs not just during the holidays, but year round. They’re always ready to take donations of new or gently used clothing, and they distribute countless holiday meals and grocery staples throughout the year.
If you’re looking to make a cash contribution, Bethany House can take those too. So do groups like Shoes4Kids.
Or, if you’re looking to make a larger regional impact, consider the Christian Appalachian Project. The interdenominational non-profit has a long track record of helping in our communities, no matter what the needs may be. From showing up to help in flood ravaged communities to donating trucks-full of toys and clothing to our school resource centers for holiday distribution, Christian Appalachian Project is walking the walk that Christ implores us to follow, in the communities we all call home.
These, and many other groups we’ve not mentioned here, go to great lengths to meet the needs the most vulnerable in our communities face every day. So, if you feel compelled to share a little of the blessings you’ve received this holiday season, consider one of the groups we’ve mentioned. Or donate to another church, community group, or non-profit working to make a difference right here at home. They’d love the support.
And the kids truly appreciate anything you might do.
We couldn’t show their faces in our photographs, but trust me when I tell you the smiles on the faces of those kids receiving their new shoes lit up the entire room.
Making the choice to be a part of that should be the easiest decision you make this Christmas.
