This holiday season I organized a gift drive for the homeless teens at the StandUp for Kids center in San Diego. I wanted to actually DO something out in the world instead of just talking about it, so I contacted the director of the San Diego StandUp for Kids center and arranged for her to get a needs/wants list from all the kids that were expecting to be around the center on Christmas. My goal was to make sure that each and every kid on that list (23 of them) had gifts to open on Christmas Day.
Once I had that list from her, I sent an e-mail out to almost everyone that I know, requesting their participation in my holiday project. I offered many ways to participate, from spreading the word to making a holiday card to donating money to buying a gift for a homeless teen to buying all the gifts for one specific homeless teen to buying gifts for the center. I also created a Facebook event and invited most of my Facebook friends, and we sent an e-mail out at Donovan's work, too.
I had my qualms about sending the e-mail out to some people on my list, either because they are Jewish and my letter talked about Christmas gifts for the kids, or because I didn't want them to feel obligated to spend money when they don't really have much to spare. I've struggled with this same thing in the past when doing fundraising, and I've always been surprised by who my largest supporters were.
At first the responses were slow to trickle in, and I had my doubts about whether we'd be able to fill all the requests on the wishlists, but Donovan encouraged me to have faith that it would all work out. More and more people started to respond, some sending in checks so that we could do the shopping for them, and some buying gifts themselves. My parents, supportive as always, made a very generous donation that allowed me to buy many things off the center's wishlist.
By this point I started to see things all coming together, with the enormous generosity of the people in my community. Then the wife of one of Donovan's work friends volunteered to post our project on her Facebook page and within an hour of her doing so, four of her friends contacted me and wanted to donate gifts. One woman involved her mother and mother-in-law, and another involved one of her friends from work. They more than filled up the back of my car with all the gifts they bought for homeless teens, and I was completely awed and inspired by the generosity of these total strangers!!
We delivered the gifts to the StandUp for Kids center in San Diego on Christmas Eve, and the kids were thrilled. Some of them even put on some of their new clothes and shoes immediately! Thanks to all the people that participated in this project, these homeless teens got to experience the generosity of strangers firsthand, an experience that will hopefully impact them in positive ways that we may never know.
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