Holiday Fundraisers To Support This Holiday Season
Holiday Fundraisers
Warm Holiday Greetings to our Blu Violet Beauties!
As we all know the holidays can be a trying time for many people close to us and after our communal experience living through COVID-19, I think we can all agree that help from family, friends and people within our community can be lifesaving. As we are approaching the winter holidays where we are starting to think of our loved ones and how to show our love and appreciation to those people, it is still important to remember those in need. Many studies have shown that people close to us and within our community often suffer in silence from things like housing security to a lack of support or resources for varying illnesses. Keeping all of this in mind, our team at Blu Violet would love to highlight some charities in the Chicago areas that offer support to families and children in need during these giving seasons!
The first charity organization I would love to promote is The Children's Place Association. This is an organization that was started over 30 years ago and has made it their mission to help the homeless and children in need. According to their studies, about 16,000 students are homeless and 1 in 4 Chicago children live in poverty. While this is incredibly hard to hear, the amazing people at Children’s Place have worked very hard to target the causes of these debilitating issues and have given children things from guaranteeing a meaningful education to providing hot meals to helping during our beloved holidays. The main event that I would like to highlight from Children’s Place is their Adopt-A-Family Gift sorting event. This will be held on December 2nd or 3rd and you would be helping sort the amazing donated gifts and delivering them to families in need all over Chicago. This is a great way to help the community even if you cannot donate financially. Simply showing up with a smiling face and warm attitude will be enough to spread the holiday cheer!
https://www.childrens-place.org/aaf-gift-sorting/
Another amazing charity that helps spread the holiday cheer is Toys For Tots. Similarly to Children’s Place, this organization has been around for decades. Started by Marine Corp reserves Major Bill Hendricks and his wife Diane, who wanted to donate presents to children but unfortunately there were no such organizations at the time. This was the catalyst that helped spark their idea for this wonderful charity we now know as Toys for Tots. With help from Walt Disney himself Toys for Tots has been helping thousands of children feel loved, seen and valued holiday season after holiday season. If you would like to help, there are a couple of options to choose from.
You can donate financially online at:
You can also locate a local toy drop off center and donate as many toys as you want! The only restriction to donating toys is that it has to be new. While donating old toys we may have never used is still a wonderful thing to do, Toys for Tots believes that even children in need deserve to open something brand new on christmas day just like most other children in America.
https://chicago-il.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/donate-toys.aspx
You may even sign up to volunteer to do behind the scenes work here:
https://chicago-il.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/local-volunteer-form.aspx
A local foundation that we personally have seen help local children is Fill A Heart 4 Kids. This is a Lake Forest originated charity that has focused on providing children with educational experiences, financial management skills and providing various birthday or holiday celebrations! They have amazing year round events such as their latest event called Project Boo which helped children have access to resources that ensured a happy Halloween. Their current event that is ongoing from October to December, is called Project Warm 4 Kids. Fill A Heart 4 Kids is taking this time to raise money for necessities such as hats and gloves, coats and sherpa blankets. Anyway you can help support our peers at Fill A Heart 4 Kids is greatly appreciated and will help spread happiness to children in our community!
https://www.fillaheart4kids.org/copy-of-home-3
Lastly, many of us know veterans or are one yourself and know the hardships that can follow such emotionally heavy events. While this organization is ongoing year round, I still feel it is important to include this one in our list of charities. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs has been working hard to help those who have served our country in their times of need. Some of the problems this donation service targets is providing sufficient in/outpatient program funding, helping homeless veterans, as well as helping fund caregivers of veterans. Veterans have been serving our country for generations, so it only feels right to give back during this time of year!
https://www.cdceportal.va.gov/donate_online/
While these are only a few organizations there are always opportunities to help the community through local food banks or volunteering at your local animal shelter!
There is so much more to be said about the amazing and ground breaking work these organizations have done but if you want to donate to any of the places you can access their websites through the links provided.
Thank you so much for reading and we hope this inspired you to help out this holiday season!