As my dad would say, today is Christmas Eve’s, Eve’s, Eve’s, Eve’s Eve’s…. you get the idea. Thanksgiving is behind us as well as Hanukkah, and we are deep into the holiday season. Along with being a season of celebrating our faiths, connecting with family and spreading good cheer, it is also a season of Giving. Many of you helped kick off the season of giving by donating items at the Joy of Giving Charity Event last month. I’m asking you to either join in or keep it up by donating an item from the Inter-Faith Housing Alliance’s Registry on Amazon.com
From their website, “Inter-Faith Housing Alliance is a non-profit organization providing housing and supportive services for homeless families throughout the greater Montgomery County, Pennsylvania region since 1982.” The Shades of Social Media (a blogging community of women of color who support and encourage each other as we make a place for ourselves, and our stories, online) is coordinating a virtual holiday toy drive for the Inter-Faith Housing Alliance’s emergency shelter. There are currently 8 Families in need of gifts for the holidays with children ranging from 2 months through teen years:
Mom and 3 girls
Mom and 1 boy and infant girl
Dad and 1 boy and 1 girl
Mom and 4 teenagers, 2 girls and 2 boys
Mom and 1 girl and 1 boy
Mom and 1 boy
Mom and 2 boys and 1 girl
Mom and 2 boys
There are many things that we do to give ourselves little bits of happiness this time of year. We visit family, attend special holiday worship services, cook our families traditional favorite meals, watch family oriented programing, and decorate our homes with lights, stockings, and all varieties of festive odds and ends. While the holiday season is about more than gift giving it is probably the most common and often the most fun part of these holiday celebratory activities. I hope, like me, you know the joy of giving someone something special at the holidays. The look on their face as they open the gift bag or remove the holiday wrappings with anticipation. The smile as they take in the gift you gave them and the realization that you felt they were important enough to be thinking about at holiday time. There are families who will not be able to take part in that aspect of the holidays.
As a member of the Shades of Social Media I am so happy to participate in this holiday drive for families in need. It fills me with great joy that the Shades of Social Media is stepping in to fill the gap for some of these families. There will be 7 moms and 1 dad who will be able to witness the joy on their children’s faces as they open gifts. These families will know that despite whatever circumstances that lead them to the Inter-Faith Housing Alliance they are important and worthy of being thought about at the holidays.
The Shades of Social Media and the Inter-Faith Alliance has made it super easy for you to get involved and help make this as happy a holiday season as possible for these families. All you have to do is visit the Amazon Gift Registry and select an item and make your purchase online. The items can be shipped directly to The Alliance. You don’t have to pick up anything, ship anything, or wrap anything. You can even add a special note wishing them happy holidays if you want. There are plenty of items left on the list. The families are not asking for much just some baby products and toys for the little ones and a few household items to help the moms and dads when they get back on their feet. Prices of the items on the registry range from as low as $7 up to $60. Yesterday I purchased five items from the registry and had them shipped directly to the alliance for a total of less than $50. Totally worth the money to help these families have a good Christmas and happy holiday season.
I hope you consider helping out the families residing at the Inter-Faith Alliance. Did you purchase something off of the Alliance’s Registry? Do you find yourself in more of a giving spirit during the Holiday Season? What Charities do you donate to regularly during the Holidays or throughout the year?
PS. If you write a blog post or tweet, Instagram or Facebook about the Inter-Faith Housing Alliance Gift Registry please use the hashtag #ShadesCares
This is a great idea and I'd love to participate!
This is an awesome idea! i will go on and see what I can contribute. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Arlett, what a nice charity, I just purchased an item for it. We used to do it at the place I work and no one was able to start it this year, we would buy for families in need. So I was looking for a charity to pick. Thanks for doing this and giving us an opportunity to give as well Arlett.