Salvation Army Donation

God turned the $20 tithe I was given into $470 given to the Salvation Army. All praise, glory, and honor goes to the one true God and his son Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Reaching out...

My wife, daughters and myself are actually members of St. Matthews Lutheran (WELS) in Spokane, but nevertheless, we participated in your $20 Project, which we thought was a great idea.
One of the many things I do is run an Animaland (same a Build-A-Bear) event program through the schools in Reno, Sparks, and Carson City, Nevada. I set aside the $20 for the purchase of skins and outfits at my cost to use with the schools that I work with in Nevada.
After I ran the designated event (which was actually in Susanville, CA) that I had set aside the $20 for, I took all of that profit as well as the original $20 and donated it to the Spokane Crisis Shelter. My wife also dropped off a women's study bible, a teen bible, and a children's bible at the shelter.
We felt blessed to be a part of the Redeemer $20 Project even though we are (WELS). Maybe our two synods no longer fellowship, but we are all still brothers and sisters in Christ.
My family has chosen to worship with you this Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas,

Did you see?

Did you see the story about the $20 Project in the Spokesman Review?  If not, you can find it HERE.  There is still time to send in your $20 Project stories.  Email us at 20dollarproject@redeemeralive.org.  

Lynda, Rustin and Joseph Hall display the partially completed gingerbread castle they are making for Christ Kitchen’s annual Gingerbread Build-off. They took on the castle construction as part of the $20 project at Reedemer Lutheran Church in the Spokane Valley.

Our Family Project

Our families elected to combine their $20 Project funds ($120 total) and use them to support "The Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive" a program that matches donated pajamas with a new book from Scholastic Books. We advertised and then collected new pajamas from Preschool families,. Movie Night attenders, and Keller-Williams realtors. Our pajamas became 51 pairs and 51 new books to be combined with 6,402 pairs already collected as of 12/07/2010. These will be distributed to abused or abandoned children, many never able to enjoy the comfort of having a mother or father to tuck them in at bedtime. We thank God for programs like this that provide a warm and cozy Christmas for vulnerable children both here and around the world.

Getting Children Involved in the $20 Project!

It is important to us that our family's $60 went toward something or someone that personally affects our children.  Even though there are so many wonderful nonprofit organizations out in our community and world, we wanted our money to go toward a cause that would leave our kids with an emotional connection.  We noticed that at our regular grocery store, Barney's Harvest Foods, on Dishman Mica, that one of our favorite staples, Teri, is going through cancer and the store had a fundraiser bake sale and raffle to help raise funds.  When our kids found out that a person that brings such joy to us every time we enter the store is going through such a hard time, in less than 10 sec. the decision was made to donate the money to her.  The monetary donation is so much more than just a dollar amount.  It's that little piece of love, hope, and the feeling of "I can help her this way" that we want our children to not only remember, but carry on in their lives as they grow up.

My $20 Project Story...

I spend a lot of time at Barneys, our local grocery store.  I learned one day that a checker named Terri, who has been there many years, was recently diagnosed with cancer. The employees of Barneys were advertising a bake sale that they were planning for Nov. 20^th to raise money for Terri and her family. I used my $20 to purchase ingredients to make a case of “bars in a jar” (layered ingredients for bars in a quart size mason jar). All the jars sold! My $20 was more than tripled and all the proceeds went to Terri. I felt so blessed to help with this community effort.      

Helping Local Teens

We received $20 from Redeemer on the $20 Project Sunday.  We decided to add an additional $100 of our own money making our total $120.  After much thought, we decided to use our money to help local homeless teens through the Cross Walk organization.    We discovered that Cross Walk cares for approximately 450 teens and children per week.  Cross Walk volunteers walk the streets at night giving out small necessities to kids on the street.

We took our $120 to the Union Gospel Mission thrift store to purchase hats and gloves to donate to Cross Walk.  While there, we told the story of the $20 Project to the employees.  Upon hearing of this amazing project, the UGM employees agreed to give us an additional 80 hand-crocheted hats and neck warmers.     After the trip the UGM thrift store, we had $40.00 remaining.  We went to Costco and purchased candy bars and energy bars.

We took all of these items to Cross Walk.  As we were leaving on that cold day, we saw several young teenagers entering.  All of them were cold and none were wearing warm winter clothing.  We felt so blessed to have been able to help such a wonderful organization.

May God continue to open the hearts of the community to keep the vulnerable members of our community warm and well cared for.

Founded in 1985, Crosswalk is an emergency shelter, a school drop-out prevention program, and a group of lifesaving and life-changing programs dedicated to breaking the cycle of youth homelessness. In an average year, Crosswalk serves more than 1,000 youth. Emergency shelter is available 365 days a year and all services are free and voluntary.

Most Crosswalk kids (ages 13-17) have complicated personal histories that include:

• family conflict
• lack of education
• substance abuse
• mental health issues
• high risk for depression and suicide
• sexual abuse or rape
• parental substance abuse

Crosswalk restores hope and encourages personal responsibility among homeless youth, including those who eventually return to their families, by providing:

• family reconciliation services
• clothing, showers and personal hygiene products
• employment-readiness program and job-placement assistance
• independent living training including life-skills and self-sufficiency classes
• attachment and bonding classes for young mother and fathers
• on site Head Start program
• medical and mental-health care
• school drop-out prevention program
• substance-abuse treatment and prevention
• tutoring and enrichment activities
• college scholarship opportunities (donor funded)
• transportation 
• access to our transitional housing programs

Run by a small professional staff, Crosswalk relies heavily on the generosity of churches, service clubs, families and businesses who provide daily meals as well as community volunteers who provide tutoring and enrichment activities and donors who provide financial support, in-kind services and scholarship funds.