#GivingTuesday Amazon Wish List

#GivingTuedsay refers to the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. This year, #GivingTuesday falls on December 3. It is a movement to create a day of charitable giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season. Giving Tuesday was started in 2012 as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season (Black Friday and Cyber Monday). This annual celebration encourages everyone to take a moment and give back to those in need within your community.

At Carpenter’s Place we are fortunate to have a base of very loyal donors who support us and our mission all year round. The fact of the matter is, homelessness in Rockford is not a once-a-year problem. It’s something that effects our community 365 days a year. We strive to help these individuals, and now families too, by providing the tools to help them rebuild their lives. These tools can be as simple as a place to wash their clothes, to something more critical like helping secure a state ID. Our dedicated case management team provides accountability for our guests. This system of responsibility, combined with the determination and hard work of our guests, completes the formula for success.

In the last 12 months, homeless adults in the Carpenter’s Place case management program achieved the following results:

• 179 obtained stable housing
• 174 secured employment (136 full-time; 36 part-time)

Together we are ending homelessness in Rockford…one person at a time! We are deeply grateful to everyone who has made this life-changing work possible.

Winter is an especially difficult time for our guests. The harsh weather conditions make everything more challenging. With the goal of helping to ease some basic burdens, like cold feet and hands, we have created a #GivingTuesday amazon wish list that is full of things we need most this time of year.

The items on this list are things our guests greatly need, and we are so grateful for any and all donations. We hope you’ll take a look and see if you can help us check off this list! If you prefer to purchase at local stores and deliver to CP, that’s great too.

If you would rather make a monetary donation as your holiday gift, we have great news!! All cash donations made during the month of December will be doubled by a group of generous donors! This means $25 turns into $50; $50 into $100; and so on! It’s a great way to make a tremendous impact!

However you choose to give this #GivingTuesday, know that you are so appreciated by all of us at Carpenter’s Place. If it wasn’t for generous and caring people like you, our work wouldn’t be possible. So, thank you! Thank you for thinking of others. Thank you for taking the time to help us with our most urgent needs. And thank you for doing your part to help end homelessness in Rockford.

One more thing to consider…

If you plan on doing other holiday shopping on amazon, make sure you’re signed up for smile.amazon.com! It is a simple and automatic way for you to support Carpenter’s Place every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to CP. It’s so simple. Go to smile.amazon.com and select Carpenter’s Place during the set-up process. The best part is, you can use your existing amazon account. It’s super seamless!

Happy holidays!