Share Your Bounty
JOIN OUR EFFORTS TO MAKE THANKSGIVING HAPPEN FOR FAMILIES DISPLACED BY HURRICANE SANDY!
Since so many families have lost their homes, we can only imagine how difficult the upcoming holiday season will be for them. But you can help us help.
We are arranging to provide a full “Thanksgiving in a Box” meal to as many hurricane affected families in the New York area as we can.
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When a deadly tornado hit Joplin, Missouri in May 2011, killing 161 people and destroying much of the town, Family-to-Family reached out to help.
Using our 1-to-1 model, we matched 55 families that lost homes and belongings in the tornado with sponsors from around the country. Each sponsor first sent a duffel bag for their Joplin family…providing a place to put recovered possessions. Included with the duffle was a questionnaire that asked what items were needed most. After getting the answers back, sponsors sent packages filled with those most needed items — (e.g. blankets, sheets, & clothing) and/or gift cards…and wrote to “their” families as well. And when the internet company Groupon featured Family-to-Family’s Joplin effort on its website in June 2011, we raised enough money to help an additional 11 Joplin families – bringing the total helped to 66 families.
With our “Pennies, Nickels, Dimes and Quarters from Heaven!” effort, Family-to-Family encouraged school children around the country to fill 1-gallon milk containers with pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters brought in from home. Collected funds were sent from the schools to Partners in Health, Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF to aid in the relief effort.
“It’s in the Bag/The Home Essentials Project” – After Hurricane Katrina, F-to-F connected over 1,000 displaced Katrina families with an equal number of sponsoring families who helped supply them with basic essentials (e.g., toasters, pots, blankets, towels, flatware, clothing) once they landed in some form of housing. Sponsoring families emailed Family-to-Family and were matched with Katrina families referred to F-to-F by The Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the United Way and the Houston Housing Authority.
Through the “Guest Shopper” program in 2006, F-to-F raised approximately $15,000 from corporations and other groups for Hurricane Katrina families. A member of Family-to-Family acted as a “volunteer shopper”, contacting Katrina families, finding out what they needed most, shopping online for them, and having the items shipped to them, using the donated funds.
Katrina Holiday Toy Drive – F-to-F organized a toy drive in December of 2005 for Katrina families in 7 gulf communities that yielded over 12,000 donated toys, wrapping paper and ribbon. Toys were collected by families, scout troops, offices, etc. Freight trucks were donated, funds were raised at work-place Holiday parties… even a group of September 11 families came forward with over $10,000 for F-to-F to purchase and ship toys to where they were needed the most.
“Pennies from Heaven” – Similar to the Haiti effort, Family-to-Family asked schoolchildren from four New York schools to bring small change to school to help the tsunami’s victims. The results were overwhelming, and $5,000 in change was raised and donated to tsunami relief efforts.
