Dear LT,
Are you looking for a meaningful way to give back this holiday season? Consider donating so that a family in the Boston area experiencing homelessness or transitioning from homelessness can buy gifts for their family. This is my 9th year organizing a Holiday Drive for Heading Home, an organization located in Boston dedicated to ending homelessness. With the pandemic and soaring prices, the need is greater than ever. Heading Home would like to give parents the dignity of choosing gifts for their children and households. Therefore, there are three ways to provide holiday cheer to families with children: 1. Visit https://www.headinghomeinc.org/take-action/volunteer/seasonal-opportunities/heading-home-for-the-holidays/ to access this year’s Heading Home for the Holidays options, including gift card purchasing and holiday card-making. Please make your donation by December 4th. 2. Buy PHYSICAL Stop & Shop gift cards ONLINE in $25 increments OR Venmo money to me (@jaletk) by November 19th. Please follow these buying directions <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AniinjtCd0yCTmWbdkbP38196ZvjLb0mjlY5tsHIneI/edit?usp=sharing>. The Lexington Stop & Shop donates 5% of whatever we buy. I will deliver all the cards to Heading Home. 3. Buy children's books by November 19th that I will deliver to Heading Home via the wishlists at Amazon <https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/12SXSNL0Z5AUV?ref_=wl_share> or Porter Square Books <https://www.portersquarebooks.com/wishlist/2605> (PSB). Use the code HOME2022 at PSB to get 10% off of any of the books on the Heading Home wishlist. Books will ship directly to me. If you choose to buy from a different vendor, please ship them to me (19 Brooks Road, Lincoln, MA 01773). Please consider making the holidays a little brighter for individuals in our community. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me and if you do give, please send me your email address (jale...@gmail.com) so I can send you a tax receipt and send an annual notification of the Drive. Sincerely, Kim Jalet P.S. For updates, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/somervillemomsheadinghomeholidaydrive. P.P.S. A note about receipts for taxes. I will notify you when I receive children’s books. If you buy Stop & Shop gift cards and/or children’s books, at the end of the Drive, I will send out an in-kind receipt for your tax records. If you donate via the Heading Home website, you will get a donor receipt from them. ABOUT HEADING HOME: Heading Home is an impressive organization that considers the big picture as they work to fulfill their mission to “end homelessness in Greater Boston by providing a supported pathway to self-sufficiency that begins with a home, together with critical services such as life skills, financial literacy, and job training.” According to their website, Heading Home “provides emergency, transitional and permanent housing, and support services, to low-income homeless and formerly homeless families and individuals in the communities of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, Chelsea, Malden, Everett Lawrence, Revere, and Quincy.” Massachusetts is the third most expensive place to live in the country. To afford a two-bedroom apartment, a parent must work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, and make more than double the minimum wage. Yet, the average household income of Heading Home clients is under $14,000 per year. Ninety percent of their families are led by a single mother, and the average age of a child in Heading Home programs is 8 years old. In fiscal year 2022, Heading Home served 1,311 clients, 691 children, and helped people in 86 households move out of shelters. By providing both housing and services to clients, 97% of households remained in permanent housing one year after leaving a shelter.
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