Our “guest vlog” series continues and we excitedly introduce you to Deidre and Shelby from non-profit community organization Project Give. It all started with one donation of a Thanksgiving turkey and snowballed from there. This amazing organization brings the community together by bridging the gap of those who want to help and those that need help. A truly wonderful story of people helping people that we love to share. Their story……
It all started with a single Thanksgiving turkey. A single selfless gesture. A single spark of kindness. I was contacted by a gentlemen in our community who needed my help. His employer had gifted him a Thanksgiving turkey as a holiday bonus but since he had already purchased one, he wanted me to find a family who could use it. I called him back the following day and excitedly told him I’d found a family who was VERY grateful to have a turkey. “Good,” he expressed, “because when I told my family what I was doing, they all decided to pitch in and now we have 10 more turkeys that we need you to find recipients for”! I was in awe.
I started reaching out to local churches and schools and soon had a list of 10 families I would contact to offer this amazing gift. Before I did that, I wondered if we could take it a step further. I decided to reach out to local businesses to see if they’d donate money for us to buy side dishes for ALL 11 turkeys. Instead of just a turkey, perhaps we could get these families entire meals! The first phone call I made was to a businessman who was well known for his kind heart. I explained our project and asked if he’d want to ‘sponsor’ a side dish…the green beans, the corn, the rolls perhaps? He loved the idea and said he was ‘in’! “Awesome!” I said. “So which side dish would you like to purchase for the families?” Without hesitation, he replied “all of them.”Once again, I was in awe.
I was so amazed at how quickly this had snowballed from one single turkey to 11 full Thanksgiving meals. I shared the story on our social media pages and within minutes we had messages from people wanting to help. After brainstorming ways to get more people involved, we decided to ask the community to donate desserts for the 11 families. On delivery day, we had community members showing up with countless pies and cookies. We even had a young high school girl who brought us cupcakes that her and her older sister had made. That year, 11 families in our community received meals that they otherwise wouldn’t have had…from the turkey, the stuffing and the green beans, down to the pie, the ice cream and even Thanksgiving napkins. There were tears shed as a recently widowed mother saw the huge box of food making its way to her doorstep and laughter as a small boy saw the scarecrow centerpiece peeking out of his family’s box of food.
I was left with two thoughts that day.
1: Every act of kindness, whether it’s big or small, always has the potential of changing lives for the better.
2: There are incredible people all around us that are willing to selflessly give…oftentimes they just don’t know how to get started.
It was then that “Project Give” was born. Since then, we’ve been able to help thousands of people in our community simply by being the bridge between those that want to help and those that need the help.
You see, it wasn’t that our community was lacking in kind people. What our community needed was that single Thanksgiving turkey. That single selfless gesture. That single spark that would snowball into a fire of kindness and offer hope to those who had lost it.
Project Give can be found:
One last friendly video message from Project Give to remind us all of what’s really important: