The Season of Giving

If you are reading this blog and are also my friend on Facebook (which any of you are) lots of you will have already seen pictures and read posts about my involvement with a goods drive for the homeless in Southern Utah as part of an article series I wrote about the homeless problem in our area for thespectrum.com.

A couple months ago I wrote an article about the number of homeless school-age children in my county- 850. That's a LOT of kids without a regular bed to sleep in each night. And that's not including their non-school-age siblings. There are so many reasons that cause homelessness and for some families, they just get so down and out that it makes it difficult to even live more than day to day. So a co worker of mine and our publisher at the newspaper where I work came up with the idea to do a blanket and sleeping bag drive to donate to the homeless.

I wrote two stories to introduce the #StepUpSTG initiative and we had tons of community support. We collected several thousand blankets, sleeping bags, tons of coats and hygiene products, scarves, gloves and stuffed toys as well as over $18,000 in money donations! It was amazing. I was so impressed with our community being so willing to help out those in need. Because we are all in need at some point in our lives. It may not be financially, but we all encounter a time when we just need support from one another. It's great to see people so willing to do that.

I know it is so cliche to talk about Christmas as the season of giving, but it really is, and being part of this experience really helped me to get into the spirit a little more :) My husband and I aren't religious at all, but I still love being part of charity and understanding that it takes such a community effort to see a successful and thriving society.

If you're reading this and are one of the individuals who took the time to donate to our cause, I thank you so much. You've done a great thing for our community and impacted lives in such a special way.

Happy Holidays to all you amazing friends, family and community members I am so lucky to know.

~Samantha