Wow! Amazing Events and Wonderful News!
What an amazing set of events this year in Colorado. We served over 240 kids this year! As you know, my immediate family and I have relocated to Naples, Florida and so Nik and I flew out to Colorado for the events. We had the most generous and helpful volunteers ever! We've never before had such a large number of volunteers, and I think we really got spoiled - events are exponentially easier with more volunteers. At one event we had 17!
We were very fortunate to have Jim and Janice Watson with us this year. They will be starting their own events in Summit county next holiday season, and they volunteered with us and brought several of their friends as well, to learn more about how we do Giving Kids. I think their participation was of great mutual benefit.
We were again pleased to have volunteers return who have been with us for years, as well. Once volunteers experience the joy of these events, they often come back year after year. We really do have so much fun.
Changes and new partnerships are happening for Giving Kids, and we are really excited. I mentioned Jim and Janice Watson, starting an offshoot of Giving Kids for their area. We are also being partially sponsored by FCC Naples, which means that our organization has a whole new network of support. It also means that donations are now tax-deductible. That will be good news for our faithful financial partners! We will also be able to approach businesses and ask for donations of both goods and money to support Giving Kids. That will really make a difference.
I am working on a fundraising brunch, as well as having a table at FCC Naples' outreach fair, and we'll be starting all sorts of other fundraising activities in the next few months.