CEO Blog – Gifts To Give

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40,000 New Volunteers arrive at GiftsToGive

April 4, 2019. Acushnet, Massachusetts

Too windy to go sailing or maneuvering a kite. Way, way too windy to fly, especially if you’re a honey bee! Which turns out to be perfect for motivating 40,000 volunteers into their new home! Seems the bees were in a hurry to get out of the wind, into their shelters and anxious to free their Queens.

If you’re thinking “what do honey bees have to do with a children’s charity”?
See our original story HERE.

Logan sets a most perfect example for all of us!

CEO Blog, News from GiftsToGive, Youth Philanthropy

CEO Blog
Acushnet, Massachusetts

In the middle of a very hectic day, in walks Logan. Logan is 5 years-old. He was on a mission and needed to talk to someone in charge.

Luckily (for me), I was on duty and I received a huge dose of inspiration!

Bishop Stang Fresmen Class – Connecting to Giving and Service

CEO Blog, News from GiftsToGive, Youth Philanthropy

One of our annual traditions, is meeting the entire Bishop Stang Freshmen class at the factory.

Photo archive HERE. (This year’s photos are a gift from students; Amelia Bailey and Emily Iovanna)

We could talk all day, about what is right about young people, but we prefer they talk for themselves.

Thank you to student Veronica Bernier for the following essay:

Kim is back from vacation!

CEO Blog, Community, Community Video, Volunteers

What makes a person spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars every year, re-purposing, repairing and giving hundreds of bicycles away to local children in-need?
Ask Kim Camara of Yesteryear Cyclery why he does it, the next time you see him!

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- Sunday, December 8 – Crafts Fair For A Cause!
  
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- Student to Student Tutoring
  
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Stories – Youth Philanthropy
- Words of wisdom from an eight year-old!
  
  Wisdom is all around us, if we listen. Most recently, brilliant, simple and very clear wisdom came to us from Sophia, our favorite eight year-old, Uber Volunteer!
  
  CLICK for Story
  Read More »
- Eagle Scout Collects 1331 Books!
  
  Kenny, an Eagle Scout on a mission!
  
  Kenny is not your average teenager. He did something amazing for his Eagle Scout Project.
  Read More »
- Worcester Academy
  
  Students from Worcester Academy made a field trip to visit with us last week. Photos from their visit are here. We ordinarily would talk about the experience, but teacher David Baillie was kind enough to send us the following:
  
  “Community. We’re about community.”
  
  “This was the response of a student to a seemingly simple question: “What is Worcester Academy all about?” The question, posed by GiftsToGive founder Jim Stevens, hung over the fifty Worcester Academy students for several heartbeats before it was answered.
  
  We had traveled that Saturday morning from Worcester to Acushnet to fulfill a community service obligation, a school-mandated requirement that is part of every student’s experience. The fifty boys, all upper classmen, were dorm mates; they boarded the bus that morning without complaint, napped or talked or joked around for the hour it took to get to Acushnet, and then assembled in the bare-bones repurposed warehouse that served as the factory’s base of operations.
  Read More »
- Abby’s Mitzvah Project
  
  Abby collected over 600 books for her mitzvah project.
  
  Thirteen year-old Abby redefined giving, she collected and made a gift of 600 books as part of her Mitzvah project!
  Read More »
- Tabor Academy’s Baxter House – ROCKS!
  
  Baxter House Students
  
  The winners of Tabor Academy’s first quarter “Green Wars” competition, were the 25 young women in Baxter House! They collectively chose to give back.
  
  Under the careful eye of the dorm’s “dean of green,” junior Sara Kosicki, the Baxter House residents were declared the campus’s best and most conscientious recyclers. As a result, money accumulated at the redemption center was given to the Baxter girls as a prize for their dorm’s thoughtful approach to caring for the planet. Rather than use the money for a weekend pizza party, the girls chose to use the money to buy socks and underwear. Why? Because they answered our call for help! Our supply of new socks and underwear, essentials many take for granted, is dangerously low. Hearing this, these amazing students acted!
  Read More »
- Listening to Five Year-old Elmire
  
  We just met two remarkable women; Kelli, an ageless beauty and Elmire, a five year-old beauty, brainiac and philanthropist.
  
  Elmire had a birthday party last week and in her own words, told us: ” I just turned 5. I had a birthday party and I asked all of my friends to bring something to donate to GiftsToGive instead of a gift for me. It made me feel good inside.”
  Read More »
- Paige Donates Her Birthday Presents
  
  Paige sets a most perfect example
  
  Eight year-old Paige, did something amazing on her birthday.
  
  Her parents held a party and Paige asked her friends to bring a new birthday present for a GiftsToGive child, who would not ordinarily receive a gift on their birthday.
  
  Paige brought us 31 new birthday presents to be given to local children on their special day.
  
  In her “doing” Paige has not only made a huge difference, but has become a most excellent example to her siblings and friends about the power of giving.
  Read More »
- Ashley Donates Her Doll Collection
  
  The Amazing Ashley!
  
  Ashley attends Dartmouth Middle School.
  
  She donated her entire collection of dolls, dollhouses, furniture and accessories from her “Sweet Street Collections”
  Read More »
- Listening to Olivia, eighth grade philanthropist!
  
  Youth Philanthropist Olivia
  
  We see thousands of student volunteers every year, most are amazing! Some are extraordinary and then there is Olivia. To call Olivia super extraordinary or unbelievable, would be an understatement!
  
  Olivia has volunteered with us for five months and in that time has directly helped hundreds of local children receive clothes, books, toys and other basic essentials. Recently she arrived with bags and bags full of brand new items to donate.
  
  We asked her to tell us in writing what was going on and here is what she told us – ” I was first introduced to GiftsToGive while on a field trip with my fellow classmates and teachers from the Albert F. Ford Middle School here in Acushnet. After spending half of a school day volunteering in the building, I decided I would begin coming back throughout the summer. Through the course of the summer I worked to assemble clothing packages for children. When I first assembled the packages, I was blown away by how many orders there were to be filled.
  Read More »
- Where Do Youth Leaders Come From?
  
  Troop 80506 – Brockton, MA
  
  We met four remarkable young women today. Girl Scouts all and they were on a mission – a mission to make a difference.
  
  We asked their leader to write a short background on this small but mighty group, this is what she had to say – “When we started our Girl Scout season this year we had a significantly smaller troop. The girls that stayed had one common interest and that was to volunteer and make a difference.
  
  They started together as little girls being led by leaders. They are now young women making their own decisions and leading others to make a difference. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to make a difference. We look forward to coming back.”
  Read More »
- Berkley Brownies, help to define tangible philanthropy!
  
  Q: What do you get when you mix nine Berkley Brownies with 500 pounds of gently-used, children’s clothes donations?
  A: Enough warm winter clothes, inspected, sorted and organized to help 24 local children receive a great gift package!
  
  Photos from their afternoon are here.
  
  Here is an email we received from their leadership team – ” Thank you so much for allowing our Brownie Girl Scout Troop to come and volunteer at GiftsToGive and showing them that they can be an important part of helping others no matter how old they are. We had such a wonderful experience. The girls, at eight and nine years of age, were saying things like “this was awesome”, “it was a good experience”, and that “it felt good to help”.
  Read More »
- Our 2016 MLK Teach-in and Day Of Service
  
  We focused this special holiday on our service learning initiative with local Middle School students. We bused two-hundred students to Normandin Middle School.
  
  Forty high school and college student leaders and select faculty, facilitated a three hour “Teach-in” revolving around the history of the voting rights movement, the activism and specifically, how students made a difference then and can again. The program also focused on the importance of voting and participating citizenship. (Day after local press here ).
  Read More »

News from GiftsToGive
- Give Magic!
  
  We’re not your average thrift store! Open Saturdays, 9am to 2pm Read More »
- Short term Rental NEEDED, on the SouthCoast, March – May
  
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- Tabor Academy students defining Tangible Philanthropy and Big Citizenship
  
  Last Saturday, Tabor Academy students and their faculty/advisers descended on an old Berkshire Hathaway mill in the south-end of New Bedford and moved the needle! Photos Read More »

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