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!
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SKY Campers
An abundance of gifts came from the SKY (Summer Bible Camp) and found their way into the hands of hundreds of local kids in need, thanks to the children of St. Christopher and St. Theresa Parishes in Tiverton.
Elementary Philanthropist, Galaxy!
Today we met a most perfect grandmother, Jeanne Plourde and one of two young philanthropists; Galaxy.
Galaxy told us that she and her cousin Olivia had two backpacks full of school supplies to donate, for two children that were not as lucky as she and her cousin!
Talk about the power of giving!
We asked grandmother Jeanne to send us a note about how this all happened and here is what she wrote –
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In walk four year-old Tobias and six year-old Galen, with dozens of brand new toys and books to donate. They told us a remarkable story, that their parents had helped them celebrate their respective birthdays; Tobias with a swim party and Galen with a football party. They asked their friends to bring an unwrapped present for GiftsToGive to help local children who were not as fortunate and would not get a birthday present!
Kenny, an Eagle Scout on a mission!
Kenny is not your average teenager. He did something amazing for his Eagle Scout Project.
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Summer Intern Wrap-up Party Luncheon: Ice cream cake and water balloons in the conference room!
Our summer intern story is a story of: service learning, small, medium and large challenges, heartbreak, immaturity, revelation, love, hope, mentoring, education, relationship, service, giving, daily Khan Academy math, frustration, maturity, modeling, customer-service, schedules, disappointment, hard projects, easy projects, hard work, being lazy, meeting hundreds of new people from all over, honor, consequences, integrity, reading, inspiration, fun, open heart surgery, wisdom teeth extraction, poison ivy, sunburn, “what-if”, public relations, marketing, communication, non-communication, truth, independence, explicit instruction, fetching, leadership, cleaning the lavatories, patience, respect, fractions, healthy choices, smart choices, not so smart choices, being invisible, gardening, grumpy adults, being seen and not heard, breaking things, loosing things, organizing things, asking for things, finding things, more pizza than you could ever imagine and pretty much all the other stuff that happens, every day, at the mill!
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Student Intern, Molly
Molly’s quest to collect 1,000 gently used sports balls has hit snag after snag, then last week something positive happened.
The back story – Initially Molly went to the Bruins and asked for help in the form of a player coming to New Bedford and she and her hockey team would host a skating event. The Bruins could not send a player but did offer some of their surplus equipment – so that is working itself through. Then Molly went to the Celtics for help and they also could not send a player down to New Bedford. (You can see Molly’s letters to them below).
The positive thing that happened last week came in the form of Boston University and FYSOP! Sixty-eight incoming BU freshmen spent two days at the mill helping us process clothes (we were at the critical process place of swapping out summer clothes for winter clothes and getting ready for back to school.) See that story here.
Last week we received an email from Anthony Moccia asking to be connected to Molly. Who is Anthony Moccia you ask? Anthony is a senior at BU and was one of the chaperones for the the visiting BU freshmen. Here is Antony’s email –
Read More »Every once in-a-while, we’re flabbergasted and we don’t flabbergast easily!
Nicole Long, one of our earliest adopters wrote last week – “SO PROUD of my niece Abby and her cousin Georgia: over Christmas vacation they brainstormed a charitable organization called “GAB” and collected over $100 in one weekend to help people less fortunate. This morning, Abby gave me the money… (Which is being matched by their Grandmother Blair!) to deliver to GiftsToGive and I can’t think of a more beautiful start to a new year. Love these girls and their giant hearts.”
Kayla Smith, Flavia Miranda, Adrienne DePina, India Santiago, Sabine Charles, Anitra Alves, Alianah Grajales, Sofia Dias, Diana Jesus, Rylee Nogueira, Natasha Ferro and Martha Kay. (Not in order)
Two amazing women; Natasha Ferro and Martha Kay have been mentoring groups of middle school girls, after school, since 2012 at the Normandin Middle School.
“The Sorority” morphed into a Youth Philanthropy Group this year and with the guidance of Natasha and Martha their young women focused on issues that concerned them. In the beginning of the school year, they brainstormed a list of needs within our community and settled on animal abuse, domestic violence, gang activity, and homelessness.
This week they made a presentation to the Greater New Bedford Homeless Providers Network. Their speech was inspiring as was their work. Their speech defines the work they’ve done, please read it.
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Jason Woolf
Jason spent his senior year at Dartmouth High School, as our Social Entrepreneurial Intern. He then went on to Watson University, NYU and is currently at University of Cape Town.
We think Jason is a bright and shining light and a most perfect example of giving and service. Jason has also become a “For Real” Social Entrepreneur.
This project is important to Jason and we’re committed to help him start-up and launch – please help us, to help him. We’ll pass along 100% of all monies raised!
Check out Umbiyozo.org to learn more about Jason’s project and to make an online donation.
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Joesph DeMello Elementary School
4th and 5th grade Student Council
On Monday, 70 members of Dartmouth’s Joseph DeMello School’s Student Council performed an afternoon of service..
The group of 4th and 5th graders, who have held donation drives to benefit some of the 35,000 local children living in poverty, volunteered their time inspecting, sorting and processing a zillion pounds of donated clothing and toys. They also experienced the power of giving and service in the most tangible ways!
When asked about her time at Gifts to Give, 5th grader Mia Paynton said – “I really enjoyed helping out today. I want to bring my sister and mom back to volunteer this summer. It is so important to help others.”
Photos from our day are here.
Read More »Michaelah Noelle Nunes is an amazing young women!
Michaelah at the Miss New Bedford’s Outstanding Teen Competition
Michaelah has competed for 4 years in the Miss New Bedford’s Outstanding Teen pageant.
This is her second consecutive year hosting a community drive to benefit GiftsToGive as part of her chosen platform, titled A Real Life Science Experiment: The Ripple Effect.
Michaelah intends to show others how even the smallest form of contribution, much like a drop in a small pond, can have a ripple effect, reaching far and wide.
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The Amazing Ashley!
Ashley attends Dartmouth Middle School.
She donated her entire collection of dolls, dollhouses, furniture and accessories from her “Sweet Street Collections”
