Christmas PIF 2010

[pitt2magic]

My favorite charity in Chattanooga is the Chambliss House. It is both a daycare/preschool for poor families. They keep the kids for free or a reduced rate so parents can go to work to support thier families. The other half of the place is an orphanage. I know that they lost a good portion of thier financial help from the city this year. We try to go down every December to see how many kids will be spending Christmas at the orphanage and make sure they are taken care of. Just an option if you are looking for something. There are so many worthy charities to choose from. I have seen this ones work in action and am very impressed. The staff cry and hug us every year because they give thier lives for these kids but have to scrape to keep the place going.

[bubbadavis]

Thanks for handling all of the administration of this brooksjr. I am behind your decisions 100%. As long as the money goes to someone (or a charity) that needs and appreciates it, its going to the right place.

[mav]

What about the Mid-South food bank in Memphis? It might not be what you want considering a small portion of their food goes to north Mississippi and east Arkansas. The vast majority goes to TN. Iknow our food bank does a great job.

My favorite charity in Chattanooga is the Chambliss House. It is both a daycare/preschool for poor families. They keep the kids for free or a reduced rate so parents can go to work to support thier families. The other half of the place is an orphanage. I know that they lost a good portion of thier financial help from the city this year. We try to go down every December to see how many kids will be spending Christmas at the orphanage and make sure they are taken care of. Just an option if you are looking for something. There are so many worthy charities to choose from. I have seen this ones work in action and am very impressed. The staff cry and hug us every year because they give thier lives for these kids but have to scrape to keep the place going.

I like the Chambliss House as well. Bethel is also good. I haven't mentioned some charities because I know they are faith-based and not everyone may like that.

Edited December 4, 2010 by mav
typo

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

Another thanks to you JR for taking care of all of this, I am proud to be associated with folks such as yourself.

As far as west Tn RIFA (Regional Inter Faith Association....I think) in Jackson runs a food bank and helps folks with other bills when they are in need. I am sure they could sure use any help offered if you wanted to or could split up the west Tn donation. Jackson just like Memphis does support a lot of the smaller communities in the surrounding area.

These are also the folks who provide weekend food bags year around for school children who are from very low income families. I have worked with them in the past helping to deliver these food bags to the schools and know they are good and caring folks and would make good use of any donation. Everyone who works there is a volunteer so other than any rent or utilities that they may pay everything else they get does go to the people who need it.

That is however just an idea and I support any decision that you make concerning this. Thank you again for doing this and making it so easy for the rest of us to help out.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and my God's Blessings abound you all.

[willis68]

Guys,

I am sorry that I did not get into this this year, while I was in Russia my Pay Pal account would simply not work, my wife has a friend from church they lost their father to cancer last month so we are making sure that they have the best Christmas possible. What it truly sad is when the 6 year old girl was asked what she wanted for Christmas, she asked for sheets for her bed, these kids broke mine and the wife's hearts,

God Bless you Brooksjr for doing this again, next year I will make up for this one

[brooksjr]

Guys,

I am sorry that I did not get into this this year, while I was in Russia my Pay Pal account would simply not work, my wife has a friend from church they lost their father to cancer last month so we are making sure that they have the best Christmas possible. What it truly sad is when the 6 year old girl was asked what she wanted for Christmas, she asked for sheets for her bed, these kids broke mine and the wife's hearts,

God Bless you Brooksjr for doing this again, next year I will make up for this one

I was worried about you!! I'm glad to hear that you have a little PIF going yourself. I will be sure to put that family in my prayers.

All the gift cards have been purchased and will mail out tomorrow. I'm still working on the charities.

[brooksjr]

Gift cards are in the mail and I will be talking to at least one potential charity in west TN today.

[brooksjr]

As mentioned before I wanted to split the "charity" money up into three doantions, one for each section of Tennessee.

The charity I chose for the west, check sent Wednesday, was Prison Fellowship Angel Tree, which helps the children of people who are in prison. I personally talked the the pastor in charge of this for the greater Memphis area. He told me that $20-$50 is spent per child and that each child gets some neccesties and a toy.

For middle Tennessee I'm looking at this: Music City Honor Flight. I know it's not really "helping" families but I think those that risked their lives for us to stay free should have the oppurtunity to see the monument that was made in their honor. I just noticed that the link shows that the flight is in September of this year, they are still doing these flights.

For east Tennessee I'm leaning toward the place that trains the service dogs that is mentioned earlier in this thread.

If anyone has any problems with these choices please respond soon because I want to get the funds sent out.

Edited December 9, 2010 by brooksjr

[gregintenn]

Sounds great.

[titan14]

No problems here Brooks...and as others have said...THANK YOU for doing this!!!

[MacGyver]

That sounds great to me, Billy. Thanks for doing the legwork on this.

[mav]

Sounds good to me. I really like the choice on the prison fellowship angel tree ministry. All are great choices.

[Guest Gun Geek]

Dang it got busy in NC and forgot about this. If its not to late brooks... check your PM.

[Bubbatn]

WOW...How did I miss this thread? Is it too late to donate now?

[Chucktshoes]

Thank You Billy.

[JPS]

Three great causes! I'll add my thanks for all your work on this Billy.

[dralarms]

Those are all good charitys.

[mav]

I was just wondering if you have heard from those who received some help how their holiday was.

[Westwindmike]

I want to post on behalf of GBowman who received a Kroger card. Gary is not very Internet savvy. He just recently got a computer. So he asked me to post a few thoughts for him.

He wants to thank all the TGO members who donated to the PIF. The Kroger card meant so much to him. He is on a limited fixed income, so the Kroger card let him restock his kitchen with many staple items that had run out and not been able to replenished. He wants to try and come to a meet and shoot in the spring so he can meet some of you, too.

I spoke with Gary today(every day actually), and he is down with a severe cold or something. Also his back is hurting him all the time. He just takes it one day at a time.

So from Gary(and me), thank you for your kind gift this Christmas.

Mike

[mav]

Thanks for sharing Mike.

[brooksjr]

I also received a Christmas card from the other family we helped. I will type out what it says for y'all to read:

Thank you so much for helping my family out. Ever since my husband lost his job back in October things have been beyond hard. But thanks to yoor help my children will get Christmas this year. Once again, thank you so much. It meant the world to us.

Merry Christmas

The rest of the money went to the above mentioned charities and I did not hear from any of them once the money was sent. I did state that all donations were a group effort from the members of TGO.

[Chucktshoes]

The donation made for the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree program via Townsquare Vineyard Church in Collierville, TN allowed us to provide gifts for and additional 15 children of inmates. These gifts were all delivered by members of our church. The Commercial Appeal actually did an article (A1 above the fold!) about the program and interviewed our pastor. During the interview he made sure to tell the reporter that TGO made a donation that allowed us to reach out to more children than we would have on our own. That didn't seem to make it into the story though (why am I not surprised?). I am linking to the CA article below and take note of the number of children sponsored by the church of 250 and the number of children sponsored by our little church of 50. That wouldn't have been possible without TGO's help. Thank you on behalf of everyone at Townsquare Vineyard.

Prison ministry program brings Christmas for kids of inmates » The Commercial Appeal

*sorry for the delay in reporting back, that was my fault*

[mav]

Thanks for sharing Chucktshoes. I guess since TGO wasn't mentioned, which really doesn't matter, TGO can assume the role of Secret Santa.

According to the article, it looks like your church did quite a bit.

[Chucktshoes]

Thanks for sharing Chucktshoes. I guess since TGO wasn't mentioned, which really doesn't matter, TGO can assume the role of Secret Santa.

According to the article, it looks like your church did quite a bit.

Thank you, but I only made mention of the numbers to show what the TGO donation was able to accomplish. To give kudos to all of y'all, not to solicit kudos for us. (I hope that doesn't sound ungrateful, I'm not always the most eloquent with my words)

[mav]

(I hope that doesn't sound ungrateful, I'm not always the most eloquent with my words)

Shoot no, it doesn't sound ungrateful at all. I just mentioned your church because it looked you guys did quite a bit yourselves, which I believe everyone agrees is a great thing. It is my belief that what you guys have done through your church is one of the things churches should be doing. I am thankful there are churches out there that still do them.