November 25, 2019
-Holly Steger Stevens, 2019 Board of Directors President
The Caring Place: Be The Acorn
Dear Friends,

Volunteering is the highlight of my week, and today, as I was approaching The Caring Place to start my shift, I was reminded of the adage “mighty oaks from little acorns grow.”  The stately old oaks in front of The Caring Place building mirror the course of the building behind it; from small beginnings, both have grown mighty over the years. And, like those oaks, we are fortunate that a caring seed was planted and cultivated by the community. In turn, The Caring Place has grown and nurtured our community’s citizens for many years.

Last year, you provided almost 7,000 of our neighbors in need with more than $3,000,000 in aid for rent, food, utilities, prescriptions, transportation, emergency shelter, clothing, and medical assistance, all because you shopped, donated, or volunteered at this unique, aptly named place. In addition to providing for basic necessities, your support enabled a cadre of case workers and volunteers to: help residents learn things like money management on a fixed income, assist seniors with tapping into resources and implementing strategies for healthy aging-in-place, and direct and refer those in need to additional community resources to meet extenuating circumstances. The Caring Place did all that while demonstrating caring at a level worthy of being called mighty

Unfortunately, as our community expands, the number of residents in need grows, and our need for your financial help increases. In particular, we are seeing a continuing rise in citizens in crisis visiting the Food Pantry, which corresponds to an increase in our costs for food purchases beyond what is donated during food drives. This year, one of our primary Food Pantry funding partners significantly decreased their annual grant to The Caring Place due to other priorities, putting food resources in short supply. Your assistance is critical in helping us mitigate that loss of funding and keeping the pantry shelves stocked with food for families in need.  Meeting basic human needs, like having food available for the hungry, is our most important tenet.  

If we all give a little, great things - like a forest of mighty oaks - can happen.  This fall, as you walk down the sidewalk and feel the crunch of an acorn underfoot, be reminded of the thousands of your neighbors who are less fortunate, in crisis, and in need of a hand up. Please give generously and know that many will benefit from the seeds of caring you sow today.

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn .” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be the acorn.

Thank you,

Holly Steger Stevens
President, Board of Directors

P.S.  In addition to your generous donation, consider using these five additional “little acorn” ideas that can add up to big contributions, with modest effort, when we all participate:

1.    The City of Georgetown Good Neighbor Fund (GNF) is administered by The Caring Place to assist folks who are having difficulty paying their utility bill. Through Georgetown Utility System’s easy online sign-up process, you can donate $1, $3, $5, or any amount on your monthly bill and can cancel at any time. That’s a simple way to make a big difference in someone’s life who has hit a bump in the road and could use some help getting warmth in the winter or coolness during our brutal Texas summers. The Good Neighbor Fund alone can’t meet the needs of all those who are eligible to receive it. In addition to the GNF, The Caring Place has spent $124,003 through September to assist our neighbors with utility bills. If you give to the Good Neighbor Fund, that frees up more funds to put toward other greatly needed services .  If you are a City of Georgetown utility customer, sign up online at gus.georgetown.org/gnf or send in the form below with your utility payment to the city.

2.    Amazon is so easy and convenient, but did you know you can start “shopping for good” through Amazon’s charitable site AmazonSmile smile.amazon.com ? The same products, same prices, and Prime benefits are available, but when you shop through the AmazonSmile link, Amazon donates 0.5% of your purchase to The Caring Place ! The donation The Caring Place received last quarter was $88.55. The total The Caring Place has received to date is $1,034.87. That’s a very small amount compared to the total AmazonSmile has donated to ALL charities to date -- $144,958,582.84. We need a bigger piece of that pie! You can track your contributions throughout the year on your AmazonSmile impact page, as a fun way to see how your shopping pays off.  Directions on how to designate The Caring Place as your AmazonSmile charity are on our website at www.caringplacetx.org/amazonsmile .

3.    The Caring Place EBAY Store is a great way to assuage your desire to be “shopping for good” from the comfort of your own home.  Our Store Director, Ann Lind, carefully culls through donations to make sure we get the most for what you give. In our EBAY Store, we sell collectibles, antiques, and high-end items that reach a larger audience and generate even greater revenue to support families in crisis. Connect to our EBAY store through our website at www.caringplacetx.or g/ebay

4.    You can link your Randalls Remarkable Card to The Caring Place by completing a Good Neighbor Program form found below, and returning it to the Randalls Courtesy Booth. For every eligible purchase you make at Randalls, 1% will be donated to The Caring Place through this program.

5.    Donate your gently used items or buy items that were donated.  Those of you who have shopped at The Caring Place Shops or Second Helping know that we get the best donations in Texas! As a volunteer cashier at The Shops (you can come by and see me most Wednesday afternoons behind register number 3), I can tell you that everything from Waterford crystal frames in the 50 cent bin, to $5 never-worn Tory Burch shoes, to knick-free $10 Ping putters have been purchased by our shoppers. Need a lot of champagne glasses? Looking for a leaf blower? Haviland china? Or maybe you broke the lid to your CorningWare casserole dish? If it’s not in the store already, we will eventually get it. When you give the things that you no longer use, you support our mission. When you buy things that someone else no longer uses, you support our mission. Win-win!
CITY OF GEORGETOWN GOOD NEIGHBOR FUND
(Submit via the online form or send this one in with your utility payment to the city.)
RANDALL’S GOOD NEIGHBOR PROGRAM
(Submit this form to Randalls customer service to link your Remarkable Card to 13870, The Caring Place.)
The Caring Place has the highest rating (four stars!) on Charity Navigator , so you can be sure that we are good stewards of your donation, too. 
The Caring Place Mission:
To provide for the basic human needs of all people in our community in a welcoming, respectful and caring way.
P. O. Box 1215 | Georgetown, TX | 78627-1215 | 512-943-0700
Thank you for your support!