Last week I mentioned we were looking at different ways to do our traditional "Mall night". After talking to students, it seems that the aspect they look forward to the most is the shopping together part. So we have come up with the best way to do that safely. We are sponsoring several people through Family Giving Tree this year. We are aware of the new 10% occupancy for stores. We are capping the RSVPs to 30 students. We also know the majority of students will go to Target which is exempt from the 10% rule. Oakridge also updates its website to let us know the current occupancy inside.
If you cannot attend Sunday or do not feel comfortable shopping in the mall, but want to purchase presents, please email Lisa at lisa3cyouth@gmail.com and she can give your family a few FGT tags to buy for on your own time.
The Plan: Sunday Dec. 6th we will meet at Oakridge mall for an hour and a half to shop and buy presents to donate to the Family Giving Tree. We will first meet in the parking lot near the corner of Winfield & Thornwood. When students arrive, you will group up and we will divide money between everyone and give each group a FGT tag with a name, age, and ideas of gifts to buy for that person. When your group is finished shopping you will meet us outside of the mall. Family Giving Tree doesn't ask us to wrap presents so students will get picked up straight from the mall at 5:30pm.
How money works: We have never asked for a set amount of money to donate for our Mall Night, only what your student of family wish to give. Maybe that's $50, maybe it's $5, maybe it's nothing. That is okay. We know every family's financial situation is different. Any money donated goes into a large pool, and we evenly distribute it to every group of students shopping. We also provide money from our JYM funds to make up any difference necessary.
We are currently sponsoring about 80 people through Family Giving Tree and our goal is to give approximately $40 in gifts per person. If donations far exceed that amount, we will be donating gift cards to Sacred Heart (They are not asking for physical gifts this year)
We have already received quite a lot of online donations for the mall night - THANK YOU!
Three ways to donate: Students may bring cash the day of to turn in to us. You can also donate ahead of time (preferred) two ways. Either online, there is a line on our donation page for the mall night, or you can mail a check made out to WGUMC-JYM to Willow Glen UMC (Or drop off at any JYM event before the 6th). If writing a check, add a note about the mall night in the check memo line so we know where to designate funds.
Additionally, we will also be collecting gift cards to grocery stores if you would like to pick some up and give them to us on or before the 6th.
If you cannot attend but want to participate: E-mail Lisa at Lisa3cyouth@gmail.com and she can give you a name of someone to shop for ahead of time
