Its time to start thinking about Christmas
Submitted by Drifter on 2002-10-13 21:21:55, Sunday
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Though Halloween is not even here yet, it is time to start thinking about Christmas. Not only about yourself and the children in your life, but about all those children who arent as fortunate as those we know. Those children who will not be recieving any gifts if no one comes to their aid. As christians and responsible citizens we can make a difference in the lives of real children, and I urge you all to get involved in making a difference. Here are some tips from my experience last year: 1. The first step is to identify who the people in need are in your area. This helps to establish a reasonable goal. Identify some low income area, some ghetto, some housing project, or perhaps some home for abused/neglected children, perhaps some orphanage. Identify who you want to help and get some idea of how many children you are talking about. 2. Get someone to back you. Few people will trust a lone wolf. Get backing from your church, from a different church, or from some organization. Make things as official as possible, use pre-printed church stationary if available, get a copy of the papers that register the organization that is backing you as a non-profit organization. 3. Formulate a plan of action. Here are some tips for that: a.) While it initially sounds like a small thing to ask, it is not feasable to ask a toy store to store the gifts that people donate until you can pick them up. This is because stores do not like to have sold merchandise sitting around which can get mixed up with unsold merchandise and then resold. Stores have enough stocking problems at christmas time and will not find this idea very appealing. A better idea is to ask for permission to set up a donation box on certain dates (prefferably close to christmas time) and to have your own people there next to the box watching it, being responsible for it and then taking it with them when the day is over. The stores will generally not accept anything that requires any amount of work from them. b.) Get a team together and be the leader. Delegate responsabilities clearly and follow up on your orders to be sure they have been carried out. Dont just tell a person your job is to go identify the children who need to recieve these gifts and then forget about it and expect it to get done. Make them keep you up to date, ask them often, what is your progress? whom have you found? what are their ages? how many are boys and how many are girls? etc. People left on their own will oftentimes not do anything. c.) When you approach stores to ask for their cooperation, be presentable. Dress well, and ask to speak to the manager. Bring literature with you, something you can leave behind that they can read at their leisure and discuss with other managers. Present them with alternatives, some stores will be more than willing to donate merchandise but do not want to be bothered with anything else. Others will be more than willing to give you room to set up a donation box but are unwilling (or unable due to beurocracy) to donate anything. d.) Approach stores with ample time. This means you need to start now or in November, not in December. Stores like Wal-mart have a board that meets only once a month (usually at the end of the month). If you wait until December, the board may have already met and your proposal will not be considered at all. e.) Get to know the store management. They will come in handy not only now but also next year. f.) Use your church, get people from church involved not only on the volunteering but also in donating toys themselves. g.) Use propaganda. This means printing fliers, prefferably ones with a nice drawing, picture or clipart of some type. Something that calls attention. With large fonts that are easy to read, and not too much text. Make it straight and to the point. My fliers last year read something like: "This year, make a gift of love to a child in need. When you are making your christmas purchases, buy an extra toy and drop it off at our donation box. Help bring a smile to a child." You can ask permission from the stores to post these types of fliers in key locations (the toy section) with the guarantee that you will remove them before you leave. h.) If you need more assistance dont be afraid to form a coalition with other churches and organizations. Dont limit yourself to just one. 4. Take action. A plan is no good if you dont carry it through. After the plan has been formulated (with the help of the others you involved), you need to put it into action. The best way to accomplish this is through delegation, one piece at a time. With a clear deadline. (ie. "I need you to get me a list of families in need who wish to recieve these gifts and bring it to me by xx date" or, "I need you to go talk to the managers of these three stores by xx date and keep me up to date on what they say"). 5. Lots of prayer. I hope this motivates someone to make a difference this Holliday season. |
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