For many local charitable organizations, October kicks off a busy season of gathering and giving.
The Samaritan Center
Well known for a number of projects that happen in the last quarter of the year, the Samaritan Center begins the season by providing Halloween costumes for youth in need. Through the end of the month, the organization asks the community to donate new or gently used costumes appropriate for children ages 12 and younger. The costumes may be dropped off at the center, 1310 E. McCarty St. The center will begin distribution of costumes Oct. 15.
The Samaritan Center also has begun sign-ups for its annual Christmas Adoption program, in which the public can sign up to "adopt" families and senior citizens. The adopting person is expected to - at the minimum - provide two gifts each for children younger than 12, a gift for each parent and older children, and a grocery store gift card - worth at least $15 per adopted family member - for a Christmas meal.
Applications to adopt families or seniors are available at midmosamaritan.org. Anyone who can't adopt is encouraged to use the form to provide a donation for the program.
The center also provides Thanksgiving meals for families. From Oct. 29 through Nov. 20, it will add a Thanksgiving dinner kit to its pantry menu items. The kit includes turkeys, chicken broth, stuffing mix, yams, gelatin, fruit cocktail, cranberry sauce and pie filling. Donations of any of those items is appreciated. Customers may tell staff at Schulte's Fresh Foods or Hy-Vee they are buying a turkey for the Samaritan Center, and the grocery store will deliver it.
And the center's Santa's Workshop program allows qualified families to select two toys per child (ages 12 and younger). The center already is accepting donations of new toys - valued at a minimum of $10 per toy. The workshop will be open Nov. 26 until Dec. 12.
Toys for Tots
The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots collection and distribution campaign in Cole County will begin with its Fall Festival 2018 - a trunk-or-treat event and toy drive - on Halloween. The event, scheduled 6-8 p.m. at Capital Mall, will feature K9s on the Front Lines, bands, muscle cars and "a gauntlet" of trucks from area dealerships filled with candy, which will be passed out to trunk-or-treaters. From 11 a.m. to closing, the Wendy's restaurant at 3536 Country Club Drive will donate 30 percent of sales to Toys for Tots with the presentation of a Wendy's flyer.
Inside the mall, where much of the celebration will take place, volunteers will accept monetary and toy donations at the Toys for Tots suite. Suite 318 is located in the Dillard's wing of the mall.
Wendy, Master Sgt. Claus and Santa Claus will be stationed in the suite during the festival.
To volunteer, contact Harold Faughn, the Cole County coordinator for Toys for Tots, at [email protected].
More than 30 U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots collection boxes already have been distributed throughout Cole County.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army holiday kettle drive began before you were born, no doubt. It started in 1891 in San Francisco, when Salvation Army Capt. Joseph McFee borrowed the idea of a "Simpson's Pot" - in which passersby tossed coins into an iron kettle to help poor people in England.
The red Christmas kettle idea quickly spread across the country, then the world.
The Salvation Army of Jefferson City will kick off its annual Red Kettle Campaign at 11 a.m. Nov. 10 at Capital Mall. Rod Smith will be a special guest speaker.
In recent years, the local effort has tried a few new things with electronic giving, such as offering "text-to-donate," Salvation Army Lt. Christopher White said. This year, it will offer a virtual red kettle as another way to give, he said.
Also new this year will be an Art of the Red Kettle contest. Years ago, The Salvation Army began using plastic kettles instead of the old cast iron they had used in the past. A colleague in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Salvation Army suggested they do something with the old kettles.
"We've had 30 old metal ones in storage," White said. "He asked, 'Why we don't spray those white and give them to artists and let them paint them?'"
So staff dusted off four of the old pots and prepared them for kettle makeovers.
Four artists - including Jefferson City Mayor Carrie Tergin and John Sheehan, an artist from Capital Arts and a Salvation Army member - are working on the creations.
The kettles will be used during bell-ringing events at four locations around town. Much like the annual Empty Bowls fundraiser, the public will be able to bid on the painted kettles.
Similar to last year, there will be red kettles outside the Hawthorn and Central bank offices in downtown Jefferson City. The two banks have a competition to see which kettle can coax the most out of contributors.
Two as yet unannounced competitors have agreed to participate in the Red Kettle Ring-off again this year. Last year, Fechtel Beverage President Bernie Fechtel and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, who was then a state senator, held a 45-minute competition outside Hy-Vee to see who could raise the most money. Together, they raised $11,400.
Bell-ringing will begin Nov. 3 and continue to Christmas Eve.
Operation Christmas Child
Capital City Christian Church, 1608 Swifts Highway, and Concord Baptist Church, 3724 W. Truman Blvd., are drop-off points for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, said Michelle Hale, the operation's area coordinator.
Operation Christmas Child is a project from Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization. The operation provides local partners around the world with shoeboxes filled with small toys, hygiene items and school supplies, and seeks to demonstrate God's love through each gift. The age-specific boxes are shipped to children affected by war, poverty, natural disaster, famine and disease.
Visit samaritanspurse.org to order boxes and find out what may be placed in the boxes. Last year, Jefferson City collection sites received 3,000 shoeboxes to ship. The 13-county area shipped 16,050 boxes. Its goal this year is to ship 17,654 boxes, Hale said.
"What we're doing right now is trying to get people the materials they might need as they pack," she said. "We're gearing up for national collection week."
The collection week is Nov. 12-19. To find drop-off locations and times they'll be open, go to the Samaritan's Purse website and click on "Find your drop-off location."
"You want to put a note in the shoebox and personalize it," Hale said. "The most important thing that you can put in the shoebox is a prayer."
Hope for Christmas
The annual Hope for Christmas campaign has begun. In this campaign, individuals, families, offices and businesses adopt families, said Vicki Bullock, the organization's executive director and founder.
The program is intended to provide assistance during Christmas to families that have suffered a health or other crisis in the past six to eight months. Generally referred by organizations, doctors, clinics, hospitals, churches or other professional facilities, the in-need families may have lost a parent or child or have someone who is suffering from cancer or another illness. Families are helped one time.
In nine years, the program has served thousands of families.
Bullock will post information about families at hopeforchristmasjcmo.org and on Facebook. From there, volunteers contact the organization to "adopt" the families and provide them with gifts.
"We help the entire family - we make sure that Mom and Dad are taken care of, too," Bullock said. "We feel like (if) they need something - even if Mom just needs a pair of house slippers or sweats - it gives her that little bit of hope."
People need not adopt an entire family to support the program; they can make monetary donations via the website. A matching donation is pledged for all donations made through Nov. 30. Another pledge will match donations made between Nov. 15 and Dec. 15 - so donations made from Nov. 15-30 are "double-matched."
"Anybody who wants to pick up toys, books, clothing - they need to be new - they can donate," Bullock said. "If someone is shopping for their own family, pick up two and donate to Hope for Christmas."
Donations may be dropped off in the organization's office in Jefferson Plaza, Suite H (use the entrance between J Vietnamese Cafe and JC Health Foods).
Call 573-353-4720 to be certain someone will be available. That number can be used to find out what volunteer services will be needed.
"Wrapping, purchasing paper, and tape and name tags," Bullock said, "anything you can do for Christmas, we need help with."
Affordable Christmas
Soma Community Church has created a Jefferson City tradition to help under-resourced families at Christmas, Pastor Jon Nelson said.
The fourth annual Affordable Christmas is accepting toy and monetary donations to help struggling families. Rather than giving away gifts, the church works with families to give them a unique experience and the chance to receive gifts at deeply discounted prices. Using the donations, organizers set up a store at the church and, on Dec. 8, will let residents who already have been identified select and purchase toys for their children. While volunteers wrap the toys, parents or guardians will be able to relax and enjoy breakfast.
"They get child care to pampering," Nelson said.
Visit somajc.org/affordable-christmas to view an Amazon wish list for the children, find opportunities to volunteer and learn more about the program. The deadline for toy donations is Dec. 2.