You did it!

Thanks to the generosity of YOU, our community donors, we have reached our goal of raising $1400 for Mia's trip to DC! She is so excited and thankful for all of your donations and thoughts, and we couldn't have done this without you!

Mia's trip to DC Spotlighted on Athens 11Alive News!

ATHENS: Homeless honors student getting community's help

Submitted by Matt Pearl, 11Alive Reporter

Monday, December 26th, 2011, 10:40pm

Topics: News

PrintE-mail

A 12-year-old honors student from Athens has earned an opportunity few people receive, despite living like few people would want. 

"This child was in a reading circle when she was three years old," recalls Katheryn Wilhite about her daughter, Mia, "and it has been getting better and better every year." 

But for Mia, this year has been different. She is living with her mom, sister, and five other families at the Athens Area Homeless Shelter. 

Katheryn Wilhite lost her job in January, and by June the family had to give up its home. Despite that, Mia continued to plug away in school this year, and one of her administrators at Clarke Middle School took notice. Mia was nominated to attend the People to People Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.

Says Mia about the conference, "Because of the world we're growing up in and how bad the economy is right now, I think we have to think about this kind of stuff." 

The problem is, since the conference is in Washington, it requires a thousand dollars in travel and tuition costs the Wilhites don't have. So they're asking for help -- asking for charity at a charitable time of year -- for a girl who continues to stay focused on school despite all the stress around her .

"As strange as it sounds," said Mia, "I'm kind of glad we went through all of this because it's helped our family a lot more than it's affected us in a bad way." 

Mia's trip to DC Spotlighted in the Athens Banner-Herald on December 25, 2011

Article originally posted in the Athens Banner-Herald

Homeless honor roll student needs help getting to D.C. conference

By ERIN FRANCE  - erin.france@onlineathens.com

Published Sunday, December 25, 2011 Updated: Monday, December 26, 2011 - 12:09am 

 

 

 

Vote down!

Mia Wilhite — an honor roll student at Clarke Middle School — lives at the Athens Area Homeless Shelter with her older sister and mother.

Twelve-year-old Mia recently was invited to visit Washington, D.C., for a four-day leadership conference in March, because of her hard work, good attitude and excellent grades.

School administrators nominated Mia for a conference last year, too, but the family couldn’t afford to send her.

This year, Mia’s family and the Athens Area Homeless Shelter are reaching out to the community for help in paying the $1,000 in tuition and travel expenses.

Keeping good grades while staying at the shelter is hard, but her location helps remind her of why an education is so important, Mia said.

“It motivates me to work even harder at my schoolwork,” she said. “I don’t even want to consider (living at a homeless shelter) in my future.”

Mia’s mom, Katheryn Wilhite, and her 25-year-old sister, Tiffaney Witcher, have lived in the shelter since the summer, Katheryn Wilhite said.

The family went through a string of catastrophes — including Katheryn’s mother dying and the family car breaking down — which in the end left them homeless, she said.

Asking for help did not come easy.

“We had to get down to eating potted meat sandwiches every night before I would go get food stamps,” Katheryn Wilhite said.

While Mia takes on her seventh-grade curriculum, her mom also is training to receive certification in caring for small children. Katheryn Wilhite would like to work at a day care and save up money for Mia’s college education, she said.

“This child is headed for college, and I’ve got to put some money away for her education,” Katheryn Wilhite said.

Mia wants to become a pediatrician and has thought about learning in Washington, D.C., before, she said.

“I was even looking at going to college (in D.C.) in the future,” she said.

To donate money to help pay for Mia’s trip, visit www.helpathenshomeless.org and click on the people to people button.*

*this is a change from the Athens Banner-Herald article

December Updates from Athens Area Homeless Shelter

We've had so much going on this month and we're excited to share it with you!

Thanks so much to the Collegiate Deca group, Athens Technical College's honor society,  for installing new doorknobs and curtain rods throughout the shelter! Collegiate Deca also raised money to provide each resident of AAHS with a flash drive. 

It's Christmas shopping week! Thanks to your donations of gift cards, our residents will be able to go to Target, Wal-mart, and other area stores to shop for their children's Christmas gifts! It's a huge blessing that residents have the chance to do their own Christmas shopping, and we thank your for supporting this holiday gift!

In the last week alone we've raised almost $700 for Mia's People to People leadership forum. We're half way there! As we get closer to March 22 and Mia's trip we're grateful for your consideration of helping us make this opportunity a reality for Mia. 

“I'm excited about traveling to Washington DC and experiencing some of our nation's famous monuments, learning more about our culture and our congress, and meeting so many of our nation's famous senators. I feel honored to know that so many people from my community feel that I deserve the chance to experience this rare opportunity and I am grateful to them for giving me the chance.” says Mia.

If you're interested in donating to Mia's fund, you can do so here through our paypal site, or you can go to payment.peopletopeople.com and provide Mia's delegate information: name Mia Wilhite and delegate ID# 10148001.

A huge thanks goes out to the groups who've brought Christmas trees, decorations, and holiday activities for our residents to participate in. The shelter looks like a winter wonderland and the kids are definitely in the holiday spirit! 

We've had such a successful winter coat drive! Over 500 coats and blankets have been collected and will be distributed throughout the community this holiday season! We're blessed to have such wonderful individual donors, and a huge shout out goes to Washington Wilkes Comprehensive High School, who ran a coat drive and brought us almost 200 coats!

As always, if you're interested in volunteering at the shelter or have ideas for a project or activity you'd like to do with our residents, please email volunteer@helpathenshomeless.org or call 706-354-0423. Have a great holiday season and again, thanks for all that you do!

Support Mia's Trip to Washington DC!

This holiday season, please consider supporting Mia's trip to DC. Mia is a 12 year old (almost 13!) resident of Athens Area Homeless Shelter who has been nominated by her teachers at Clarke Middle School to participate in a leadership forum in Washington DC this March. What an achievement! AAHS is asking for support for Mia's trip. In order to make this trip a reality, we need to raise the $1,000 tuition, plus travel expenses. Mia and her mother will be raising funds around town this season, but we will need all the support we can get! It you're interested, please donate directly to her fund using the information below, or you can donate through our website specifically to Mia's fund here. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Thanks so much to all the groups who've come to help with holiday fun over the last week, and for those who will be bringing more activities and cheer in the coming weeks! 

 

Also, a HUGE thank you to everyone who has participated in our winter coat and blanket drive. Thanks to your support and generosity, we've collected over 300 coats and blankets to distribute to the homeless in Athens this winter. What a blessing!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

When 20 people live in a building together, you end up with a lot of trash!
AAHS is excited that a group of education students from UGA have been working with our residents' children on a recycling education program this year. 

While the majority of education programs are geared toward classroom use, we have kids ranging from 2-13 at the shelter right now. These creative students were able to use activities to encourage recycling in all age groups. 

We will be working in the next months to extend this recycling project to our office staff, residents, and volunteers. We hope you enjoy some of the recycling project art work made by the children at the shelter!

Tis the Season!

In order to allow our residents to do their own Christmas shopping, we are asking for donations of gift cards to Wal-Mart and Target this Holiday Season. Please consider donating gift cards in any amount. Cards can be dropped off at the shelter any time! Staff is here 24 hours a day.

Alternatively, please donate online in any amount. Funds donated to the campaign will be transferred into gift cards for our residents. You can donate online here.

If you're interested in providing a holiday activity at the shelter, please let us know! 

We're excited to see all of our volunteers over the holiday season!

Holidays at Athens Area Homeless Shelter

First of all, thanks so much to all of our supporters throughout the year! AAHS could not do what we do without your donations, time, and support. We are so grateful for all of you who participate in our volunteer opportunities, provide funding for the organization, and spend time with our residents.

We want to give you an update on our holiday opportunities this season:





We have had great success getting dinner volunteers for November and December! We're still looking for volunteers for the week between Christmas and New Years, as well as a few days scattered throughout December. For an up to date calendar of the dates that still need  volunteers, please check out our volunteer page.

Our coat and blanket drive has been a great success so far! Thanks so much to all who have donated. We will continue to collect coats, blankets, and other warm items through mid December. Once all of our residents have been given warm items, the remainder will be distributed to the community through JobTREC and other organizations.

We are asking for gift cards to Target and Walmart so that our residents can go Christmas shopping for their families. If  you are interested in donating gift cards to the shelter, please bring them by between 10 and 6 on weekdays up until December 16. You also can donate to our gift card fund here.

We are so proud of one of our twelve year old residents, who has been nominated for the People to People World Leadership Forum 2012. This opportunity allows her to spend four days in Washington DC attending programming for future leaders. We're so proud of her and look forward to seeing her succeed in this program. To donate to this cause, please click here.

AAHS has several new door knobs and curtain rods that need to be
installed. If you are skilled in home installations and repairs, please let us know! We want our residents to be proud of their living space, and little things like door knobs and curtains can make a huge difference! Please call or email us if you're interested in helping with this.





Thanks again for all you do to support Athens Area Homeless Shelter! We look forward to continuing to work with you in the coming months! If you have questions or ideas for volunteer opportunities you would like to share with us, please email volunteer@helpathenshomeless.org or call the office at 706-354-0423

The Athens Area Homeless Shelter team

Christmas is Coming!

Some of you have already contacted us about your wish to sponsor one of our six families for Christmas. 

Last year, in lieu of traditional gift giving sponsorship, we asked for gift cards to traditional superstores (Wal-Mart and Target) for our moms to use to shop for their own families. It was such a successful Christmas, and our residents were empowered by strengthening the bond between themselves and their families while reinforcing our goals of budgeting and prioritizing needs. 

Your gift will help our mothers personalize Christmas by choosing and wrapping presents for their children. Gift card donations help us to better manage our storage space, allowing our children to be surprised on Christmas morning.

During these tough economic times, we are ensuring that all AAHS supporters can participate in this special time of year: we welcome gift cards from $5, $10, $100, or more! Please donate gift cards by December 16^th so that we can have enough time to organize our shopping trip.

If you are more interested in donating items, please see our wish list for items needed every day like laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, and baby items. Your tax deductible contributions help us provide support to our families with childcare and larger shelter needs like mattresses and washer/dryers.

For questions or more information, please contact Katie Smith at volunteer@helpathenshomeless.org, call between 10:00am and 6:00pm Monday through Friday at (706) 354-0423.

12 Year Old Shelter Resident Nominated for People to People Ledership Forum!

Mia, a twelve year old resident at Athens Area Homeless Shelter has been nominated for the People to People Leadership Ambassador Program World Leadership Forum 2012! This is an exciting opportunity for Mia and her family. To read more about the program please visit peopletopeople.com. If you are interested in sponsoring Mia's 4 day Leadership Forum Trip, please click the people to people button. For more information from us, please call the office or email ksmith@helpathenshomeless.org

Athens Area Homeless Shelter Coat Drive

Athens Area Homeless Shelter is pleased to present to you "Warm Up Athens", a winter clothing drive for the homeless population in our community. With the winter shelter not scheduled to open until December this year, it has become especially important that warmth is provided to those individuals who sincerely need it. We would love it if you would participate in this effort to "Warm Up Athens!"      

 

We are collecting warm clothing for men, women, and children. Some of these items include coats, gloves, hats, blankets, and anything else that can help keep someone warm.  You can drop off the donations at the Athens Area Homeless Shelter, which is located at 620 Barber Street, Athens, GA 30601.

If you would like to collect the items at your location, we would be happy to come out and pick them up. Simply call the shelter at:  706-354-0423 and we will schedule a time to pick them up from you!  

If you have any questions, please feel free to email JobTRECinterns@helpathenshomeless.org.

Thank you so much, 

Faychon Beete & Samantha O'Day

AAHS Interns

Harvest is Tomorrow!

We're so excited about Harvest for the Homeless tomorrow night! It's shaping up to be a great event and we would love to have you there!

In addition to a 

really great raffle 

to win 52 gift certificates to local Athens restaurants, there will be some spectacular 

silent auctions

featuring other businesses and services in Athens!

The event will be held at Hotel Indigo's Rialto Room from 6-10 pm, and will feature live music by

Kyshona Armstrong 

Emily Hearn 

and

Todd Cowart

Tickets can be purchased on our website, or at the door tomorrow evening. 

We look forward to seeing you there! Please contact the office with any questions 

(706)354-0423