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.