Dear Friends of STARS Family Services,
It’s with much joy that I contact you as we move toward the holiday season to invite you to make a gift to STARS Family Services a part of your holiday giving. I’m also reaching out to see if you can help STARS Family Services reach a special matching gift anytime between today and December 1.
The Coleman Foundation has awarded us a $12,500 challenge grant. Their foundation will give a gift of $250 for every gift of $250 or more we receive, up to a total of $12,500. Mail-in checks and PayPal count this year! So we are looking for 50 donors to give $250 or more between now and December 1, which also happens to be Giving Tuesday. Prayerfully consider becoming one of those 50 people.
Of course, we welcome your help with any gift you could provide along with your prayers for our residents and the SFS team as we move toward Thanksgiving, Christmas and the new year.
This has been a challenging year for SFS with COVID-19. The SFS residents have been such an inspiration to me during the pandemic, especially as they have returned to the homes and adapted so well to the new protocols. Add to them our staff and board team, all of whom have done an outstanding job of planning, implementing, communicating and modeling the new health protocols.
It would be easy for us to think of STARS Family Services as just about residential living, but I have a greater appreciation than ever before for the Partner Program that makes if possible for STARS to enter the workforce and contribute to our community through working at STARS Resale and Twice is Nice Resale Shops. Our STARS work a 3.5 hour shift alongside a Job Coach performing tasks like a typical store employee such as pricing clothes, hanging clothes, carrying donations, flattening bags, organizing racks, matching greeting cards to envelopes, rubber banding shoes, testing electronics, Swiffering or sweeping, dusting rounders, etc. The reach of this goes beyond current residents to 16 STARS total and five job coaches.
The SFS Partner Program is helping our residents reacclimate to the job setting during the pandemic. The STARS have responded beautifully—as you can see from the photos—and the shops are busier than ever.
These are definitely reasons to give thanks this November.
All of these changes, though, require more funding than ever, so every gift counts now like no other time in our history. We have had to increase expenses by more the $25,000 in order to respond to the challenges of COVID-19.
Give now by clicking on “Donate” in the top right corner of the webpage. You can also mail your gift to STARS Family Services, P.O. Box 1388 or use the response card and envelope enclosed with this letter. Thank you for standing with STARS Family Services at this challenging time.
Tom Paulsen
President, STARS Family Services