12 Days of Giving, Day 5

For Day 5, I was so bummed to have to miss a huge event that my committee for Tippy Connect has been working on since August. Since our sponsorship of Big Brothers Big Sisters ends this month, we decided to put together a holiday celebration and invite kids who were in need of Bigs, along with fellow Tippy Connect members and other people from the community who had an interest in becoming a Big or learning about BBBS, and we held a Holiday Big Drive for BBBS. We put together stockings for the kids and collected games and school supplies for BBBS and the kids. Back in August, Josh and I took advantage of the great back-to-school sales and spent about $30 to get a TON of school supplies. We got all of the crayons you see in the box, along with just as many markers and some other supplies. Then at a few of our Tippy Connect After Hours, we were able to offer free appetizers to individuals who donated $5 or brought a game or school supplies, so some of those supplies are seen below, too. We raised just over $115, so we were able to use that money to buy some more things for the kids. And Josh was nice enough to help us out with the books you see below. They're from the Kohl's Cares for Kids program and they are leftovers, so Kohl's is able to donate them to local kids programs. So it was nice that each kid got to go home with a stocking full of candy and school supplies and also a book, and then BBBS had a lot of games and some books to keep there at the office for when the kids come there.

Josh and I had signed up to go to the Big Drive, but it turned out that it was held the evening of my surgery, so we had to miss it. I was excited to see that it made the top story of our local news, so I got to see how it turned out...a little bit at least. I'm pretty sure we had several people sign up to become Bigs and also someone who was interested in joining the BBBS Board, so I think the night was a real success. Josh and I are considering becoming a Big Couple so that we can spend time volunteering but still spend time together, too.