Caring Cochranites can certainly turn a local kid’s Christmas around this year, as Sears Cochrane and the Boys and Girls Club of Cochrane and Area is once again offering the Sears Giving Tree program.
The local non-profit kids’ organization is looking for generous gifters to stop by Sears Cochrane between now and Dec. 20 to pick the age and gender of an anonymous kid in need to place an unwrapped gift under the Sears Giving Tree for.
“It’s anonymous. We find the genders and ages of kids in town who need help at this time of year and people looking to give can buy for ‘16 and male’ for example,” explained Dylan Oosterveld, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club, adding that the anonymity takes away any stigmas that may be attached to putting a face to the child in need.
“People are giving for the sake of giving this way
. . . it’s all about the kids.”
Oosterveld said they are looking to find gifts for some 20 Cochrane and area kids between one and 18 years of age.
‘Last year was the first year we did this and we saw that teens tend to get missed a lot . . .people often think of little kids when they think of buying gifts.”
The list of genders and ages are available both online at cochraneyouth.org, as well as on tags on the Sears Giving Tree.
The Boys and Girls Club is also thrilled to be one of two charities, also Calgary Reads, who are under the wing of a new social network fundraising campaign launched Dec. 1 called Givyup.
Those who would rather see others in need benefit from material gifts than themselves can visit the Givyup website and donate their Christmas to either of the two charities listed on the site.
This means that instead of filling out a wish list for Christmas, if you feel you already have everything you need you can ask family and friends, utilizing your social networking mediums, to donate what they would normally spend on you to one of the charities Givyup is championing for.
“We would love to see at least 250 people giving $20 each for the Christmas project,” said Oosterveld.
Visit givyup.org and learn more.
