HOPE Chest ...social media vs. newspaper

Wait till you read this!  Sanne Specht, Mail Tribune reporter and columnist, and I are in competition this week.  Sanne isn’t sure about social media and its benefits.  She has written a column that appears in today’s Mail Tribune to kick off our contest.  So here’s the deal…Sanne has asked for donations to HOPE Chest in her name and I’m asking them in whoever’s name you want them to be in…your grandmother, your mom or dad, your brother or sister, your best friend, your true love and oh yeah, ME, so I can WIN!  The reality is HOPE Chest and people in need really win.  But this week, and this week only, we’re challenging each other.  I get to tweet once, do one email, one FaceBook posting and one blog.  Sanne, she gets one column.  Then at the end of the week, we’ll tally the donations and figure out who wins.  As Bob Hunter says, there will be some public humiliation price to be paid to one who doesn’t win.  Me, I’m all about winning.  So come on.  Take a moment this week to give a gift to HOPE Chest.  There are so many ways.  You can go online to UnitedWayofJacksonCounty.org.  You can call us at 541.773.5339.  You can send your pledge via email and we’ll be in touch about you’ll fulfill it.  So join me in this competition and let’s show that social media rocks!  Please forward this to everyone you can think of and encourage them to participate.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Long time, no blog and what better reason to come back and get back to it.  Expect more to come.  HOPE Chest has interesting mojo if you ask me.  There was its humble beginnings in memory of Hank Collins and then its name change to HOPE Chest.  In our first year, we helped more than 270 families with an average gift of $261. We helped folks with rent, utilities, car-related expense (repair, insurance, registration), and coming in a surprising and necessary fourth place, were funds for therapy.  Partnering with local therapists and having it announced and shared by Stacey Guss, The Sharing Place, has built a solid and important partnership.  So much so that on a desperate day after I received a call about a family in dire need, Stacey got the whole family into therapy, with the help of other therapists, to deal with the suicide of their teenage daughter.  The last few weeks have been dramatic for HOPE Chest.  A few weeks ago, we got a call from a partner needing only $70 for a drug and alcohol assessment.  Without the assessment, the client would have lost her job and her home.  Her children would have potentially been placed in foster care.  Instead, she got her assessment, is in outpatient treatment, has her children and her job and her house.  An amazing victory for $70.  The next HOPE Chest call that week was a for a woman who needed a bus ticket to a safe location.  After a little bit of hoop jumping, the Greyhound ticket was purchased and she was off on a trip to a safe place to live, protecting her from her former batterer.  That happened for a small amount of money as well.  Finally, there's the story of baby Hope.  She needed an option for transportation to medical appointments.  She got the option and while no investment was made and fog didn't permit the donated flight, baby Hope will know forever how much a community cared for her at 8 months old.

This contest is important not because it proves I can beat a reporter at her game but because it helps people who need a small amount to create a gigantic change in their lives.  Join us, not just today, but always in this opportunity to connect people who need help with people who can help.  Thank you.