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Latest News
To
Keep Hope Alive. Maybe you are
thinking "what can I do to
help?” You can make a difference and help Abode for Children raise awareness and funds by making a donation, sponsoring a child or organizing a fundraising campaign through your family, friends, and place of work or company. For more information, contact Mark DeAndrea at markd@abodeforchildren.org
"Maggie Makes A Difference." My name is Maggie Krebs and I am fourteen years old. Last school year, I chose to do a school project with my friend Kim Kolor called Charity Challenge. We did various acts of charity once a month and made a scrapbook with pictures and other things, like journal entries, for each event. It was a lot of fun, helping many causes and people, from volunteering at a hospice to volunteering at a barn. We started in August and went all the way to April. Kim and I wanted to do something extra special for our grand finale. We thought hard about it and then I remembered about Abode for Children. I told Kim about how my dad’s friends, Tom and Mary, are part of this organization that has orphanages in Africa and India. We knew we should find a way to help them out. We settled on holding a fundraiser—a raffle—at our school. We collected great prizes: gift cards to Brusters (an ice cream place), Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, two tickets to Pittsburgh Pirates games, and many more things. For one week in April, Kim and I set up shoeboxes with slits in them at our school and had students drop in their ticket for whichever prize they wanted. One ticket cost fifty cents and ten tickets went for five dollars. We spread the word by telling all our friends and teachers. We even made announcements over the school intercom in the morning and at lunch that tickets would be sold during all three lunches. Since Kim and I were unfortunately in the same lunch period, we were blessed to find friends in the other two lunches who were nothing less than thrilled to help us out. We could not thank them enough for all the help they gave us! Kim and I went into this endeavor not expecting much, but we knew we’d be happy just making it come through. Imagine our surprise when, on our last day, we counted our money and it turned out we had raised over four hundred and sixty dollars! Kim and I were so happy and proud that God had helped us to get a good turnout on our little raffle. We could not have asked for a better response or more support from everyone around us. ... "St. Joseph Orphanage tops 2007 Nigeria Independence Celebration" Each
year since 1960, on the first day of October,
Honors In Ogoja. In
Mbube-Ogoja in At
the end of the celebration activities, St. Joseph Orphanage was proudly
presented with prizes and certificates (see photos below), attesting to
the fact that they won first position in both categories. This occasion
attracted entire villages of the Mbube in Ogoja and its environs. To
crown it all,
"Lemonade Stand raises $320 for Orphan Children" You can make a difference and help Abode for Children raise awareness and funds by organizing your own lemonade stand or fundraising campaign whether through your school, youth group, family or friends. Here is one such example as told by the mother of one eight (8) year old child - Maria who was determined to raise money to sponsor an orphan. Can you take us to Kennywood Park? How about Fun-Fore-All? Can we go to the pool? These questions came from my 8-year-old daughter, Maria, and her friend quite often over the summer. I finally suggested that they consider someone other than themselves and think of those who are less fortunate. I suggested they find a way to have fun and earn money to help a charity of their choice. That is when Maria decided she wanted to have a lemonade stand. “What did I get myself into now?” I said to myself. I looked online and found the Take-A-Stand program from Sunkist. You tell them what you plan to do with a lemonade stand and they send you a printed cardboard lemonade stand. Maria decided that she would try to raise enough money to sponsor an orphan through Abode for Children for one year. She was very excited to begin right away. We tried every which way to make lemonade but found the fresh-squeezed method the best tasting. So that’s what we had to do. Maria had to figure what to charge and how much she could make on one glass of lemonade. We settled on $.75 and that was a great price since people usually gave a dollar and said, “Keep the change.” When customers would give her a tip just for her she usually just put it into her orphan fund or kept only half. Some days we sold mini-brownies for $.25 to go with the lemonade. The most fun Maria had was holding part of the removable lemonade stand sign over her head and yelling, “Fresh-squeezed lemonade—75 cents” or “Buy lemonade—help an orphan.” We were located on Main Street, Evans City, and lots of cars, trucks and motorcycles passed by. The best part was when they would come and tell us that they turned around just to buy our lemonade! Maria earned over $52 in lemonade sales in five days of selling for just a few hours each day. I knew we planned to sell during the town’s annual Oktoberfest celebration, so I asked the local Costco to donate lemons and brownies and they replied with a $25 cash card. Next, I bought a lemon press and lemonade dispenser and borrowed an ice-crusher so we would be ready for many more customers. Maria then decided to be in the Oktoberfest Parade and ride her scooter. When she won the $35 First Prize in the Novelty category,she turned around and donated $15.00 to the orphans. There was no stopping her momentum. She really wanted to be able to reach $240 to be able to sponsor an orphan for one year. In two days at the Oktoberfest she earned over $97.00 from lemonade and brownie sales. Earlier in the project, I decided to e-mail my friends to let them know of Maria’s efforts and some of them sent up to $20.00 for Maria’s orphan sponsorship. They also sent very loving letters of encouragement to Maria. Our friends and relatives generously donated a total of $152.00. Maria’s friend decided to sell her stuffed toys and books and raised $24.00 for the cause and she was excited to know she would be a part of helping an orphan for one month. Maria was pleased to present a total of $320.00 to Mark DeAndrea, Abode for Children’s new Vice President of Marketing and Development on September 17, 2007. She was able to sponsor a 15-year-old girl who has never been sponsored before, as well as purchase two beds, two tables, two desks and two chairs for the orphanage. Maria then, with my help, e-mailed a “thank you” with a picture of the orphan Maria chose to sponsor to those who donated. This showed those who sent $20 the child they helped for one month by their donation. Maria and I both agree that we had a lot of fun thinking of others. It kept us busy in the summer and gave us a goal to strive for and surpass. It also gave us the satisfaction of knowing we helped people less fortunate than ourselves, while giving us quality time together. My hope that this experience taught the girls they can have just as much fun by doing for others as they would running from amusement park to entertainment outlet trying to make themselves happy. Abode for Children plans to use our project, along with others, on their website, as ideas for kids to use who also want to help orphans. Even better! —Jeannine Goelz You can make a difference and help Abode for Children raise awareness and funds by organizing your own lemonade stand or fundraising campaign whether through your school, youth group, family or friends. And maybe your photo will appear here next. For more information, contact Mark DeAndrea at markd@abodeforchildren.org.
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