Local charities offer ways to give something different for Christmas

Rebecca Bakken of the Kalamazoo Gazette offers a few alternatives to traditional gift giving in favor of donating money to a charity:

For those looking to avoid the malls for last-minute shopping, giving the gift of charity can help forgo stress for the gift-giver as well as for some of the less fortunate people in the Kalamazoo area.

• Open Door Next Door Shelters: Employees can process donations and give cards for gift recipients until Christmas Day. Call (269) 343-6064.
• Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity: Alternative gifts can be bought at any time at www.habitatkalamazoo.org. Gift givers can also call (269) 344-2443 or visit their offices at 534 E. Kalamazoo Ave. until 3 p.m. on Dec. 24.
• Ministry with Community: Alternative gift buyers can visit the shelter to donate and receive a card from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. any day, including Christmas.

Area charities are making it easy for people to reject traditional gift giving in favor of donating money in a friend or a loved one’s name to help provide basic needs for those who are less fortunate.

“It can be a very satisfying way to give and even receive a Christmas gift. Even a small amount can make a big difference,” said Rick Stravers, executive director of Open Door Next Door Shelters.

The organization is dedicated to helping young homeless people acquire permanent housing and maintain employment and sober living.

Stravers said $10 can provide a resident with food for one guest. He said $30 can pay for 10 days of job hunting on a city bus and $16 can provide heat and electricity to an entire shelter for one day.

Those who donate will receive a card to give to the gift recipient, stating that a donation has been made in their name, Stravers said. Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity and Ministry with Community also provide cards so the gift-giver has something to present.

Donating money to Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity can help purchase tools, lumber and fixtures so the organization can continue to build homes for people in Kalamazoo.

“We do promote giving to Habitat as a way to honor someone’s service or memory, birthday, Father’s Day — any holiday — and people do that pretty regularly,” said Ann Kilkuskie, development coordinator.

Twenty dollars can buy four boxes of nails that will help hold together someone’s future home, $35 can buy shingles to put a roof over a child’s head and $150 can buy the door to a struggling individual’s first home.

At Ministry with Community, people who are homeless or have fallen on hard times can receive breakfast and lunch, do their laundry and receive counseling with a social worker, among many other things, all free of charge. Its alternative gift-giving program is called Giving Tree.

Rob Oakleaf, deputy director, said he started giving alternative gifts to those on his list after hearing that his mother was doing the same through Heifer International, a group that allows people to purchase cows and other animals so people in developing nations can eat and achieve a sustainable lifestyle.

“I do it for my family every year. I don’t think anybody else needs another iPod,” Oakleaf said.
For $25, a person trying to get their life together can visit with a social worker for one hour, while $50 can help a person have clean laundry for a year. One hundred dollars will buy work clothes, boots and transportation for a person willing to work but lacking the means.

“The response (to Giving Tree) has been modest but growing,” Oakleaf said.

Heidi Bryant, missions elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Richland, said the church holds an alternative gift market every year around Thanksgiving and during Wassailing in Richland in early December, raising money for several area missions.

This year the church raised $2,600 for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Ministry with Community and Open Door Next Door Shelters, among others.

“We all have the parents and grandparents that just don’t need another nick-nack,” Bryant said

Read the full story from the Kalamazoo Gazette