How To Give Back: Ways to help different organizations who are struggling during the pandemic

Where to Give Back — Peyton Moore

As late night ice cream runs and Sunday afternoon shopping trips with friends have come to an abrupt halt, some of us have a little extra money. So why not put it towards helping others? The world might seem like it’s paused, but families are still struggling to find their next meal. If anything, people need money now more than they did a month ago, before hundreds of businesses closed and thousands of people got laid off. Rose Brooks, Village Shalom and Scraps KC are only a few organizations who could use our help.

Rose Brooks isa safehouse for women and children who have been affected by domestic violence, no matter their situation. 

They provide housing, childcare, social services, social services and meals to help residents get back on their feet.

But due to the social distancing restrictions, Rose Brooks is now unable to cook meals for the families there, so they have to rely on individual packed food options — which come with a high price for some residents.

Mothers are not able to accept or receive any diapers,, formula clothing or other donations at this time due to a risk of contracting the virus. Rose Brooks is struggling to support their community without donations and volunteers, according to director Joan Dougherty

With no physical donations being made at this time of lockdown, people can still make monetary donations through their website, called rosebrooks.org.

Village Shalom is a nonprofit continuing care retirement community that provides first class care to all residents.

Due to the increased risk for the residents, Village Shalom has prohibited any visitors or volunteers from entering their buildings. Volunteers usually helped walk the residents dogs, delivered mail and hung out with the residents who don’t have a family themselves.

Due to the shortage of medical supplies, Village Shalom is requesting for people to donate hand-made masks. There are various tutorials on how to make masks with everyday products that can be found in any home, making it easy to give back during this time.

Other protective gear such as hand sanitizer, gloves and gowns are also being generously accepted. 

Any of these donations can be dropped off at Village Shalom where they will be thoroughly sanitized and distributed to the residents in a safe manner.

Scraps KC, a nonprofit group focused on caring for KC’s homeless population, provides meals, education and environmental awareness through creative reuse. 

Any used or excess supplies or materials can be donated to Scraps KC where they refurbish them and create new resources, such as watercolors made from dried out markers or doll houses made from shoeboxes. According to scrapskc.org they have reused over 135 tons of materials that would have eventually made its way to a landfill.

Scraps KC not only finds a purpose for used items, but also provides jobs like cleaning, serving food or organizing donations to the homeless.

During this time Scraps KC cannot take any used products, which is the base of their company. They have, along with many other organizations, created Amazon wish lists.

Some items on their Amazon wish list include Men’s and Women’s underwear, jeans, hand sanitizer and Hyvee or Price Chopper grocery gift cards so they can continue to feed the homeless.

All of these items can be ordered off their Amazon wish list found on their website. 

So, the next time you sneak tye-dye kits into your moms Amazon account, give back to our community and purchase some items on their wish list. 

How to Help From Home — Caroline Gould

During this time more than ever, charities and nonprofits are relying on people to help out. Even though it’s not allowed to volunteer in-person at the local soup kitchen, it’s still important to help your community from home, and there are more ways to help than you think. 

JOANN’s Make to Give Initiative

JOANN is running their “Make to Give” charity event, which is an opportunity for people to make and donate masks to support healthcare workers across the country. They have a goal of 100 million mask donations, and they are more than halfway there, with over 76 million masks donated, according to their website. 

On their donation page, there are links to free mask patterns, video tutorials and supply links, making the project as quick and easy as possible. Amongst the videos and tutorials, there are many different methods to make masks, along with sizes and fabrics. 

JOANN is also encouraging people to participate in their “Take & Make” initiative, where, for no cost, you can pick up donated mask supplies at their store locations. But due to a limited supply, it’s possible that some stores will be out of stock of these materials. If so, JOANN, along with other craft stores, offer online ordering and pick-up.

To ensure the effectiveness of the masks, the patterns and type of fabric that JOANN provides are used in medical settings. And by donating the masks to hospitals, they are ensuring that the masks are properly used by healthcare workers, according to their website. 

To drop off any masks that you want to donate, you can go to any open JOANN location. They will then be donating the collected masks to hospitals that are in need of them. 

To volunteer, just go to their website to find material suggestions, patterns, tutorials and more guidance. This simple, fun craft can go a long way and make a big difference, not to mention it will take some time off your hands. 

The Ronald McDonald House

Even though the Ronald McDonald House ─ a charity which houses families for free while their loved ones are in hospitals ─ has suspended in-person volunteering, they are still accepting donations. 

At these houses in Kansas City, you can make a financial donation online, and they’re also looking for insulated coolers. Because hospitals have added restrictions against families leaving hospitals to get meals, having an insulated cooler means they can easily pack their meals ahead of time to eat in the hospital.

While their Kansas City website claims that there’s no shortage of food due to generous donations, right now financial and insulated cooler donations are going to make the biggest difference.

According to their website, it costs 100 dollars to house a family overnight, and by donating, you can give a family the ability to stay for one night, weeks or months.

Junior Board’s Contribution —  Campbell Wood

In efforts to provide COVID-19 relief to local non-profit organizations, Junior Board projects will proceed by having presentations via Zoom in May.

Since the stay-at-home order was issued, cancellations included the annual Junior Board presentations, where teams of four to six students compete for money to give to a local non-profit organization of their choosing. Instead of the traditional, formal presentation, the virtual presentations will be much more casual — site visits, formal attire and a slideshow are no longer required. Teams simply pitch their organization to the board, sharing why they deserve the money. 

“I think one of the beautiful things about this whole time is that everybody’s taking a step back and taking a breath, and we’re all kind of thinking about what is really necessary, you know?” SHARE coordinator Kristyn Wiggins said. “And so it’s definitely the case with the way Junior Board’s going to look for these final presentations. It’s really more the message, the thought and just sort of the heartfelt plea than it is how pretty and perfect [the presentation] is.” 

The presentations’ structures have yet to be determined, such as if there will be greater cash prizes for first, second and third. Regardless of these uncertainties, all teams who participate will receive a general minimum of $300 for their organization, in years past, the top team received around $2,000. According to Wiggins, the Junior Board committee still wanted to provide money to those in need of it during this time instead of letting it sit around.

“We have all this money that the kids have solicited that’s sitting in our funds,” Wiggins said. “And I mean, this is a time of great need for not just individuals, but for these nonprofits, you know. We have money to give them — if there’s any way we can scale this back and recruit some teams, we would love to do it.” 

While not required, senior and Junior Board Exec Olive Henry and Wiggins highly encourage the participation of Junior Board teams so they can put the money to good use. So far, five of the 10 existing teams are signed up to present in May, but Wiggins encourages all teams to consider, even if not all team members are available to attend the Zoom call.  

Sophomore and Junior Board participant Merrie Clough is glad that Junior Board is still going on. Clough is currently working on getting her team back on track by organizing the information they had previously been working on — financing in particular, with recent situational changes from the coronavirus.  

“I’m glad they found a way for Junior Board to continue on instead of the money being saved up for next year,” Clough said. “Since we aren’t able to present in person, we’re able to share it with the non-profits now when they’re struggling from not having volunteers and the people they help, they’re just able to keep going. This helps them out until they’re able to get it back open again.”  

Clough is aware of the change in familiarity when it comes to presenting virtually. While she personally finds it to be a more comfortable environment, she still sees the negative effects of not having as impactful of a deliverance.    

Henry is disappointed that they won’t get to do the full, blown-out presentation — especially since her team enjoys public speaking. Henry also finds it difficult to orchestrate Zoom given the video and audio stream frequently cuts out. Nonetheless, she sees it as a great opportunity to give back to the community.  

“Every single team has a charity that is deserving of money, and I think that this is a really easy way to make sure that [their charity] gets something that they deserve,” Henry said. “I just wouldn’t want anybody to pass up that opportunity to give back to the community when it’s really easy to do so right now.”