A Holiday Request From Me to You

Dear friends and family,

With the holidays quickly approaching, I want to take a moment and ask for your help. For the past few years Mary and I have worked with the Benton County Women’s Shelter, now the Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter. These ladies and children have gone through physical and emotional abuse that, thankfully, most of us will never experience. In many cases they’ve literally fled their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We cook either a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal for current residents (usually 20-30), and we also purchase Christmas gifts (for the most part simple necessities like clothes and shoes—of course, the kids also get toys and books) for as many of the families as we can. Between now and Christmas, I’ll be coordinating with the shelter on how many ladies and children will be in need of Christmas gifts­­. I’ll have a wish list for each lady and child a little closer to Christmas. And you don’t have to buy for a whole family; you can purchase just one or two items on any list.

Also, we’ll be cooking Christmas dinner for them this year. If you’d like to contribute to that instead of (or in addition to) the wish list, by all means do. Anything you do is helpful. These ladies and kids are amazingly sweet, appreciative people despite all they’ve been through. If you’d be interested in helping, here’s how:

For locals friends, just send me a message on Facebook and tell me you want to help, or use the option below.

For my out of town friends, I’ve set up a PayPal account to which you can send money online. And I hope this goes without saying, but for the worry warts out there, please keep in mind the following:

• This money is not for me. I have a nice job with a nice salary. I have my own money. I don’t need to steal yours.
• This is voluntary only. If you’re not able or don’t want to help for whatever reason, don’t sweat it.
• I won’t be able to see any of your credit card or personal information. Again, don’t need it, have my own.

Ok, now that we’ve crossed that bridge, here’s how to send money via PayPal:

1. Go to PayPal.com and click Send Money at the top.
2. In the To box, put my email address, arkansasgrizzly@yahoo.com
3. In the From box, put your email account.
4. In the Amount box, put the amount you’d like to contribute.
5. Click the Personal category tab and select Gift, then click Continue.
6. On the next page enter all your information just as you would for any online purchase.

Finally, if you want to help the shelter but you’re not comfortable with sending money to me, go to their website, www.nwaws.org and click Donations. You can do a PayPal donation there. It won’t go to this specific effort, but it will help them with everyday costs. If you have any questions, just send me a message here on Facebook. Thanks so much!

~Alan