The Flash’s Guide to giving meaningful gifts

Donating time, resources to others shares the meaning of the season

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Complied by AMANDA KIMBLE
TheFlashToday.com

ERATH COUNTY (November 26, 2016) – Tis the season of giving, but this year, The Flash encourages you to give gifts that promote the true meaning of the season.

Forget ugly sweaters, hideous ties, inedible fruitcakes and other useless gifts that are guaranteed to be re-gifted, donated or altogether forgotten, consider honoring your loved ones and improving the community by giving to any of a number of Erath County organizations to help uplift others. Whether those on your list are humanitarians, lovers of the arts, animal advocates or proponents of literacy and education, there’s an organization they would be honored for you to support at Christmastime and throughout the year.

This is the first in a two-part series that will help you share gifts that will really make a difference.

music-and-memory

1 – Give the Gift of Music

The world of patients suffering the various stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia can be a lonely one.

They often isolate themselves from fellow residents, loved ones and their caregivers, according to Donna Hutcheson, administrator at Mulberry Manor nursing and rehabilitation center. She said many of them are nonverbal, bedbound and exhibit little emotion.

The local facility, located at 1670 West Lingleville Road in Stephenville, has a longstanding philosophy that daily life and rehabilitation should include the mind, body and soul.

Its latest effort to heal the whole patient includes Music & Memory certification. The program aims to improve patients’ quality of life and oftentimes helps them regain the ability to communicate, according to Hutcheson.

“We have one gentleman who was able to get around in his wheelchair, but seldom spoke,” she said. “We starting sharing music with him, Green Beret and country music, and he is now speaking with everyone – and singing. Music takes patients back to memories, normally way back to times like their high school years.”

Transporting Mulberry Manor residents back to happier times is a great way to give back. The facility is seeking donations of lightly used or new iPod shuffles, headphones and iTunes gift cards to extend the Music & Memory program to as many residents as possible.

The donations may be left at the Mulberry Manor business office this holiday season and throughout the year.

2 – Give the Gift of Literacy

The Dublin Public Library is the center of community education, promoting literacy while at the same time offering an array of events and activities aimed at shaping a lifelong love of literacy.

The library is open to Erath County residents and offers more than 17,000 items for adults and children, including books, audiobooks, e-books, DVDs, music CDs, magazines and local newspapers.

The Portal to Texas History can accessed through the library’s website, giving readers and researchers around the globe access to more than 6,000 digitized editions of various newspapers that have served the community over 14 decades. The library is also the home of the Erath County Genealogical Society, giving access to the area’s history and the storied past of the families who have called Erath County and the surrounding are home.

In a largely rural area where many residents are impoverished, the Dublin Public Library offers technology tools, including 10 public computers with internet access. Students have access to homework assistance through online portals and can turn to a large selection of hard copy references available for onsite use.

Operating as nonprofit organization that provides free services, donations are vital to Dublin Public Library, and there are a number of ways to provide funding assistance to the facility.

For a donation of $125, contributors can memorialize their donation to the library, which can be made in memory or in honor of a loved one, individual or business with honoree’s name engraved on brick that will placed outside of the library. Order forms are available online or at the Dublin Public Library, located at 206 West Blackjack Street.

Other options include placing names in books for $25 or on library donor plaques for $100, library supporter plaques for $500 and lifetime benefactor plaques for $5,000.

Visit the donations page on the library’s website for more information on giving the gift of literacy at Christmastime. It’s a gift you can give in the name of someone you love that also gives something to the community as funds collected are used to purchase computer and books for public use.

the-love-basket

3 – Give the Gift of Nourishment

Across Erath County, more than 50 percent of children are on their school’s free and reduced meal program. In 2014, a study showed almost 27 percent of children younger the age of 18 faced food insecurity locally.

When children are not getting proper nutrition, it’s safe to assume their parents, older siblings and other family members are also living in hunger.

Erath County has a number of organizations available to provide assistance to those families, but the efforts are reliant on monetary and food donations. Here are just a couple ways you can give the gifts of nourishment and nutrition at Christmastime and throughout the year.

The Love Basket, a Dublin-based food ministry, provides groceries to any Erath County resident in need twice a month – from 9 until 11 a.m. and 6 until 8 p.m. on the first and third Friday of the month at 207 East Elm Street (in Dublin).

The organization is in need of regular volunteers and accepts monetary and food donations to help feed those in need throughout the year.

For more information, call 254-445-8081 or 254-485-4393.

The Tarleton State University Food Pantry is available to help supplement the needs of students and staff by providing a two- to three-day food supply per client each visit.

Food items can be taken to the Thompson Student Center Information Desk during building hours or at the Office of Diversity & Inclusion (TSC 21) during normal business hours. Items accepted include, but are not limited to, tuna or chicken pouches, peanut or almond butter, single-serve fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, applesauce, nuts or crackers and microwavable soups.

In addition, online monetary donations can be made through the university’s website.

Other organizations feeding locals indeed include Backpack Buddies of Erath County Feeding our Children, 254-592-1475; Come Eat Mobile Soup Kitchen, 817-913-1235; H.O.P.E., Inc., 254-965-2700; and The Pantry & More, 254-592-9696.

4 – Give the Gift of Advocacy

The mission of the Paluxy River Children’s Advocacy Center (PRCAC) is to Mission is “To promote the healing of child abuse victims – one child at a time,” with a vision of reducing the trauma to child abuse victims and their non-offending family members and to work toward improving the justice system’s response to child abuse by uniting the efforts of public agencies and enlisting community support.

PRCAC, Granbury-based nonprofit organization serving Erath, Hood and Somervell counties, thrives off of community support and monetary donations. Donations of $10 up to $1,000 can be used to cover a number of expenses, here’s how:

  • $1,000: Intervention support services for five victims of child abuse
  • $500: Six days of rent and utility expenses
  • $100: Literature to educate the community about child abuse
  • $50: Stuffed animals to comfort 10 children
  • $25: Blank DVD’s to record a child’s description of abuse
  • $10: Snacks & juice boxes for children who receive services

Monetary donations can be made through PayPal.

Meanwhile, PRCAC hosts an annual Christmas party for the family it serves and is seeking unwrapped gift for girls and boys, ages 2-18. Toys may be dropped off at Barefoot Athletics, First Financial Bank or Stephenville Police Department prior to December 12. Other donations for the party include food items and gift cards – call PRCAC at 817-573-0292.

stephenville-education-foundation

5 – Give the Gift of Education

Nelson Mandela said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Stephenville Education Foundation aims to encourage Stephenville ISD students to work to their highest potential by rewarding teachers for innovation in the classroom and providing grants to extend their learning practices beyond budgetary constraints.

The foundation presents gift-givers with a unique opportunity to honor friends, loved ones, educators and business colleagues by making a monetary donation in their name.

Contributions can be made by general donation, pledged participation through an annual giving campaign or by planned giving through wills, trust and other legal means.

Simply fill out a contribution form and mail it to Stephenville Education Foundation at 2655 Overhill Drive Stephenville, Texas 76401.

For more information, contact Mindy Wooley, executive director, at 254-552-6650 or mindy.wooley@sville.us

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