Dear friends of Hands On Charlotte,
The holidays are often about "wants."
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, proclaims the opening line of a popular old holiday song.
Kids want a bike, or the newest Uggs, or the bloodiest video combat game with the coolest explosions.
Grown-ups want a new car, or just a couple of minutes to relax, or to happily discover at midnight on Christmas Eve toy assembly instructions that aren't written in Mandarin Chinese or Swahili or some ancient Russian characters.
(For the record, I want a decent pair of black leather gloves and for there to be no fog on 77 North heading over Fancy Gap as I travel to West Virginia.)
But for many, the holidays are about "needs" - basic ones, such as food and shelter; and more complicated ones, such as education or money to pay medical bills.
"Find a need and fill it," advised Ruth Stafford Peale, wife of theologian and author Norman Vincent Peale and an author, editor and speaker in her own right. Good advice at any time, but especially during the holidays, and especially during this time when needs are staring us in the face every which way we turn.
Hands On Charlotte has needs. You may not realize that, but we do.
We need you to keep our projects full so we can help our partner agencies keep their focus on meeting our community's critical needs.
We need you to let us know when you're coming to a project, and when you're not, so our project leaders can manage the projects and continue to deliver the best volunteer experience possible to both you and our partner agencies. People are depending on you!
We need you to let us know if there are other ways you'd like to serve the organization or our community, whether that's serving on one of HOC's many committees or suggesting a new project or partner agency.
And Hands On Charlotte needs your financial support.
Volunteering may seem like it's free, but it's not.
Like you - and perhaps your own business - we have bills to pay. The website you use to register for projects and learn more about HOC didn't spontaneously program itself into existence in the cyber-world. The lights and water don't "volunteer" to turn themselves off and on in the office.
The mulch you spread on Hands On Charlotte Day or at a BIG Project didn't chop itself into tiny bits or deliver itself to project sites. Unlike a Disney movie, the shovels and wheelbarrows and paint cans and brushes don't magically come to life and dance across the city to other project sites.
We have the single most dedicated staff of any nonprofit organization in this city, but they don't "volunteer" to work for us. Like you, they have mortgages and kids and car payments, too.
Houses of faith often solicit their congregations for their "time, talents and treasures." We at Hands On Charlotte are deeply grateful for the time and talents you share with us every day of the year, and we don't take lightly the contributions you make in these ways to meeting the needs of our community.
But we need your treasure as well to ensure that Hands On Charlotte can continue to provide ways for you, in turn, to help meet the needs of the community.
As the onslaught of holiday charitable appeals begins to hit your mailboxes and in-boxes and phones, I hope you'll consider making a gift to Hands On Charlotte to meet our needs this season.
With gratitude for your service and support,
Sara Collins
Chair, Board of Directors
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