It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
“You don’t have to be rich, to be generous.”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
While a lot of us feel this way, for some this coming season can be the hardest.
Did you know that, statistically speaking, reports of domestic violence go up during the holidays’?
There’s a number of factors that go into this… financial stress of the holidays, and being off of work therefore home together more are just a couple of them.
The amount of child abuse that occurs also goes up for these very same reasons.
In some cases, victims rely on their abuser’s finances; and as a result have a harder time escaping their situation this time of year. They don’t want their children to go without a home or gifts during the Christmas season. They hope that everything will be okay, because this time of year is supposed to bring happiness.
It takes a lot of mental energy and time for the victim to convince themselves it’s time to go, this time of year just makes it so much harder. While this may be difficult for some of us to understand, we should try and empathize.
What do we do as a community to show that we care? To show that there is another option?
In rural areas such as ours we have limited resources and so we must be the resource.
I want the families in our area shelter to know they are as deserving of a beautiful holiday as the rest of us are! That’s why I donate the percentage of profits that I do, to help with their holiday experience.
But it isn’t enough.
I would love to see the people working these shelters be able to hand the parents there some amount of money and say,
“Go get what you need to make your children’s and yours’ Christmas special.”
Do you know how empowering that could be?
Most victims never get the say, they have no control over the finances, they have no control of anything.
Even just this little bit of control they get in shopping for their children, on their own. . .It will make the world of a difference in their mental battle. It will give them a little spark that will encourage them to take back more control of their lives. I can promise you that much!
That is why I am hosting the “Children’s Christmas Carnival.” All proceeds will be given to Dove Inc. to help make this happen.
I cannot do this on my own though! If you have any interest in helping whether it be by sponsorship, volunteering time, setting up your own unique carnival game, or donating food and/or drink please reach out!
And if you can’t do any of those things grab the kids and show up for a fun day! It’s that simple!
AlSO, the Black Friday Challenge. . .
Man, I won’t lie, I definitely take advantage of the deals for my Christmas shopping. It has always struck me as ironic though that a day after being thankful, we go hard on getting everything we want still. LOL what can I say?
Something I’m going to do this year is get a list of needs from local organizations serving families and try to include that in my shopping this year. I challenge you to the same!
All the love,
Kaitlin.
