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It's 8:30 we are going to Walmart or
Target

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whichever store has what we need. We need
LOL dolls, we need Barbie dolls,

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we need gift cards and other things that
are listed for the family that we are

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sponsoring. Should be fun it should be
interesting, I'm excited to start

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shopping for this family. Madison House has a
lot of different programs. Holiday

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Sharing is what stuck out to me the most.
This year I'll be sponsoring a family of

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four, we're trying to find exactly what
each member in the family wanted. Yeah, I

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think this is what we're looking for
right here, LOL Surprise. Holiday

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Sharing program has two types of
sponsors the first type is a shopping

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sponsor and these sponsors come and drop
off gifts that they go out and purchase

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themselves. In addition, the Madison House
holiday sharing volunteers also go shop

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for families based on monetary donations.

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As far as sponsoring a family of four it
means a lot to me because I've been in

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that position before. At the age of seven
or eight years old you know my mom was

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working menial jobs and we reached a
point where you know the money she was

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making just didn't suffice and so we
transition into homeless shelters. We'd

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spend a good majority of our time
at places like the Salvation Army eating

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Thanksgiving dinner there and receiving
generous donations from people in the

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community in which we lived. And one time
after we have found an apartment someone

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just dropped off a big bag of gifts. As
I've gotten older I've always felt

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indebted to those people and I just
wanted to be able to do that before I

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left here UVA with Holiday Sharing. This
year our program raised close to fifty

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thousand dollars thanks to the generous
contributions of our sponsors which

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include CIO's, Greek life organizations,
professors, neighborhood associations and

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a bunch of other groups. Thanks to them
were able to purchase gifts for over 600

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individuals.
I wouldn't be here at UVA if it wasn't

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for those people who supported me.
They positively affected my self-esteem

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and just in my outlook on life. This is
something that is bigger than shopping

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for families right, this is a seed I am
planting because someone planted that

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same seed for me right and and and now
I'm just you know reaping the fruit and

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the benefits of it so like my job is is
to take you know these these new seeds

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and plant them as well. They're gonna be able
to look back and maybe not specifically

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know who planted that seed for them but
know that that seed is there and that

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they can benefit from a belief in them
as a family.