It's 8:30 we are going to Walmart or Target
whichever store has what we need. We need LOL dolls, we need Barbie dolls,
we need gift cards and other things that are listed for the family that we are
sponsoring. Should be fun it should be interesting, I'm excited to start
shopping for this family. Madison House has a lot of different programs. Holiday
Sharing is what stuck out to me the most. This year I'll be sponsoring a family of
four, we're trying to find exactly what each member in the family wanted. Yeah, I
think this is what we're looking for right here, LOL Surprise. Holiday
Sharing program has two types of sponsors the first type is a shopping
sponsor and these sponsors come and drop off gifts that they go out and purchase
themselves. In addition, the Madison House holiday sharing volunteers also go shop
for families based on monetary donations.
As far as sponsoring a family of four it means a lot to me because I've been in
that position before. At the age of seven or eight years old you know my mom was
working menial jobs and we reached a point where you know the money she was
making just didn't suffice and so we transition into homeless shelters. We'd
spend a good majority of our time at places like the Salvation Army eating
Thanksgiving dinner there and receiving generous donations from people in the
community in which we lived. And one time after we have found an apartment someone
just dropped off a big bag of gifts. As I've gotten older I've always felt
indebted to those people and I just wanted to be able to do that before I
left here UVA with Holiday Sharing. This year our program raised close to fifty
thousand dollars thanks to the generous contributions of our sponsors which
include CIO's, Greek life organizations, professors, neighborhood associations and
a bunch of other groups. Thanks to them were able to purchase gifts for over 600
individuals. I wouldn't be here at UVA if it wasn't
for those people who supported me. They positively affected my self-esteem
and just in my outlook on life. This is something that is bigger than shopping
for families right, this is a seed I am planting because someone planted that
same seed for me right and and and now I'm just you know reaping the fruit and
the benefits of it so like my job is is to take you know these these new seeds
and plant them as well. They're gonna be able to look back and maybe not specifically
know who planted that seed for them but know that that seed is there and that
they can benefit from a belief in them as a family.