Making a Gift is truly Making a Difference
The tooth fairy often misses homeless children.
I learned that sad truth the other day while visiting the kindergarten classroom. Almost all the students are missing front teeth, as kindergartners are prone to do, and we were laughing about that. I heard one of the little girls remark to no-one in particular that when she lost her tooth, she put it under her pillow, “but the tooth fairy never came.”
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. The parents of our students are generally good parents who want to provide the best for their children. But these parents are so stressed by poverty—trying to find housing, making sure there’s enough food, deal with domestic violence or other dangerous situations—that they have little resources to read to children at night, play games with them, or make sure the tooth fairy shows up.
Here at Positive Tomorrows, we understand that financial poverty often leads to emotional and educational poverty as well. We see our role as stepping into the gap, providing not only education, but also safety and emotional support, such as birthday parties, new shoes, and one-on-one time with mentors.
At the same time, we’re developing our budget for next year and are wrestling with the costs of everything we provide for our students. What do we sacrifice? What is absolutely necessary to keep? How do we pay for it all?
We’re so grateful to all the donors who make it possible for us to care for these little children. Know that when you make a gift to us, you can count on the fact that we will spend it wisely. Much of the time, your gift will go towards salaries for our caring teachers or for a social worker who helps a mother cope with life. Sometimes it will provide for a special snack or a trip to the park. But I’ll guarantee that where-ever it goes, it will make a difference in a child’s life.
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On behalf of both child advocates here at the YWCA, we truly appreciate all the hard work and dedication you and your staff at Positive Tomorrows provides the community we serve.
THANK YOU!
the school my kids attend has some teaching materials they no longer need to use and we would like to donate them to your school. I work with Marty Byrd, who is a long time supporter of your organization and he suggest i contact you. Would you like to use these materials? and if so, where should I bring them?
Thank you so much,
Jackie Gross
Jackie, we would love to have your teaching materials. If they’re duplicates of something we already have or if we can’t use them for some reason, we can share them with some other organizations. I’ll email you off-line and let you know how to get them to us. Thank you so much!