As the former Director of Finance and IT at Northern Illinois Food Bank in St. Charles, I am aware of the struggles to continue to get financial support from the community for even the most basic of charities; those that provide food. In tough economic times such as these, many people are struggling just to keep their own families afloat. Now that I own a resale store I inevitably have a number of items that do not sell and thus I have been donating them to a variety of local charities. I don't know how many of these items ultimately find their way to another person and I was thinking, "If I had a nickel for every one of those items, the charities could benefit from that money." Thus my new program was born.
Here's how it works:
Items that haven't sold in over a year or are slightly damaged in some way are tagged with a special 'If I Had A Nickel' tag. When you make any From My Room purchase, you can choose one of these items and it will ring up as five cents. In addition, we ask that you put in any additional amount to one of our two collection boxes. One is for the Northern Illinois Food Bank and the other for the Naperville Area Humane Society. The donations for the Northern Illinois Food Bank will be targeted for their new capital campaign, raising money for a new, much needed facility ( http://www.northernilfoodbank.org/menu-top-getinvolved-capitalcampaign.asp ). The Naperville Area Humane Society will use donated funds in their care of abandoned animals. From My Room will match the amounts collected, thereby doubling the benefit to these charities.
It is our hope that this new program will:
* Make still-usable items available to people in our local community
* Keep these items out of landfills to help the environment
* Draw more attention to the community needs that are addressed by these two charities
* Provide some financial support to two great charities
Thank you for supporting our community.
