|
Rainbow Village Wins Coveted D. Scott Hudgens Humanitarian Award
Rainbow Village is honored to have been selected to receive the Gwinnett Chamber's D. Scott Hudgens Humanitarian Award at the 64th Annual Dinner on Friday, February 3, 2012. Rainbow Village will be recognized before a crowd of over 1,000 community leaders for embodying the spirit of compassion and generosity to which Scott Hudgens was so deeply committed. We invite you to make plans to attend and share in this prestigious moment in Rainbow Village history. Get event details here.
|
Giving With Impact
During this time of the year, our thoughts often turn to giving back. But giving back what? And to whom?
Many of us are passionate about a cause, moved by an organization's accomplishments or touched by a story. At Rainbow Village, we hope you have experienced each of these. If your passion runs to helping the homeless, children in need of role models and encouragement, women who have suffered domestic violence, or keeping families together, then Rainbow Village understands your passion. We work with people in these situations every day.
If you want to see a model of a non-profit managing finances to put the utmost into the people it serves, then look no further than Rainbow Village. During the past year, we successfully helped 10 families transition from our program to lives of self-sufficiency. We remained debt free during this economy and pride ourselves on keeping operating costs down by putting $.80 of every dollar towards our families and family programs.
We celebrated our 20th anniversary this year. We saw our plans for a new "Village" come to fruition as Phase 1 of our construction for a new Family Service Center and two 6-unit apartment buildings began. We reunited with one of our former resident children and listened with pride in our hearts as he spoke to the guests in attendance at our Gala. We watched two of our Rainbow Village children enter the gifted program, and many more excel at local schools. We watched as several of our children made the Principal's Honor Roll and received Citizenship Awards. We saw one of our residents achieve her Certified Nursing Assistant's license, and another earn her Georgia Work Ready Certificate.
As you open your hearts to giving during this holiday season, we ask you to consider giving a year-end gift to Rainbow Village. Our current and future families rely on your generosity. To learn more about the many ways you can give to Rainbow Village, click here.
|
Faith Partner Showcase: Perimeter Church
Rainbow Village started 20 years ago as a faith-based organization supported solely by a small group of local churches and their parishioners. That foundation of faith has been the cornerstone of our success through the years and our faith partners today still play a vital role in all that we do. With dozens of faith partners now engaged, Rainbow Village relies heavily upon the passion and organizational talents of volunteer Michelle Alcorn to help recruit, coordinate, and actively involve faith partners in our mission.
As Rainbow Village's Faith Partner Liaison, Michelle explains, "One of our biggest goals is to build a sense of community among local churches and encourage them to come together and collaborate as one body of Christ. Each church brings their own blend of talents and resources and can determine where they best fit in. Some have strong volunteers corps. Some are strong advocates that want to help educate our community about those in need. Others have community outreach dollars to invest. The key is working together, valuing the unique gifts we each bring, to ensure the light and love of Christ shines bright for all to see."
Michelle's home church is Perimeter Church in Johns Creek and after more than seven years of partnering with Rainbow Village, theirs is truly a model program. They've served meals, painted, held prayer walks, adopted families, tutored, landscaped, painted, supported galas, book fairs and golf tournaments, built gingerbread houses, read books, played games, mentored, and the list goes on. There isn't one volunteer opportunity at Rainbow Village that Perimeter Church hasn't touched in a big way.
Joe Young is a Perimeter Church Elder and Rainbow Village Board Member currently overseeing the development of Rainbow Village's new campus. Joe has been a strong advocate for the faith partner network because he has seen first-hand the benefits it brings to all involved. Joe shares, "The key is to start small, plant seeds and see what God grows. Working cooperatively with Rainbow Village has grown our church's relationship with the community, expanded our faith, opened so many eyes to the needs of homeless families, and has helped instill faith, hope and love in many broken lives. Perimeter's significant contribution to the Rainbow Village Capital Campaign through our Kingdom Investment arm shows just how vested we are in the mission of Rainbow Village long-term and we can't wait to see what God's going to do next."
|
Volunteers Make the Holidays Merry & Bright
Rainbow Village families have truly felt the outpouring of love, support and encouragement from our community more than ever before this holiday season. We truly couldn't have made the holidays merry and bright for our families without the loving hearts of all our volunteers.
Thank you to NAPA Genuine Auto Parts Company for sponsoring our Holiday Store and Trinity Church for your help storing Holiday Store donations. With limited space here at Rainbow Village, it made all the difference. Trinity allowed us to say "yes" to all donations this year.
The cold won't bite nearly as hard this winter for Rainbow Village families give thanks to John Barber and his family for their generous donation of 50 sets of hats, scarves and gloves for everyone!
Pleasant Hill Presbyterian, you blew us away with your support for our Angel Tree and then you took Rainbow Village children shopping for their parents. Your example of Christ's light shines bright in the hearts of all those you touch. A special shout out goes to Reverend Andy Acton for his support.
Norcross Presbyterian and Mitch Reames with Metro Limousine made this a Christmas to remember for children of our graduate families. They took them shopping in a limousine and then treated them to a Taco Party!
Siemens wowed our kids once again with an outing to the VIP screening of The Muppets.
Santa's sleigh is overflowing with toys for Rainbow Village girls and boys this year thanks to the massive toy drives provided by World Changers Church and Dal Cuore.
Ron and the racing community with NASA-SE, and PCOM also held massive toy drives.
A very special thank you to CISCO for stocking our Holiday Store and giving our families many choices to shop from as they choose individual gifts for family members.
Our sibling Holiday store was a huge success this year courtesy of Mizuno.
Michelle Alcorn deserves recognition for all her hard work in the Holiday store and for encouraging her neighborhood to adopt more families.
The Meyers Group sponsored our Angel tree this year providing gifts for all children.
Illumination Designs did a fabulous job decorating our Duluth apartment complex with outdoor lights and a wreath. It looks beautiful.
Thank you to Howie and L7 Events for sponsoring an angel tree at Belk at The Forum for a Rainbow Village graduate family that has had a difficult year.
And a special thank you to Mt. Pisgah for making wreaths for our families' doors and to Andrew Bacik and Melissa Miller for providing Christmas trees to all our Rainbow Village families. Andrew personally assembled, lit, and decorated each and every one.
More than 100 people attended our Holiday party on Saturday, December 17. Rainbow Village families, graduates, Board members, volunteers, staff and their families all came together to enjoy a delicious meal together, make crafts, decorate Rice Krispie treats and Santa made a point to stop by and give every child a present. We thank Beltmann Relocation Group, Mark Terrell, Young Mens Service League of Greater Atlanta Christian School and their parents, John Barber and his family, Jennifer Padilla, Patsy Miller, Pleasant Hill Presbyterian, and Children's Restoration Network for their help in making it a special event for all involved. Click here to see our Holiday Party Photo Album.
|
Construction Update The staff got their first peek inside the new building last week and it blew us away. We can't wait for you to see it! Our staff and families can't wait to move in April. Stay tuned for details of our celebration. T-minus four months and counting! |
Thrift Store Now Open to Benefit Rainbow Village
The Gwinnett Thrift Store benefiting Rainbow Village is officially open and now serves as the official drop-off site for all in-kind donations to Rainbow Village. Owner Tim Hur allows us to use his storage space to keep our needed household items safe and sound until future families need them. The donations we don't have a specific purpose for will be sold via consignment in his store and generate a 40% sales return for Rainbow Village. Nancy Yancey shares, "Tim has been a great asset to Rainbow Village by establishing this partnership which will be a win-win for all. We are grateful for his and his father's generosity." The store, located inside Galleria Mall at 5265 Jimmy Carter Boulevard in Norcross, is open for sales and donations Thursdays - Mondays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tim reports, "We started with a soft launch and are pleased to report we've already generated several hundred dollars to benefit Rainbow Village families. If the donations and sales continue to trend as they have, we might find ourselves open daily much sooner than expected."
Donations may be dropped off during business hours and a donation receipt will be provided. Thank you for making this new venture a successful one!
|
|
|
|
Our campaign, "Building Strong Communities One Family at a Time," commitments continue to grow. Click here to see the Investor Honor Roll!
It truly does take a village to change the lives of homeless families with children now and for generations to come. Contact Sandra Cathy, Chief Development Officer, to learn more.
|
Heartfelt Appreciation to All Rainbow Village Angels
As the year draws quickly to a close we send our heartfelt appreciation to all Angels that contributed monthly recurring gifts in 2011 to support the ongoing operations and programs of Rainbow Village. You truly are the guardians of our families all year long and we are grateful.
Be an Angel in 2012!
|
IHOP Lovers Take Note!
On Christmas Day, if you bring canned foods to the IHOP on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, you'll receive a free drink. Canned goods will benefit Rainbow Village Families. |
Save the Dates!
Duluth Rotary Poker Night January 26, 2012 The 1818 Club More Info
Be Our Funny Valentine Make plans to join us at Gwinnett Rotary's Comedy Night Featuring Comedian Pat Dixon February 14, 2012 6:30-9:30 p.m. $50 per ticket More details soon!
17th Annual Rainbow Village Golf Classic May 7, 2012 TPC Sugarloaf
Rainbow Village Annual Gala October 13, 2012 Atlanta Athletic Club
|
Please help us spread the good news about Rainbow Village and our vision for the future. Share this email and encourage those in your circles to become personally vested in helping us break the cycles of homelessness, poverty and domestic violence.
Forward this newsletter to a friend!
|
|
|