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eConnection
December, 2014
girl with santa There is still time to spread holiday joy this Christmas! Your gift of just $25 and higher will sponsor a child who is attending one of our many holiday parties this week.  Your gift will make the holidays brighter for a child in need in our community.  Please make your gift before December 31st!

Give the Gift of JOY
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Saturday with Santa

The magic of Christmas was alive and well this past Saturday as over 500 children and families from 26 different partnering shelters attended our annual Saturday with Santa event at Saint Monica Catholic Church in Dallas!  With beautiful Texas weather, it was the perfect day for family bonding and outside Christmas themed carnival games  as children tried their hand at throwing a beanbag through Santa's mouth, tossing a ball through Olaf's arms and trying to encircle Santa's hat with a ring. Each child had the chance to visit with Santa, enjoy a delicious lunch generously provided by Chuy's and received a stocking filled with presents, new blanket, book and toy! 

 

A special thanks to the 150 Volunteer Elves who helped to make this event possible!  And HUGE appreciation to all of Santa's angels who generously donated financially and with inkind resources who helped make this event possible.  These special folks include: St. Monica Catholic Community, Rees-Jones Foundation, Chuy's on Knox in Dallas, Bank of America, JCPenney, Kids in Distressed Situations, The Toy Industry  Foundation and Skillman Church of Christ.  In addition, we would like to extend a special thanks to: Skillman Childhood Development Center, The Grace Place-Duncanville Church of Christ, Grace Place Properties and The Nehemiah Project, ReGeneration Recovery Ministry, Drake Athletics, Pepsico/Frito-Lay, Mary Kay Corp, Ernst & Young,  Home Depot, Citi, Preston Hollow Women's Group, National Charity League (Golden Corridor & Preston Bluebonnet Chapters), Young Men's Service League (Plano & Legacy Chapters), Bishop Lynch - Brighter future Club and many individuals for their generosity to make this event possible.

Toy Sort

Thirteen pallets of brand new toys worth over $40,000 were donated from the Toy Industry/Toy Bank to Rainbow Days during this holiday season. Several Santa's Helpers joined together over 3 days during the Thanksgiving break and spent 15 hours sorting each toy by gender and age and then placing them into gift bags for the upcoming Saturday with Santa event.  Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who braved the chilly weather and stepped away from their comfortable couches, warm beds and left-over turkey to instead sort toys for all the deserving children!   Santa's helpers never fail to respond and make a difference!  We appreciate all of our volunteers so much!  


 

  Special Thank you's to Micaela Mainelli, Sean, Catherine and Gaetano Fabris, Emma Jones, Katina and Kelvin Brooks Sr., Nkechi Chibueze, Edna, Jonathan, Sophia & Anthony Rose, Louis Carrillo, Sheela & Vedanth Ramamurthy and Lauren & Daila Mitchell for your efforts, time and kindness!

Skillman Church of Christ
A HUGE thanks to our generous friends at Skillman Church of Christ who donated over 550 children's stockings filled with goodies, warm blankets, new books and shared God's love with the children and families we serve. We are extremely grateful for this generous new partner and how their congregation poured out their kindness to the children of Rainbow Days!  

Special thanks to Terry Drake with Drake Athletics who is responsible for making this partnership possible and Chuck Adair, Executive Pastor of Skillman Church of Christ who helped mobilize his congregation!
Capital for Kids
Rainbow Days would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Capital for Kids!  On November 20th, not only did hundreds of people from the investment management industry gather at the Fashion Institute Gallery (F.I.G) to celebrate the foundation's 10th birthday, but over a million dollars was raised for Dallas area charities, such as Rainbow Days!  Capital For Kids has been making a difference in the lives of children for a decade and we are excited to see what the next decade brings!
Promise Awards
February 19, 2015
Promise Awards Mark your calendar for Thursday, February 19, 2015 for Rainbow Days 23rd Annual Promise Awards and Volunteer Celebration at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek.  At this fun-filled and meaningful event, Rainbow Days recognizes individuals, corporations and foundations who have gone above and beyond over the past year to further the mission of Rainbow Days.  Stay tuned for the announcement of this year's recipients. 
Giving Outside the Box During the Holidays
HoHoHo Want to help Rainbow Days throughout the Christmas Season and New Year?  It's easy!  Just keep us in mind when you are thinking about throwing away a gift basket or realizing that sweater is the wrong size and you don't want to venture to the mall.  Please consider donating to Rainbow Days any unused gift cards, empty baskets/containers, gifts that are not your style or something similar to what you already own.  We will make sure to put them to good use.  Please contact Emily Candee with any questions.
Pot of Gold Luncheon 2015
Save the Date April 24, 2015

Save the date for Rainbow Days' 18th Annual Pot of Gold Luncheon featuring keynote speaker Jeannette Walls, author of the New Your Times Best Seller The Glass Castle.  This year's event will be on April 24, 2015 at the Hilton AnatoleClick here for more information about the event or to purchase your tickets or sponsorships today! 

Our Children's Future
Save the Date - January 29th
Are you new to Rainbow Days?  Would you like to learn more about how you can get involved?  Please join us for a lunch and learn on Thursday, January 29th from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm at Rainbow Days offices.  RSVP to Mitzi to confirm your attendance.
Amazon Smile

This Holiday Season you can Shop for a Cause!   Your purchases can benefit Rainbow Days by shopping at Amazon Smile.  Go Amazon Smile and select Rainbow Days as your charitable organization.  Then, 0.5% of your eligible purchases will be donated to Rainbow Days! 

The Trans4m Center
Give children who live with more fear than hope,
more hope than fear!


 
Our Curriculum-Based Support Group (CBSG�) Program helps children release emotional pressures before they erupt into self-defeating and dangerous behaviors. The CBSG� Program teaches children to cope with situations they cannot change. It gives them reasons to hope, and the skills to strive for a better future.

 

Today's children are under enormous pressure from daily life. But imagine the added pressure of adjusting to family separations, or adjusting to a new foster home. How does a child deal with having one or both parents deployed multiple times, or having a parent in prison?

 

Imagine what a child experiences while watching or listening to one parent being beaten by the other. Imagine being homeless, or having a parent with a life-threatening illness, or having a parent with alcoholism or other addiction. Think about what these experiences do to a child's sleep, peace of mind, and ability to focus and learn.

 

WHO REACHES OUT to THEM? WHO HELPS THEM COPE with these OVERWHELMING PRESSURES?

 

WE DO... but not without your help.

 

Our Christmas Wish: Support Groups on Every Campus!

 

Start with the schools in your neighborhood. Talk to the school counselors. If a CBSG� Program is not available, work with others to sponsor a CBSG� Program Facilitator Training. One training can supply facilitators for several schools.

 

For more information, contact: Sandi

Rainbow Days Auxiliary:
Cars and Coffee
January 3, 2015 8am-12pm
Rainbow Days has been selected as the Charity of the Month for the January Cars & Coffee event.  Cars and Coffee is a gathering of auto enthusiasts where hundreds of proud drivers will congregate to kick tires and have a cup of coffee. There will be something for everyone to enjoy; classic, exotics, Concepts, hotrods, motorcycles and motor-sport. 

 

This is a free event - come support Rainbow Days!
 

Place: Classic BMW in Plano - 6800 Dallas Parkway, Plano TX
 

Date/time: Saturday, January 3rd from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
 

Volunteers needed! We need 6+ volunteers to work at the Charity tent selling coffee, promoting Rainbow Days and assist with clean-up.  Time commitment is from 7am-12 pm.  If you are able to help, please email the Auxiliary.

Parenting Tip 
A recent survey commissioned by AT&T revealed that 98% of drivers who own cell phones and text regularly are aware of its dangers, yet three quarters of them continue to text and drive, despite laws against it in some states. Dr. David Greenfield with the University of Connecticut School of Medicine explained , "We compulsively check our phones because every time we get an update through text, email or social media, we experience an elevation of dopamine, which is a neurochemical in the brain that makes us feel happy. If that desire for a dopamine fix leads us to check our phones while we're driving, a simple text can turn deadly." Cohens Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park released a study in May 2013 and found that texting while driving surpassed drunk driving as the leading cause of traffic deaths among teens. AT&T has designed an app that silences text message alerts and activates automatically when a person is moving 15 miles per hour or more. Parents can also be notified if the app has been shut off. AT&T's DriveMode app is free and is now available for the Android and iPhone.
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Dallas, TX 75206
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