Love INC ready to plant Giving Trees around the county

In Shel Silverstein’s book “The Giving Tree,” one little boy is the recipient of all the goodness and kindness the tree can give him.

One local organization’s Giving Tree is prepared to spread the wealth of kindness.

Love in the Name of Christ has created its own version of “The Giving Tree,” and the staff would like to invite everyone to participate in this way of reaching out into the community to help provide for those seeking to better their lives.

The Love INC Giving Tree was designed to move from location to location to give community members a chance to pick from its leaves. In doing so, it will help provide funds that will go a long way in aiding families throughout Holmes County through the various Love INC programs.

According to Vicki Conn, Love INC executive director, it is an easy, fun and inexpensive way to make a big impact on the people of Holmes County.

“We would like to invite community organizations to host our Giving Tree for a month,” Conn said. “We will come and set the tree up and provide tags for the tree that people can take. Each tag will include items and dollar amounts to be collected and donated to Love INC.”

According to Conn, the tree itself, along with all the supplies and materials needed to host the tree, will be brought to any requested location the week prior to the collection month. Once the month is complete, Love INC volunteers will come and pick everything up the week after the collection.

“People can simply pull off a tag, make a purchase, bring it back and place it in a tub that we will supply,” Conn said. “We’ve tried to make a variety of ways people can make an impact, whether big or small. Every donation helps us serve our mission of helping the people of Holmes County.”

There also is an opportunity to opt for a tag that provides financially, and Conn said they will place a secure drop box for those donors to slip their donation into.

Once the collection month is complete, members of Love INC will come out and retrieve the tree, the donations and the tub.

“We’ve made it as simple as possible to participate,” Conn said. “We give them everything they need.”

The information on each tag will present different ideas of items that can go a long way in supporting the mission of the organization. Some of them will be in-house items, like postage stamps, colored copy paper, 1-inch binders for budget coaching and more. Other tags will host ways to support the many Love INC programs.

Ideas of the dollar amounts on the tags will range from $100 to cover one month’s cost of Homes of Hope trash pickup to $20 to cover Fresh Start Curriculum expenses for one participant.

“We thought this would be a great visual and an opportunity for people in churches and organizations to be more aware of Love INC and the variety of ways to support the ministry,” Conn said. “When we began 10 years ago, our mission was to mobilize the area churches in ways that they could reach out into the community and help families in the county, so churches continue to be a major part of our purpose and mission in walking beside families in faith-based ways.”

Conn also said businesses are welcome to participate because many area companies are often seeking out opportunities for their employees to get involved with local charities.

“We know a lot of our area businesses like to rally around nonprofits, and it’s a fun way for a business to unite in a common effort,” Conn said.

She said another benefit of this fundraiser is it presents an opportunity to share Love INC’s mission and purpose in serving the community in a new way, with the tree bringing needed awareness to many who may not know about the organization.

She said along with the tree, if anyone would like a Love INC representative to come and share at church or a function, call and they will hammer out a time to do so.

Any church, group or organization interested in hosting the Love INC Giving Tree may call Love INC at 330-473-6017.