Join us as we partner with Habitat for Humanity and assist in building a home for a family in need. The work day will be Saturday, April 9th from 8-12 in the Gloucester area. Must be at least 16 to volunteer and space is limited so register soon! #shine
Saturday, February 12, 2022
8:00a-10:30a
Camden, NJ
Sometimes the best way to help yourself is to help someone else.
What better way to start your Saturday morning than serving others?! Today we teamed up with Seeds of Hope in Camden, NJ to serve the homeless by way of a hot breakfast, clothing, hygiene products and brand new socks and shoes! Thanks again Carl’s Shoes for making this happen! Big thank you to our volunteers who were on site by 8am when they could have slept in. This ministry exists because of our faithful volunteers and, of course, the grace of God.
Let your light shine!
Seasons Greeting!
As we finish out this year and enter into the Christmas season I wanted to let you know how all of our events went.
Candyland Christmas
Each year Foster the Family hosts a Christmas party for the children in foster care in southern New Jersey. They are expecting over 300 children to come out and enjoy a celebration with their foster families! This year the theme is “Candyland”. Each child will have the opportunity to decorate their very own gingerbread house. We had 12 generous individuals donate towards this cause. We were able to donate a big box of goodies! The party is scheduled for this weekend so keep those kids and this event in your prayers.
Toys to Traditions
Instead of loading children up with gifts that they often can’t bring along when moving from house to house, Foster the Family has started a new tradition. In the place of gifts, each child, along with their foster family, will have the opportunity to experience the Christmas Lights Show at either Johnson’s Corner Farm or DIggerland. With over 30 amazing volunteers we were able to sponsor 113 children in foster care for a total of $1695 raised. We started with a goal of sponsoring 20 children. When this goal was met in the first few days we increased that goal to 50. Seeing the final number of children at 113 is truly a blessing. We can’t thank you enough for the blessing you are to these children.
Adopt a Student
Each year we “adopt a family” and this year we switched it up just a bit to “adopt a student”. We worked alongside Denbo-Crichton School in Pemberton Township to purchase Christmas gifts for 10 of their students. With our amazing partner, TLE in Marlton, and our awesome volunteers we were able to collect great gifts for all 10 students and even had some gift cards for the caregivers.
As this year comes to a close I just wanted to express my overwhelming thanks to each of you and the support you extend to this ministry. Working on events for Shine is such a rewarding experience and it is only made possible by the amazing people behind it. We certainly couldn’t do it without you.
Be sure so check out the pictures below and have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Thank you for your continued patience as we iron out the details for our holiday events! Two of the three are now in full swing so I wanted to share all of the details.
Candyland Christmas
Foster the Family is hosting a Christmas party for foster children in the area to come out, have fun, decorate a gingerbread house, and make some memories! We are asking for your help in collecting supplies for those gingerbread houses. They are expecting up to 300 children to attend so we’ll need A LOT of supplies!
We are asking for the following items:
Square pretzels
Gum Drops
M&Ms (holiday color)
Peppermint Round Candies
Mini Candycanes
White Royal Icing
Icing Bags
We will be collecting items until December 5th. As you can imagine, Amazon carries all of these items so if you wish to order from there you can have them directly shipped to me. Otherwise, I would be more than happy to arrange a meet, pick up or drop off. Here are the links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T6G966L/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_T2ABHFZY6MZDQDJ2VVQH
Our second opportunity with Foster the Family is “Toys to Traditions” where we are asking you to sponsor a child for $15.00 to go with their foster families to either Johnson’s Farm or Diggerland to experience the Christmas lights show. We have commited to 20 children with hopes of far exceeding that number! We will be collecting sponsorships until December 17th.
Donations can be made by Paypal (theshineministries@gmail.com), Venmo (@jreakus), or cash. Anything you are able to do would be greatly appreciated and go a long way in making a difference. Please be sure to reach out with any questions.
One of my favorite places to be- The Ronald McDonald House. We got to make dinner for 15 families (roughly 45 people) last night. I am so thankful to The Famous King of Pizza – Cherry Hill, NJ for donating 12 pizza kits with all the fixings and a huge delicious salad! Not to brag but our pizza making skills are getting pretty good! It helps when you have great ingredients! We are certainly looking forward to the day when the restrictions are lifted and we can spend more one on one time with the families! #shine #rmh #kop
August 28th we had the pleasure of making sandwiches and packing bagged lunches in our “Bagged Lunch Bash”. With all of the gracious donations we received we were able to make 50 bagged lunches with ham & cheese, protein bars, candy, fruit, chips & treats! All of these lunches were donated to the Cathedral Kitchen in Camden, NJ to be distributed to the homeless. Pre-Covid they would invite people off the street in for a hot meal. They were set up restaurant style so guests would come in, be seated, and served a hot meal. Because of restrictions they are not currently able to keep indoor dining open. It is because of your generosity that people are still being served and cared for. Although we look forward to the day when we can be back in the facility, this was a great way to stay involved! #shine #baggedlunchbash
Every year we collect book bags and school supplies to donate to local schools in hopes of making the school year a little brighter for it’s students. After last years’ chaotic year we knew we had to make this year great. Students were coming back to school after having been doing remote learning for so long. We teamed up with some amazing organizations to make it happen. Sapphire Salon in Cherry Hill, TLE of Marlton and the VFW of Delran joined alongside our individual contributors to donate over 50 book bags and TONS of supplies! In addition to our regular donations we also asked for kids masks, hand sanitizer, lysol wipes, tissues and face wipes. Each book bag was packed full of supplies and sent to Pemberton Township to be distributed. One of the pictures below shows a little girl sporting one of the back packs! As more pictures come in I will be sure to share them with you. As always, thank you so much for your continued support of our ministry. We couldn’t do it without you!
Let your light shine!
theshineministries.com 