Milford Nonprofit To Present $1K Donation To Nonprofit Neighbor

Milford CT

22 March, 2021

6:00 AM

Description

Press release from The Storehouse Project: March 22, 2021 Equipped with a dozen volunteers to sort redeemable recyclable items and a web page to receive donations, The Storehouse Project was able to generate $1,000 for a neighboring cause, the feeding of homeless veterans in the shelters of Bridgeport's Homes for the Brave. Rev. Todd Foster, Executive Director of The Storehouse Project said, "I've been working over the last three months to perform what seems like a bit of alchemy; turning bottles and cans into "gold" for great causes. When Deacon Mark Swagerty of Cornerstone Christian Center of Milford suggested that he was willing to facilitate monthly bottle and can redemption drives, it seemed like a great way to support some great benevolent, charitable efforts other than our own. "This is the fourth 'bottle drive' since December. As a result of the first one, we were able to outfit a 16 computer station educational center on the island of Trinidad. In the online-only educational environment brought on by COVID-19, young people there had been shut out of a formal learning experience without access to computers or internet service. In our subsequent drive in January, we raised $3,500 in construction funding for a bore (water) well on the site of an orphanage in Bangalore, India. Just this past weekend, they drilled down 1,000 feet and the water began to flow. Last month month, we found a great cause and we're able to donate $2,000 to The Sterling House Community Center's Food-4-Kids program. But why? Why would a nonprofit with its own programs to fund (e.g., food pantry, mobile food pantry, hot meals to go, collaborative regional food distributions, and a free clothing boutique) help fund the work of other organizations? Foster said, "We are in the planning stages of two major fundraising events and writing grants to fund our own programs, but when the bottle redemption idea came up it just seemed like a great opportunity to selflessly extend our impact in a relatively easy manner. As we continue these bottle drives, we will undoubtedly direct funds toward our own good work, but we hope to make it an ongoing practice of coming alongside other organizations too in selective months. There is an old biblical principle that suggests that when you give selflessly, that it comes back to you 'in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over!'" And besides that," Rev. Foster added, "it's just a great feeling knowing that we're lightening the load for others!" This press release was produced by The Storehouse Project. The views expressed here are the author's own.