Another Month of Caring - May 2024

All locations of the The Caring Place are CLOSED on Monday, May 27th.

Dear Friends,

It's hard to believe we are just a month away from that often formidable summertime! While we know the intense Texas heat, along with Texas-sized water and electric bills may soon be on their way, we continue to be grateful for the ways you support The Caring Place's programs and services. At this time of year, that support is greatly helping folks when those high summer bills create unforeseen hardships.

In April, The Shops at The Caring Place hosted our second annual Textile Sale. Volunteers are pictured with some of our textiles. The store welcomed many new customers and experienced some wonderful revenue due to this sale. Thank you to our Volunteers and those of you who came out to shop. Every time you shop with us you are supporting the mission of The Caring Place. Your donations in our drive through help make those sales possible as well. So when the heat gets you down this summer, join us in our air-conditioned stores to do some "shopping for good" or clean out a room in your home to help us fill our thrift stores!

April was also a big month for celebrating our volunteers. If you keep reading you'll see a few of our pictures from the event. If you'd like to attend next year, we'd love to see you become a volunteer with us! I hope you'll learn how!

We are grateful for your support because it is needed more than ever! In the first quarter of 2024, The Caring Place assisted 6,375 unique individuals. That is almost the same number of individuals we assisted during the entire year of 2022!

What's to come in May and beyond? A lot! We are expecting to begin many new projects, big and small, to help better serve our clients, accommodate staff and volunteers as they work and to be the best stewards possible of the gifts you give us. Would you like more info on upcoming projects? Be sure to check our website, social media and local news for media releases soon. We will be releasing some exciting news regarding our Donations department when we have a few more details ironed out! You'll see hints of plans in the works in the Donations section below.

We hope your introduction to the next season is a smooth one and we hope to see you at The Caring Place soon!

Ginna O'Connor

Executive Director

If these pictures don't entice you to become one of our amazing Volunteers, we don't know what will! Volunteers make our lives more fun each and every day and our Volunteer Appreciation event on April 28th was no exception! We are grateful for the gift of time they provide The Caring Place. In 2023, 388 Volunteers gave 55,708 hours of service to The Caring Place. This is equivalent to an in-kind gift of $1,771,514 or 27 full-time employees!

At the annual Volunteer Appreciation Event, we take a moment to celebrate a few of the bigger milestones of 2023. Celebrating 15 years at The Caring Place are Theresa Hackett, Janice Lindsey and Gabriele Madison. Celebrating 10 years at The Caring Place are June Boelson, Geraldine Carolan, Cynthia Cohen, Roxane Dahl, Bill Freitag, Wanda Fuhs, Jim Hilscher, Valerie Koy, Fran Lovejoy, Mike McCarthy, Barbara Schulenburg, Roger Schulenburg, Karin Sparks and Annette Todd. Celebrating 5 years at The Caring Place are Jennifer Baker, Fred Bartek, Linda Bryan, Trena Carter, Gregg Goff, Alan Greenberg, Ruth Haney, Ann Havey, Mary Kapica, Candace Leslie, Valerie Monnat, Donna Muller, Theresa Neville, Donna Nolen, Nancy Pate, John Stock, Judy Tennyson, Joe Urias, Nancy Wiedeman and Patty Wilson

Volunteers, Thank you all once again for the work and heart you put into everything you do at The Caring Place. It's simply incredible! Our Volunteers will find more pictures available in our Breakroom and in their "Insider" newsletter.

SALE ALERT: Enjoy 50% off furniture May 2-4 at our 2000 Railroad Avenue location!

Do you shop at Randalls? Print and fill out this document to have your purchases at Randalls support our mission. Submit the form to the Randalls Courtesy Booth.

DOWNLOAD FLYER

Let's increase the number of folks who participate in this program so that you help The Caring Place when you buy your groceries.

Fill out a Volunteer application NOW!

After completing the application, Dennis Hilgeman, our Volunteer Coordinator will call to confirm your Volunteer Orientation attendance. If one of these scheduled dates doesn't work, don't worry! Dennis can work with you! Feel free to give him a call at 512-943-0708 with all of your volunteering questions or email him at dhilgeman@caringplacetx.org. We look forward to meeting you!

Donate Food

The Caring Place accepts food donations to supplement our busy Food Pantry. You can bring food donations to our drive through at 2000 Railroad Avenue, Mon-Sat, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Financial gifts allow the organization to purchase food items when it needs them and can be made at caringplacetx.org/donate. Due to space restrictions, this is a great way to help our neighbors. The Caring Place also has access to discounted food sources and is a partner of the Central Texas Food Bank, making financial gifts the most impactful way to lend a hand.

If you’d like to help the Food Pantry by having a Food Drive, contact Food Programs of The Caring Place at 512–943-0738 or email fooddonations@caringplacetx.org. Advance notice is requested so that we can make space in the warehouse. Food Drive items can be tracked for groups by bringing them to the reserved parking space during regular Food Pantry Hours. Mon, Tues, Wed, and Friday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Donate Your Stuff - Watch for Changes!

Our Donation drive-through is currently open the same hours as our store at 2000 Railroad Avenue, Mon-Fri, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Upcoming construction could impact the Donations drive through, so we encourage you to check our website and other media for updated information through the summer.

We are planning a trial run of some small changes in our Donation drive through May 6-11. Be prepared to follow cones and signs or follow staff direction. During this time we will be learning what other plans we may need to make to accommodate donations coming in. We thank you for your patience!

Item donations provide affordable necessities for our community and support our mission to provide for the basic human needs of all people in our community. Through your fabulous donations, we also raise money to help neighbors with rent, utilities, transportation and more when they have financial hardships.

Ensure you are bringing items that we can sell in our stores by utilizing our Donations Flyer. This flyer includes the things we do not take due to safety or disposal costs and can be found at caringplacetx.org/donatemystuff.

Interested in donating large furniture? We have a designated pick up service area to help you with those requests. Learn more about this designated area at caringplacetx.org/donatemystuff or call 512-943-0711 to request a pick up.

Donate a Monetary Gift

The gift you give today directly impacts families struggling in our community.

Whether it's food, rent, clothing or another type of assistance, The Caring Place can only do this work with the help of generous supporters like you. We can use your gifts where we need them most to help our neighbors, or you can designate your gift to the Food Pantry.

Give today at caringplacetx.org/donate.

Join us for a free learning opportunity titled "Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions."

Classes focus on managing symptoms, monitoring nutrition, incorporating exercise, dealing with emotions and more as participants learn about living with chronic health conditions.

Classes are on Thursdays between May 16th and June 20th from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. in The Caring Place's Community Room at 2001 Railroad Avenue. Registration is required by May 10th. Space is limited.

To register for this limited-time class call 512-943-0726 or email Xinia at xvargas@caringplacetx.org.