Starting in mid-November, we will be collecting gift cards for the teens who have been affected by domestic violence, or mental health, alcohol or drugs issues. Why teens? The SCV Domestic Violence Center informed us that teens tend to be left out from holiday toy collection drives. So, we started a tradition of helping them with this. Our congregation has been very generous. The SCV Child & Family Center will distribute the cards to teens who are in their programs, with a focus on those in the domestic violence program.

This year, there are TWO ways to donate:
1) Collection Box at Sunday Services — We will have a collection box at Sunday services (starting mid-November), for collecting $25 (only) gift cards from Target (only). We chose $25 so that all the gift cards will be the same. Teens like to choose their own gifts, so we selected Target as a wide-selection retailer that typically gets high ratings for company ethics and practices. Or you may just put cash into the collection box and we will turn the cash into $25 gift cards.

2) Or, Donate Online — Instead of having to buy a gift card and drop it in our box at the Sunday Service, we will continue the method we established last year for donating on-line directly. There is a “Donate” button on the Child & Family Center’s website, https://www.childfamilycenter.org/. (The “Donate” button is in the upper right-hand corner of the page, highlighted with a red circle in the diagram below:) Just fill in the amount, your name, and card information, just as if you were making an on-line purchase. Be sure to write “UU of SCV for Teen Gift Cards” in the Comments box. Cheryl Jones, the Center’s VP of Marketing & Community Outreach, has graciously offered to compile all the UU of SCV donations. She will go out herself and purchase the gift cards and then the Center will distribute them. Cheryl will let us know what the total was so that we will be able to let you know in January. We suggest donations of $25 because that’s the size of gift card, but for online donations, any amount is appreciated.

We appreciate your donations for the teens.