Ayuda

Ayuda Seasonal Campaigns

Opportunity Title: Ayuda Holiday Seasonal Campaign

Opportunity Description: At Ayuda, we like to maximize the support we can provide to our clients while creatively involving the community to support our work through timely seasonal in-kind donation drives! Whether backpacks with school supplies at the start of the academic year, toys and winterwear during the cold holiday months, or female and WIC products during times like International Women's Month and Mother's Day, we are always looking for ways that we can go above and beyond for our clients.   

As we approach the end of the year, we have officially launched our holiday toy and winterwear drives! At Ayuda, we are seeking to collect new toys, games, and gadgets that we will wrap and provide to our youth clients and families with young children across our three offices in Virginia, DC, and Maryland. There is no better feeling in the world than the joy a parent can provide for their children, especially during the holidays through the gifting of brand-new presents. During a time when inflation is soaring and budgets are stretched thin, this campaign is so impactful for the families we support as well as the newly arrived immigrant community. We are hoping to provide at least hundreds of toys of various types and for all ages across our three offices as we will need all the help we can receive to collect, wrap, and gift the in-kind support we will be providing this holiday season!   

Department/Individuals Assisting: Ayuda’s Social Services Team involving our Volunteer Coordinator, Connor Paul, as well as our Case Mangers at all three of our Ayuda offices.  

Current Seasonal Donation Drives (linked below): 

• Ayuda Holiday Toy Drive  

Ways to Get Involved & Requirements:  

- Purchasing new holiday toys or winterwear for us to distribute to our clients via our Amazon Wishlist's above or providing new holiday toys or winterwear to us in-person that you have purchased 

• No requirements other than a desire to support our work! To coordinate a time to drop off donations at one of our offices if not ordering through our Wishlist's, please reach out to our Volunteer Manager who can coordinate with you to ensure we have staff present to receive. All drop offs must occur during business hours of either 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM (Maryland & Virginia) or 9 AM - 5 PM (DC)
• Please note that any toys or winterwear not purchased from our Amazon Wishlist must be new. We will not be accepting any used toys nor winterwear due to concerns about condition, missing pieces, etc. “If you wouldn’t give it to a loved one, please don’t give it to our clients” 

- Adopting a Family to provide them with specific toys/gifts they are requesting 

• Upon signing up to adopt a family, our volunteer manager will provide you with your assigned family’s Wishlist and background information to provide you with some additional context about the individuals you will be supporting 

- Organizing and managing your own donation drive to collect new holiday toys or new winterwear items among your community that we can provide to our clients 

• Please reach out to our Volunteer Manager if you are interested in managing a community donation drive as he would be happy to connect and support!  
• At Ayuda, we reserve the final discretion to accept or reject donated items that we feel will maintain our client’s dignity upon their receipt. It is critical that volunteers leading vet donations collected from drive before providing to us to ensure the items meet the conditions we request to accept    

- Joining us for a gift-wrapping day at one of our offices to help us wrap and provide toys and winterwear to our clients that they will be selecting for the donations we have received 

• Volunteers will need to join us at our office on specific dates/times. Otherwise, all that is needed is to be a team player, bring positivity and enthusiasm to help!  
• While not required, we do prefer if assisting volunteers could lift and carry boxes up to 10 lbs. 
• Due to limited capacity for these volunteer opportunities, signups will remain private and accommodate groups holding drives, family adopters, as well as our regular volunteers as we reciprocate our appreciation for their support! 

Dates & Commitment:  Here are the dates and times for our holiday gift-wrapping events / overall campaign schedule. If there are any adjustments our volunteer coordinator will reach to notify all those who are confirmed to join on that specific day. 

• December 10th: Gift Wrapping at our Fairfax, VA Office 
• December 17th: Gift Wrapping at our Silver Spring, MD Office 
• December 18th: Gift Wrapping at our Washington, DC & LAST DAY ACCEPTING HOLIDAY TOY DONATIONS (We will accept winterwear donations up until the end of January) 

Sign Up: To get involved in our holiday toy and winterwear drives, please check out our Wishlist, express interest through our various sign ups (family adoption here) or email our Volunteer Manager at volunteers@ayuda.com as we hope to welcome your support with our campaign in some capacity! 

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