There are plenty of reasons to contribute to our Bright Christmas Campaign — more on that later — and now you have a new way to make your donation, thanks to our digital department.
If you go to The Tablet’s website (thetablet.org), you will see this link: DONATE: The Tablet Bright Christmas Fund. Just click on the link, and then you can donate directly with your debit card or credit card, or through PayPal.
Of course, you can still use the method that we have been using for years: Simply make out your check to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas and mail it to me at The Tablet, 1712 Tenth Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11215.
Remember, the campaign doesn’t accept requests from individuals. We make grants only to parish groups and others associated with the Diocese in Brooklyn and Queens that ask us for help.
Our digital department has been helping us promote the campaign — and our readers can help us promote the campaign, too.
Visit our Facebook page (facebook.com/thetablet/) to see a series of videos about the campaign. In the first video, I talk with our editor emeritus, Ed Wilkinson, about the history and the importance of the campaign. Ed was in charge of the campaign during his 33-year tenure as editor of The Tablet. In our conversation, he talked about the origins of the campaign half a century ago and about how it has evolved since then.
In the second video of the series, representatives from two recipients of the campaign — Providence House and St. John’s Bread & Life — explain why your support is so important in making our Bright Christmas Campaign a success.
Help us spread the word — visit our Facebook page, watch the videos and share them with your friends.
The goal of the Bright Christmas Campaign is to make sure that every child in Brooklyn and Queens receives a present and celebrates Christmas this year.
Tens of thousands of disadvantaged children in our diocese have had the opportunity to celebrate the birth of the Holy Child Jesus during the last 50 years thanks to our campaign and to the people in our parishes who work to make it possible.
If you need assistance to help kids in your area, email me at jdominguez@desalesmedia.org.
At The Tablet, we receive your money and give it directly to parishes and programs associated with the diocese that use the money during the Christmas celebrations that they organize for the children of their communities.
A good example of that is the Providence House, a program that was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph to provide “women and children in crisis with shelter, food and security as well as support services to help them transition to independence including: enrolling in education or job training programs, searching for employment, obtaining medical services and finding a permanent place to live.”
More than 400 women and children a year are served by Providence House, which offers temporary housing or apartments to women who may be the victims of domestic violence or who may have been forced to leave their parents’ home after getting pregnant.
At the residences, the mothers and their children receive shelter and medical care. The women also learn the skills that they need to live independently and to stay out of the cycle of homelessness.
The money you send to the Bright Christmas Campaign will help Providence House to offer the children in its charge Christmas gifts and parties that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
It is one of the many worthy causes that we support with the funds collected through the campaign. And we depend on your generosity to accomplish this.
