Alternative Christmas Giving
Make your Alternative Giving gift online.
During this Advent season, the Peacemaking Committee is sponsoring the annual Christmas Alternative Giving project – something we have been doing for over 20 years. Alternative gifts are a non-traditional form of giving Christmas presents that bypasses the consumer frenzy we have at this season. Rather than purchasing a material gift, you make a monetary gift to a worthy charity in honor of or in memory of family and friends. These gifts have symbolic value to the recipient, and they benefit a meaningful cause at the same time. Alternative giving is a creative way to honor your friends and family with eco-friendly, ethically-sourced gifts that make a difference in lives, promote peace and justice, and help to heal our earth. It’s a beautiful way to spread love and hope at Christmas.
Once again, we’re offering the opportunity to give to one local and one international cause. Our church has had an ongoing relationship with each of these projects for many years.
Click above to download a printable card for Shepherd’s Inn
Shepherd’s Inn is a place where women and children from domestic violence settings in our community may seek shelter and assistance. The isolation, emotional stress and economic hardship associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are high-risk factors for domestic violence, and so the need for assistance is even greater now. This house is more than a place to stay. It is a beginning — for a life of safety and purpose. For those women and their children in our own community who have nowhere to go and no one to whom they can turn — there is The Shepherd’s Inn.
Click above to download a printable card for Boroko Village.
Boroko Primary School is located in a remote area of the Rift Valley province of Kenya. The Marakwet people lead a simple rural life characterized by mixed small-scale farming, growing fruits and vegetables, and keeping livestock. Funds raised through past Christmas Alternative Giving have been used to provide clean drinking water, purchase a mill to grind maize, purchase school desks and chairs, install a solar panel, and install fencing for a garden at Boroko Primary School. All of which has helped the Boroko Primary School students rank at the top of the region.
This year’s goal is to purchase locally sourced, non-genetically modified seeds for millet and maize which will be distributed in the community. Each person receiving seeds will give part of their harvest back to the school for the lunch program.
You may participate in in two ways: in person by visiting the Peacemaking Table or online through our church website.
In person: At the Peacemaking Table you will find donor forms. Fill out the form indicating either Shepherd’s Inn or Boroko Primary School, the amount of your gift, and if you wish to make the gift as a memorial or to honor someone. Make your check payable to First Presbyterian Church, noting the charity or charities on the memo line. Place your donor form and check in the gift box located on the Peacemaking Table, and then pick up a gift card to give to the recipient.
Online: You can donate directly through the Alternative Giving link here. There you may choose either Shepherd’s Inn or Boroko Relief. You will find gift cards online for each of these charities which you can download to email or to print and mail to the recipient of your alternative Christmas gift. You may also mail your check to the church, noting the name of the charity on the memo line of your check.
We invite you to consider making alternative Christmas gifts in honor or memory of friends and loved ones, and give the Gift of Christmas Hope! And we wish each of you a Christmas season filled with peace, hope, and love!