Dan Regenold is a bit of a hero to local nonprofits this holiday season. He approached a broad group, from schools to health centers, with an engaging gift offer: Let us fill a truck with supplies your clients need. All you have to do is help spread the word and take the donations.
Fill The Truck started last winter as a one-truck effort to support
The Healing Center at Vineyard Community Church in Springdale. The concept is as simple as it is brilliant. Rent a semi, fill it with donations of everything clients in trouble need. Allow donors to select what they’d like to donate online, then do the truck-filling work for them. The first efforts led to an overflowing truck, and Regenold, CEO of
FrameUSA and long-time supporter of local nonprofits, to thing bigger.
This year, Regenold and his team have 11 trucks around the region, two in the city of Cincinnati. The
NAACP has a truck to support the community at Frederick Douglass School. The George Hust Co. has a truck in its Northside lot to collect donations for
Churches Active in Northside (CAIN).
For Mimi Chamberlain, executive director of CAIN, Fill the Truck is an unexpected chance to support the growing list of families in need of everyday items, from toothbrushes to blankets. “People can choose the nonprofit they want to support and even select items they’d like to donate,” Chamberlain says. “The technology makes it simple and fun.”
Other nonprofits supported by trucks include: The Healing Center,
Valley Interfaith Food & Clothing Center, Inter Parish Ministry,
Brighton Center,
SON Ministries,
Matthew:25 Ministries,
One Way Farm,
Hannah’s Treasure Chest and
Reach Out Lakota.
Making the donations online allows donors to shop for specific items – donate $20 and buy a winter scarves and gloves OR a toddler’s winter coat OR 60 rolls of toilet paper. Boots, socks, blankets and hygiene items are all on the list, which nonprofits hope local gift-givers to check more than twice.
Do Good:
•
Visit the site and make your selections now.
• Buy and bring your own items to the truck of your choice. NOTE: All donations much be new items.
•
Send a thank-you to the Fill the Truck team.
By Elissa Yancey
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