Flashlight: Chicagoland Churches and Woodlawn Families Participate in annual Christmas Store

This Saturday Sunshine held its 4th Annual Christmas Store in the multi-purpose room of our 61st Street office. It's become a holiday tradition for Sunshine to hold a Christmas Store whereby, brand-new gifts donated by friends at partnering churches are sold to parents in the community at a discounted price. This year we specifically priced items at 25 cents to the retail dollar. The money raised in contribution dollars and sales from the Store are used to support the needs of community members with particularly acute financial needs this Christmas. Churches contribute gifts, neighbors shop, and fellow neighbors benefit.

The Store marked a milestone for us. Last year's Store was held in our office building but, we weren't formally moved into the facility, none of our furniture was in the space and the Store, then, was held in the smaller office-specific space. Our basement office on 62nd Street didn't allow us the same kind of presence that we have today with floor-ceiling windows fronting the building.

Our windows are only an aesthetic marking of a much greater reality - the reality that our new facility has given us a space to build more as well as deepen relationships with Woodlawn community members. Last year, 35 families were invited to our Store. This year we were able to host (and therefore invite) 80 families. The Store was open for a duration of five hours (the later hour and a half the Store was opened to the general public.)

What has come out of the Store is only a great testament to the Lord's faithful working through Sunshine, through community members, and through members of contributing churches (perhaps yourself).

Ten churches gave gifts to make this Store possible.
435 toys were given. (A number which doesn't include the number of clothes contributed.)
Nearly $3,000 is cash contributions were given towards buying additional gifts, wrapping paper and tape, as well as gift cards to local grocery store given free to shoppers to use toward their holiday meal expenses.
Nearly $1,400 was raised through the sale of goods. This amount, combined with remaining contribution money, will be given back to community families this New Year.
The day of, over 50 families shopped our Store.