The season of giving is upon us, Atlanta. As Scrooge’s unflappably cheerful nephew Fred puts it, the holidays are “a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time,” and we are inclined to agree. Here at Hands On Atlanta we have a slew of ways for folks to give back: volunteering through our calendar, gifting money and sponsoring custom projects (just to name a few). In addition to all those avenues of service, drives for our Discovery program are a fun, free and impactful way for groups of folks to help their local community.

Discovery is Hands On Atlanta’s longest running program. Every other Saturday, Hands On Atlanta Discovery volunteers tutor, feed and mentor nearly 800 students from Title I public schools. This puts Hands On Atlanta in the unique position of being intimately familiar with the struggles of families facing the greatest needs. Across the board, students we work with don’t have adequate winter clothes or school supplies and come from food insecure families.

If you want to giving back in a way that makes a direct impact on a truly vulnerable, at-promise population, this is your opportunity. Here how you do it:

1. Rally a group of your co-workers, neighbors, book or wine club, trivia or bocce team, golf buddies… you get the picture.
2. Check out the list below of items that are dearly needed by our Discovery students. You can pick one category or call for donations of everything listed.
3. Let us know about your drive and we'll gladly come grab the items from you OR you can always drop items off at our office.

Warm weather clotheS

• Socks, hats, gloves, coats, etc... for students grades K-5

Educational materials

• School supplies like crayons, butcher paper rolls, batteries, markers, lined/writing paper, name tag labels, construction paper, pens, etc...
• Fun leisure books for students in grades K-3

Snacks

• Nut-free nonperishable food - Nutrigrain bars, pretzels/popcorn, fruit juice, fruit snacks, etc...

Go ahead, have a drive. Make Fred proud. Enjoy the holidays knowing that somewhere in Atlanta a child is walking a little warmer, reading a little better and growing a little taller because of you.

Questions? Holler at Lara Wagner at lwagner@handsonatlanta.org or (404) 979-2838 for more about hosting a drive for Discovery. 

This post is made possible with the support from: