The Marketing Committee for Assistance League of San Jose is using their ingenuity and creativity to feature posts about the activities and events highlighting the myriad of community services that AL of San Jose performs despite the COVID-19 restrictions. Good will and cheerful sentiments are shared as well on special calendar days. Marketing AL of San Jose in this way will hopefully attract donors and recruit new members to further assist our mission to create a better life for those in need in our community.
Each AL of San Jose service programs is presented on social media, the website, and the newsletter to visually attract and inform readers how we are interacting with the community on a more personal level. We have been able to maintain our partnership with Assist-A-Shelter (comprised of 3 shelters) by providing a Petting Zoo, an Art Day, family Holiday Shopping and Wrapping events, and assisting in Pop-Up Closet for a neighborhood in need.
We are very excited to present a new partnership between ALSJ’s Hug-a-Bear Program and The American Red Cross Silicon Valley. Lovable and huggable teddy bears will now be given to children where disasters strike in addition to children in crisis at homeless shelters, hospitals, and police agencies.
The Operation School Bell (OSB) program changed its delivery method due to Covid by supplying the schools in low social economic areas with school uniforms, underclothes and socks. The schools kept the uniforms in closets and distributed them as needed by the students. Feedback from the schools regarding this new procedure has been positive. A second allotment of clothing is being distributed during the month of January. This will include sweatshirts and additional polo shirts, underclothes and socks.
When COVID was waning, we jumped at the opportunity to return to one of our nursing homes to play Senior Bingo. The residents were so delighted with our return as everyone leaves a winner at the end of our games. The prizes include handmade quilts, blankets and beanies from our Caring Hands’ members, toiletries, jewelry and adorable stuffed animals thanks to our many donors. As our second center never opened to visitors, our personal presence was felt by fun-filled gift bags.
Even though we are not able to go into classroom to read and discuss literature with the students directly, children in the Readers Are Leaders Program are given their own books to take home and read to their families and friends. This new method was devised to make certain children still had access to high interest books. We continue to gift books to the teachers for their own classroom libraries and to read to the students along with thoughtful and interesting enrichment activities.
Our partnership with Barnes and Noble continues to enable us to gift an astounding number of books to our schools, shelters, and community hospitals. We will be delivering over 800 books during Action Week due to the extreme philanthropy of Barnes and Noble. This strong partnership is one that we continue to be very thankful for.
All the above and much more was achieved by the AL of San Jose members during the fall and winter months of COVID. It might have caused some modifications and adjustments to the operations and delivery of services but has not and will not put a halt to them. We applaud the Assistance League of San Jose’s membership for their creativity, energy, and dedication to continually strive for new and innovative ways to serve our community.
