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Proceeds from new children’s book ‘A Glove of Their Own’ to benefit Eagan-based nonprofit Cheerful Givers
by Andrew Miller
Thisweek Newspapers
A new children’s book about sharing what you have with those in need is paying real-life dividends for the Eagan-based nonprofit Cheerful Givers.
“A Glove of Their Own,” set for release in October and now available for preorder, follows an underprivileged group of boys whose lack of equipment doesn’t hamper their love of baseball.
When readers purchase the book through the publisher’s Web site (www.agloveoftheirown.com ), a pull-down menu allows them to select from a list of charity groups, among them Cheerful Givers, that will receive a portion of the purchase price.
‘A Glove of Their Own’ — The children’s picture book “A Glove of Their Own” will be released in October, but reserve copies can be ordered now at www.agloveoftheirown.com . By choosing Charity code “CHG 132” when you make your purchase, the Eagan-based nonprofit group Cheerful Givers will receive a portion of the sale, which it will use to provide toy-filled birthday gift bags for less-fortunate children throughout Minnesota. For more information about Cheerful Givers, log on to www.cheerfulgivers.org .
Those proceeds will help Cheerful Givers fulfill its mission: providing
birthday gift bags to disadvantaged children through shelters and food
shelves.
The nonprofit group was founded in 1994 by Robin Maynard, who got the
idea for the birthday gift bags after visiting a friend working at a
St. Paul food bank. Maynard was dismayed to see that the food bank,
which carried mostly canned vegetables and boxes of cereal, didn’t have
birthday cakes or even the ingredients for birthday cakes.
Maynard and her husband began filling bags with things like crayons,
coloring books and toys and delivering them to food shelves. Looking to
reach more children than she could personally fund, Maynard started
Cheerful Givers.
The group is aided by more than 1,000 volunteers, who buy the items for
the birthday gift bags, fill the bags and deliver them to food banks
and homeless shelters.
Since its inception, Cheerful Givers has distributed bags to more than
250,000 children in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Last year, the group
distributed 41,000 birthday bags.
Maynard handed over the day-to-day operations of the organization in
2003 to Karen Kitchel, who now runs Cheerful Givers from her home in
Eagan.
Kitchel said the proceeds from “A Glove of Their Own” will go directly
toward purchasing the toys and other items that go in the birthday gift
bags.
The goal of Cheerful Givers is not just to make sure disadvantaged
children receive a gift on their birthdays, but to allow their parents
to give them that gift, Kitchel said.
“We’re the only organization in the nation which is doing what we’re
doing,” she said. “It’s not about us; it’s about allowing parents to
give the gifts. We’re giving the self-esteem and the dignity to the
parents.”
For more information about Cheerful Givers, or to make a direct donation, log on to www.cheerfulgivers.org.
Andrew Miller is at
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