HCCMpower Quarterly Digest, October, November, & December 2020 Words from the Executive Director A Message from Tiesa Hollaway Hello HCCM Fans and Happy New Year!!! Below you will find some numbers that can only make a person go WOW!!!! YOU helped us do this…. HCCM served this many MORE families this year and distributed OVER ONE MILLION pounds of food again. I want to say THANK YOU to ALL of our AAAAAAAMAZING volunteers and donors!!! We lost some of volunteers this past year so that they could stay safe and healthy. Yet, we gained some of you because of this. I cannot tell you, yet, how many NEW donors we had this year.... still working on that. However, our previous supporters went above and beyond this year.... making sure our organization received everything we needed to help our community. I am sooooooo proud of EVERYONE who showed up, who found other ways to volunteer, who prayed for us and cheered us on from afar. Those who could not be here physically did so many other things to get our community involved. YOU are our biggest cheerleaders, our ambassadors… YOU are the backbone of this organization. I am so proud of YOU… Because of you HCCM did not miss a beat, serving and providing food to families in need during the most difficult time most of us have ever experienced in our life time. Thank you! Thank YOU!! THANK YOU!!! Happy New Year Everyone! May 2021 be better than ever for you and yours! With gratitude, Tiesa Hollaway 2020 By The Numbers 2020 was a busy one. Here are some highlights... We distributed OVER ONE MILLION pounds of food More than 13,400 families were served through the Food Pantry
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HCCMpowerQuarterly Digest, October, November, & December 2020
Words from the Executive DirectorA Message from Tiesa Hollaway
Hello HCCM Fans and Happy New Year!!!Below you will find some numbers that can only make a person go WOW!!!! YOUhelped us do this…. HCCM served this many MORE families this year and distributedOVER ONE MILLION pounds of food again. I want to say THANK YOU to ALL of ourAAAAAAAMAZING volunteers and donors!!! We lost some of volunteers this pastyear so that they could stay safe and healthy. Yet, we gained some of you because ofthis. I cannot tell you, yet, how many NEW donors we had this year.... still working onthat. However, our previous supporters went above and beyond this year.... makingsure our organization received everything we needed to help our community. I amsooooooo proud of EVERYONE who showed up, who found other ways to volunteer,who prayed for us and cheered us on from afar. Those who could not be herephysically did so many other things to get our community involved. YOU are ourbiggest cheerleaders, our ambassadors… YOU are the backbone of this organization. Iam so proud of YOU… Because of you HCCM did not miss a beat, serving andproviding food to families in need during the most difficult time most of us have everexperienced in our life time. Thank you! Thank YOU!! THANK YOU!!! Happy NewYear Everyone! May 2021 be better than ever for you and yours!
With gratitude,Tiesa Hollaway
2020 By The Numbers
2020 was a busy one. Here are some highlights...We distributed OVER ONE MILLION pounds of foodMore than 13,400 families were served through the Food Pantry
Nearly 4,700 NEW families received food, UP 62%30,881 individuals visited Fresh Food For All distributionsOver $380,000. given, through Wilco Forward, in financial assistance to clients
Mission Moments
We were thrilled at the opportunityto partner with Deb's Dream,another local nonpro it, to connecta client with reliabletransportation. The client thatreceived the car is a single motherof 3 and had experienced job lossand the death of a family member.We are happy to report that she isnow driving to her new job in hernew wheels!
This year's annual coat and blanketdrive was a big success! Ourmission is to issue every family ablanket and a coat to every familymember. This year we gave 168coats and 163 blankets! Wecontinue to issue vouchers to theclients that are still in need of ajacket or blanket. A big shout out tothe parishioners of St. ThomasMore's Catholic Church as theycollected 74 coats and 52 blanketsto donate to HCCM.
Thank you to the folks at The Linus Connection who have made somebeautiful afghan style blankets made with loving hands. Their donation hasmade it possible for us to provide to our senior and home bound clients. Eachblanket has a card with heart felt words and the persons name that made theblanket. Another special thank you to the Knitsva team who made over 200stockings, scarves and gloves for us to give to our clients!
We are in the most challenging times with all the uncertainty and the Covid-19pandemic, but we have been fortunate enough to ind a silver lining! We receivedfunds from the Leander ISD Educational Excellence Foundation , funds thatnormally would have been earmarked for other uses. With additional funding fromWilco Forward and a $20,000 anonymous donation along with the HCCM boardsbudget approval, we have been able to offer inancial assistance to clients. This is
HUGE as we have traditionally had very little resources to offer financial assistance inspite of multiple request and need. Request for inancial assistance is processedthrough an application process and is primarily focused on housing and utilities. Sofar to date, since March, HCCM has been able to help 341 families to the sum of$383,273!!
T h e Hill Country Bloomers have volunteered their time and energy to revive,expand, and cultivate the gardens on the property! It looks great and the plants aredoing well due to the constant attention and care the Bloomers provide. We'vealready used the gardens to harvest fresh food for our clients. In 2021, it will serve asa classroom for our clients too!
We want to give a tremendous THANK YOU for themany food drives that have been sponsored bymembers of our community. In November andDecember we received 38,526 lbs (nearly 20Tons!!!) of food that has been donated throughfood drives in local neighborhoods along withchurches, schools and local business's in thesurrounding area.
Upcoming Events
Amplify Austin: Last year we raised $3,300 during the Amplify Austin "I live here, Igive here" campaign. This year we are better prepared in planning in the light of theCovid-19 pandemic. We will be launching a peer to peer fundraising activity to helpothers get involved during this very special event. The event is online and starts at6pm March 4th and runs through 6pm March 5th. This is a great event with supportfrom local and national sponsors. Matching contributions are available and we lookforward to hitting our goal of $10,000 this year! Be sure to follow us on Facebook toget the newest updates as March approaches! If you are interested in hosting yourown fundraiser for this event please contact me at [email protected] Annual HEB Million Dollar Charity Golf Tournament: The golf tournamentcommittee is having its irst meeting to discuss this years event. Stay tuned as thetime and location will be announced soon! If you like to golf, this is one you don'twant to miss!
Our 2nd annual Star Struck Gala washeld on November 6th at theGeorgetown Community Center. Wewere pleased to announce that Louis VanAmstel from the television show"Dancing With the Stars" joined us as aspecial guest star judge! The dancers dida tremendous job and the competitionwas ierce but at the end of the eveningDenise Seiler, General Manager,Community Impact walked away withthe coveted mirror balled trophy!
2020 Star Struck Gala We raised $48,000 at this year’s gala. Wedidn’t quite hit our goal of $50,000,however, in light of a pandemic year weare THRILLED by the turnout of theevent! The money raised is equivalent to28,400 pounds of food or nearly 24,000meals. A big thank you to our largersponsors, State Farm, SouthStar Bankand Toyota of Cedar Park! The success ofthe event would not have been possiblewithout the many sponsors and localbusinesses that donated items for ourlive and online auctions. The supportfrom the gala attendees was trulyamazing! We are so grateful for thesupport and generosity of all whosupport us. Stay tuned for the date orour 2021 Gala. We look forward toseeing you there!
Eagle Scouts Hard at Work
Addition of Garden Shed byScout Martin Henges
We have been at our location for 37years! As you can probably imagine, wehave experienced growing pains and thisyear was no exception. In addition, wehave a continuous need for maintenance
Garden Pathway installed byScout Luke Ridgway
around the buildings and property. Wehave been fortunate to have some localEagle Scout candidates focus their graceof giving by choosing to complete theirEagle Scout service project here atHCCM. The entire HCCM team would liketo thank these individuals for theircontribution and share their projectswith you.
Much-Needed Fence Repair byJacob Erattuparambil
Holiday Meals
During the holidays we try to provideeach client with a holiday meal. Eachmeal consist of a turkey, stuf ing, cannedvegetables and fruits, potatoes, yams,cranberry sauce and ixings to make apie! We typically acquire these holidaymeals through donations and purchasingthe turkeys from a local grocery store.This year we were able to provide 1,265family members with over 440 holidaymeals!
We want to thank all those volunteers whofaithfully helped us distribute food, clothing,blankets, coats, Christmas stockings andChristmas trees during the holiday season toour clients! We also appreciate the team fromRep. John Bucy's of ice for delivering food toover 50 families every month. If you arelooking for volunteer opportunities, we areaccepting applications for food pantry, foodpickup and thrift store.You can find our Volunteer Newsletter here.We're always looking for volunteers...especiallyin our Thrift Store! Contact Kandy [email protected] for moreinformation.
Leander Nonprofit of the Year
Hill Country Community Ministries waspresented with the "2020 Nonpro it ofthe Year" award by the Greater LeanderChamber of Commerce at their "non-gala" event this year. We are honored toaccept this award! It takes a great teamfrom all the wonderful volunteers andthe support from our community thatmakes what we do possible. Picturedfrom left to right, Board member DerekSherman, Executive Director TiesaHollaway, Board Member Kim Oliver andGene Krider, Director of CommunityEngagement.
The entire staff and team at Hill Country Community Ministries hopes you had a safeand joyous holiday and wish everyone a Happy New Year! Thank you so much for allthe support this past year in the most uncertain times! We are looking forward to2021!
Are you using Amazon Smile? You can go to smile.amazon.com and log in with yourAmazon credentials and select HCCM as your chosen charity. Every time you make apurchase via Amazon Smile HCCM will receive 0.5% on all eligible purchases. It's thateasy!Hill Country Community Ministries1005 Lacy Drive | Leander, Texas 78641(512)259-0360www.HCCM.org
