SAF (Sponsor-A-Family - St. Louis) got its humble start with Freecycle-St. Louis several years ago as a holiday sponsorship for those who are part of the Freecycle (tm) community. This endeavor was to aid those who needed assistance providing Holiday Goodies for their children and were suffering from some hardship that would not allow them to provide presents on their own. Members of the Freecycle-St. Louis community worked together to gather items, sort them, tag them, sometimes wrap them, collect them and distribute to each family that had been selected for sponsorship.
In 2005 and 2006, the President of SAF as it is now, Kristen Alliegro, was one of those families. In 2007, she decided to volunteer and took on the role of coordinator, generating documents, working with other volunteers for the selection process, and initiating contact in order to obtain items requested. SAF sponsored more than 20 families for the 2007 Holiday Season!
With such tremendous success, along with the feeling of community support that was achieved, Kristen and two other volunteers - Cathy Redman (CFO) and Gina Crocker (Board Director), decided to fully incorporate and turn SAF into a non-profit organization along with expanding the scope to a 12 month cycle. January through November, SAF sponsors anywhere from 1-3 families per month and in November, the Holiday Sponsorship effort begins again.
SAF is not income based. In fact, SAF is one of the few organizations that recognizes that need does not end after the holidays and that income is not necessarily a determining factor of need. It is this understanding along with the idea that the more people SAF reaches, the more those that are helped will reach out and pass along the gift of giving.
So our motto goes: "Giving: Pass it on!"
If you would like to Pass it on!, there are a variety of ways you can help support SAF.
RECOGNITION OF SPONSORS:
Mr. Curt Sleeper - website administrator, Festus.com
Mrs. Deborah Sleeper - logo designer
Mrs. Kevin Rogers - food pantry at Zion Lutheran Church
Ms. Jeri Zerr - List Owner, Re-useit(tm) - St. Louis
the Jordan Brothers - Jordan's Sinclair - fundraising sponsor
Zaz Properties, LLC - Storage space donation
SAF THANKS YOU!!!