Why Our Giving Matters Earning minimum wage, a person needs to work 98 hours per week to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. Assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks per year, an hourly wage of $17.69 is required to pay rent and utilities for a modest two-bedroom apartment in the Twin Cities metro area. This does not account for food, household/hygiene necessities or clothing.

Adopt-a-Family

The Adopt-a-Family program was started in 2001 by Kirsten Kessel, DM in an attempt to serve the working poor in our community as well as families in need through our partner organizations, Parenting With Purpose and Trinity Lutheran Congregation. Over the years, many people have expressed gratitude, explaining that they would have had nothing for Christmas if not for the Adopt-a-Family program. MO adopts over sixty families every year!

How does Adopt-a-Family work? Families are listed on a form that includes names, ages, sizes and wish lists for each member. After chosing a family to adopt, the fun begins! Purchase and wrap at least one gift per person, with a recommended spending range of $50—75 for each person. This can be a great extended family, small group, neighborhood group project—especially for the larger families. Forms will be available November 19. Please return gifts to Mount Olivet by Noon on Wednesday, December 17 to be distributed in time for Christmas.

THANK YOU for the blessings you gave to our family this season. We are so grateful for everything you blessed us with for the holidays! God loves you all! - With love from Larry & Fallon

Caring Tree

This is a collection of gifts for seniors who live at the St. Olaf Residence/North Oaks Assisted Livingin north Minneapolis. Most of these people will receive nothing else, and have no means to purchase the things they need. If you’d like to make Christmas a bit brighter for an older person, please take a tag from the Caring Tree and purchase a gift for that person (first name provided) from the suggestions listed. Bring the gift IN A GIFT BAG by Sunday, December 14. Many thanks to the Mount Olivet Older but Wiser Lutherans (OWLs) for coordinating the Caring Tree again this year.

Sharing Tree

Last year 1100 children were able to celebrate the holidays with a gift that wouldn’t have been there without our help. The Sharing Tree, a toy collection for PRISM and children staying at Home Free over the holidays, will be decorated with tags by November 23. Each tag on the Sharing Tree lists gender and age range. Purchase an appropriate gift for a child in the age range you selected and place the unwrapped gift ($15-$30) under the Sharing Tree by December 8. PRISM serves hundreds of families through their holiday program, and MO contributes approximately 200 gifts every year.

Christian’s Toy Box

Christian’s Toy Box originated in 1999, the year Christian Olaf Osen, eight-year-old-son of Karen Haug and John Osen, lost his battle with leukemia. They learned through first-hand experience how greatly small gifts can brighten the day of a child receiving chemotherapy or radiation, during extended hospital stays, as well as for siblings of sick children who also spend their days at the hospital. Suggested gifts include craft kits, small Lego kits, things that could be made or played with in bed that help occupy a child’s mind and body when they’re relatively confined.

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. - John Bunyan