Today was a good day.
Here I am standing outside of "My Friends Place" in Dover NH. It's a small homeless shelter that has been housing and feeding families in need for many years.
And today I dropped off a check for just under $23,000.00 for them from our LEND A HELPING CAN fundraiser, this past November.
There were 11 other agencies who got similar checks: The NH Food Bank, Families in Transition, New Horizons, Davids House at CHaD, Strafford and Rockingham County Community Action Programs, The Central Vermont Salvation Army, Crossroads House, and the Salvation Army of Portsmouth and Manchester. Each of them got just under $23,000 to help feed families in need this week.
We all know how difficult 2020 was, in so many different ways, but - in looking back, all of us on the Morning Buzz will remember those two days in November as being a highlight of the year. We went into that two day radio auction with a bare bones staff (5 volunteers answered phones for 23 hours), and less to auction off than ever before. But that didn't matter, because as soon as we started, YOU showed up. And the phones just kept ringing all day Thursday and Friday.
I've thought a lot about that since then, and I've come to the conclusion that I think we all just needed to feel good about something - and YOU, once again, surpassed every expectation. YOU showed compassion and caring for your neighbors, and you made a difference. You helped people you didn't even know. I hope all of you who gave know that. You lifted folks when they needed it. And the money you gave will continue to do that through 2021.
We can never thank you all enough for that. You took a year that had a lot of darkness in it, and gave it light.
And if you take the money we raised with LHC, and combine it with what we raised together with WMUR-TV in the Spring with our "Together from Home" special - you helped us raise $2,000,000.00 in the year 2020.
TWO. MILLION. DOLLARS! We did that- you and us.
So on behalf of all of us on the Morning Buzz - from Laura, Scott, Kelly, Kayla and myself - Thank you all so much.
Like I said, "Today was a good day". And it wouldn't have happened without YOU.
Thanks for being part of our family-
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