ROCHESTER, Michigan (02/08/21) – Action Week’s Reach Out donation program begins today for Assistance League^® of Southeastern Michigan and other Assistance League chapters nationwide and runs through February 26.

Reach Out week highlights an aspect of Assistance League’s Operation School Bell® program to help raise awareness of how children blossom and grow when they are given the tools to succeed and the knowledge that “someone cares.”

Donated items will be given to children serviced by Cass Community Social Services in Detroit.

“We know that there are children lacking basic school and art supplies needed to fully participate and flourish in school. We would like to take this opportunity to show these children that we care by providing them with these supplies,” said Ann Drake, president of the Assistance League of Southeastern Michigan chapter.

Here’s how the community can help with donations of these suggested items:

• Crayons, markers and pencils.
• Wide-ruled notebooks, paper and folders.
• Construction paper.
• Safety scissors.
• Glue sticks, rulers, hand-held pencil sharpeners.
• Coloring and activity books.
• Flash cards for math and reading.
• Art supplies and stickers.

Donated items will be collected at the Assistance League’s ReSale Connection store beginning today through Saturday, February 27.

ReSale Connection is located at 204 South Main St. in downtown Rochester. Store hours are Tuesday and Wednesday noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Additionally, donated items may also be dropped off at the Assistance League Warehouse on Thursday, February 25, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The Warehouse is located at 228 South St. in Rochester.

ROCHESTER, Michigan (11/19/20) – The 17^th annual signature fundraising event for Assistance League of Southeastern Michigan® known as Mistletoe Marketplace was literally a virtual success, held online for the first time ever raising more than $80,000.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been a year unlike any other in recent history. Like many other nonprofit organizations, Assistance League adjusted plans for their previous annual indoor event, which draws nearly 800 people each year.

Held Thursday, Nov. 19, the online event also featured a half-hour, live-streamed program highlighting Assistance League’s established philanthropic programs, such as Operation School Bell for schoolchildren, Wee Help for infants, Assault Survivor Kits for victims of abuse, Nourishing Neighbors for people with food insecurity and how their efforts benefit the metro-Detroit community.

A video of the program is available on Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms.

“Our dedicated and creative members worked very hard to turn our traditional Mistletoe into a different, fun, successful online auction with a streamed event highlighting our programs,” said Ann Drake, president of Assistance League.

“It was wonderfully successful – raising over $80,000 to support our programs serving people in Michigan,” Drake added.

As with previous in-person Mistletoe Marketplace events, all the familiar fun of bidding and prizes awaited those who had registered on the Silent Auction website.

Event registration began Nov. 1, along with a sneak preview of 200 auction items. Online bidding began Nov. 14 and continued for five days through the closing of the event at 8:30 p.m.

(12/2020) Thanks to you, we are able to weather the COVID-19 storm and provide for those in need. You have made all of this possible with your generosity. This is our story and yours of responding to the current acute needs in our community.

What we did with your donations

Our Operation School Bell (OSB) program this fall was a whole new program as we pivoted in response to the schools being closed.  Duffle bags were filled with warm winter coats, hats, gloves, hygiene kits, underwear, socks, tops and books.  It was then time to deliver the duffle bags to various schools in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

Under OSB another 650 children’s coats were given to Cass Community Social Services in Detroit.  One hundred winter coats and hygiene kits went to Lighthouse in Pontiac.  Additional clothing items were delivered to Children’s Center in Detroit and Neighborhood House Clothes Closet in Rochester.

Our Assault Survivor Kits are sent out to trauma centers so that children and adult survivors of abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence would have clean clothes and toiletries.  The kits are a necessity in the event that their clothes are destroyed by the perpetrator or retained as evidence.

Our Nourishing Neighbors program continues to respond to the tremendous increase in food insufficiency in our community.  We collaborate with Neighborhood House Food Pantry, which serves a 100-mile radius, thus providing families with nutritious food.  Food is required  to stave off the harmful affects of not having enough to eat.  In addition, we donate, on a weekly basis,  meal kits that  help to brighten up a mealtime.  The kits are prepared and assembled by our volunteers.

Our Wee Help program delivers layette kits and a portable crib/bassinet sleep package to centers who in turn pass these items on to less fortunate new mothers and their infants.  Our volunteers knit baby hats, order  and assemble the kits and packages to be given to the people who distribute them.  Our aim is happy moms make for happy and safer babies.

These are but a few of our programs that are made possible through your donations.  As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the need expands exponentially.  Please, we ask for your continuing help so that we can address these profoundly urgent and desperate needs in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

A great big THANK YOU to all of our sponsors, donors and volunteers.  It takes a village.