Catholic Charities hosts 31st annual Giving Tree event at MOA
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — It's the season of giving, and the Catholic Charities Twin Cities is encouraging shoppers at the Mall of America to add a neighbor in need to their holiday shopping list.
The nonprofit is hosting its "Giving Tree" event for the 31st year in a row. The family-friendly event makes giving easy.
Shoppers can grab a paper ornament from one of several trees on display. Each ornament lists items needed for a particular age group that Catholic Charities serves. Shoppers can then head out to the mall and buy items to return to its drop-off box at MOA or drop off at a Catholic Charities warehouse later.
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Organizers say the impact of the event goes far.
"This event allows us to make sure that we have the stock that we need when someone need a warm winter coat, we have a warm winter coat, when someone needs a scarf, we have that scarf," Elizabeth Lyden with Catholic Charities Twin Cities said. "When we have underwear needs in our shelter we have something to give someone when someone comes in wet from a storm off the street, we can give them someone warm and safe and get them into a bunk and safe for the night."
Event attendees can also help make cold winter kits. The kits get passed out to people experiencing homeless in the Twin Cities community.
New at the event this year are therapy animals. Lyden says it opens up an important conversation about the emotional needs their services provide.
"A lot of the people they serve have experienced traumatic events in their lives. Housing stability, extreme poverty. These things can have extreme impact on the way a person approaches the world and we just found in our work that if we account for past trauma, we are able to have more success with the people we serve," she said.
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Therapy animals were available to pet until 4 p.m. Sunday. The event itself will continue until 10 p.m. in the Macy's Court at the Mall of America.
Catholic Charities Twin Cities serves more than 20,000 people each year. For more information, click here.