A 'Word of Thanks' from Next: Keeping clean is an overlooked necessity
We'll highlight a different cause every week.
We offer up a “Word of Thanks” every week during Next with Kyle Clark – it's a chance to highlight small and medium non-profits doing crucial work in Colorado.
The routine is simple. Each week, Kyle presents a new organization he'd like to highlight and asks you to consider just a $5 donation. He won't share any cause that he won't donate to himself and will match the first fifty donations of $5 every time. We will share the causes within this article every week.
If you are not able to give but want to support the effort, please consider sharing this link with others who may feel encouraged to donate. Thank you all for your consideration and generosity!
For those keeping track, we have raised more than $12.1 million together since Word of Thanks started in June 2020! Below is a list of the non-profits we have highlighted in 2022 so far.
>> 2022 tax information: If you're looking for the tax ID for any of these causes, we compiled a list with each one.
THIS WEEK'S CAUSE Bayaud Enterprises
Imagine your life without easy access to clean clothes or a shower. Trying to get a job, keeping a job. Going to school or work without worry or embarrassment. At some point, having showers and fresh, clean clothes becomes a health issue.
A nonprofit has mobile shower and laundry trailers crisscrossing the metro area each week, offering showers and doing hundreds of loads of laundry for people in need.
They get more requests from community groups than they can meet.
This week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports Bayaud Enterprises as it plans to add a third mobile laundry and shower unit to meet demand.
The current units keep a busy schedule: Denver to Lakewood to Westminster to Arvada to Northglenn. They get 5-10 requests a month to add more stops to their route.
They offer the dignity that comes with having fresh clean clothes and all that brings. The foundation to help get people from where they are in life to where they want to be. We often talk about necessities like food and shelter, but a shower and clean laundry are necessities, too, and often overlooked.
They're not overlooked by the folks at Bayaud, and the teams running their shower and laundry units. They're ready to expand their reach to meet demand - with our help.
Since Kyle started Word of Thanks in 2020, this Next community has raised more than $12.1 million for nonprofits doing great work in our state. Like every week, we ask you to consider even a $5 donation – and Kyle will match the first fifty of those.
As always, thank you.
If you're interested in giving to this week's cause, you can donate here.
Next is now offering a recurring donation option through the Word of Thanks Fund. You can read more about it below.
What is the Word of Thanks Fund?
The Word of Thanks Fund is a way to simplify your giving with a recurring monthly donation. Your donations will support every Word of Thanks non-profit without having to re-enter your donation information every week.
How does the Word of Thanks Fund work?
The Colorado Gives Foundation will equally divide your recurring monthly donation among the featured Word of Thanks non-profits each month, at no additional cost to you or the non-profit. Administrative fees for the Word of Thanks Fund are paid by Kyle Clark. You will receive an email receipt for your tax-deductible donation to the Colorado Gives Foundation.
Why was the Word of Thanks Fund created?
The Word of Thanks Fund was created in response to requests from Next viewers seeking a way to make recurring donations to each week’s micro-giving campaign. Some Next viewers also requested a way to give weekly without joining the mailing lists of each featured non-profit.
How do I sign up for recurring monthly donations to the Word of Thanks Fund?
Click here: Word of Thanks Fund (every featured non-profit) | Donate | Colorado Gives 365
How do I change the amount of my monthly donation or cancel my monthly donation?
Please click here to be redirected to Colorado Gives to change your donation amount or cancel your recurring donation.
Have additional questions? Please email next@9news.com
PREVIOUS WEEKS 2023 WORD OF THANKS
3/20/24: Colorado Hosting Asylum Network | So much of the conversation about asylum seekers in Colorado is focused on Venezuelan migrants who have come here in the last year.
Long before they arrived, a small nonprofit has been working one-on-one with asylum seekers, most from other parts of the world, with an 100% success rate getting them through the process with their claims approved.
The Colorado Hosting Asylum Network helps asylum seekers, and their families build stable lives, especially in the first six months, when they can't legally work because they're waiting on work permits. The nonprofit connects them with volunteers willing to share their homes, or for larger families, the Colorado Hosting Asylum Network helps with the cost of rent. Families from Afghanistan, various places in Africa.
They surround asylum seekers with support teams to guide them into every aspect of life in the United States, knowing that they're in for a long-haul, a personal relationship with someone fleeing violence and oppression in their home country.
Each asylum seeker they help comes referred by an immigration attorney who thinks they have a rock-solid case for asylum. They've never had a client denied for asylum, in large part because the support they provide keeps people from falling out of compliance with the very strict rules. They're prepared to bring more asylum seekers into their program with the dollars we raised.
You raised over $14,000 to help folks looking for a better life.
3/13/24: Colorado Search and Rescue Association | As the foothills and Front Range braced for the largest snowstorm in years, the search and rescue teams that work in those counties were prepared to be called out if people end up stuck in hard-to-reach places.
It's the work they do on a volunteer basis every week of the year... And it's why this week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign will pay for the equipment and training they need. In Lake County outside Leadville, that team needs a new snowmobile. In Huerfano County, their volunteers provide most of their own gear, but they need safer helmets for climbing rescues. Larimer County's team could use help with medical training for its volunteers.
Park County Search and Rescue almost has enough to afford a new off-road vehicle for rescues, and they hope we can help them over the finish line. A lot of these needs are a few thousand dollars in this county, a few thousand dollars in that county. So, the nonprofit Colorado Search and Rescue Association will take the dollars we raised and do microgrants for training and equipment for the volunteer teams working all over Colorado to keep people safe.
You raised over $55,000 to keep folks safe in extreme weather.
3/6/24: A Woman's Place | A Woman's Place is the only domestic violence safe house in Weld County, an area that's geographically almost as large as the state of Connecticut. That nonprofit serves that diverse community with a staff that speaks seven languages.
Our Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports that nonprofit working to keep domestic violence survivors and their families safe. That begins with the essentials, like giving people a plan to get out safely, a place where they can stay free of fear and violence, a way to take care of their kids.
And then it's long-term needs, like walking with them through the court system and eventually helping them find a new place to live. That's where we come in. No one wants to start over with nothing.
So, A Woman's Place help survivors start out with the household essentials that they will need to rebuild their lives. It's the basics. It's bedsheets, and it's kitchen items, things like that. But there's an expense to setting each new survivor and their family up with those items. A Woman's Place does crucial work, saving lives in Weld County and then helping to rebuild lives for the long run.
Your raised over $16,000 to help rebuild survivors' lives.
2/28/24: Kendrick Castillo Memorial Fund | We remember heroes. We share their stories - mark their deeds - so everyone who comes after remembers what they did for all the rest of us. Kendrick Castillo was a Colorado hero.
He was killed rushing a school shooter at STEM School Highlands Ranch in 2019. Every one of his classmates survived. His community would like to mark his deeds with a memorial in a park near his school. His family is preparing to help lead a fundraising campaign, but the Castillos have been through a lot, so we hoped that we could just pay for it as a Next community.
Thanks to your overwhelming generosity, our micro-giving campaign has fully funded the Kendrick Castillo memorial in Civic Green Park and raised over $20,000 for a scholarship in his honor.
As a lasting tribute to Kendrick's bravery and heroism - the plan is to install a tall basalt pillar - and a plaque telling his story in the park where he spent time as a child. It's expected to cost $25-30,000. Next viewers covered that cost.
All additional money we raised will be used to start the Kendrick Castillo Memorial Scholarship, which his family anticipates will be used for college scholarship for students involved in robotics, like Kendrick.
A memorial in the park where he played, and a scholarship to help students pursue the passion of his life cut short, are worthy tributes to a young man who saved the lives of his classmates.
You raised over $59,000 to honor a local hero and bring his family some peace.
2/21/24: RezDawg Animal Rescue | RezDawg Rescue saves homeless pets from the Four Corners Region and helps them find homes along the Front Range. And that nonprofit also supports communities in Southwestern Colorado to help pets stay with their people. We're supporting the nonprofit's work on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation.
RezDawg Rescue is raising money for two vet clinics on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation this year in April and October. They did one last year in Towaoc, and it was incredibly popular. Spay and neuter, vaccinations, surgeries... whatever the animals needed for whatever families could pay, even if that was nothing. The nonprofit found that many families had five or six animals, making the cost of vet care really difficult.
And there are community animals that roam around and are taken care of by several people in town but often had medical needs. There were also dozens of animals that were brought in as strays - or surrendered - so that RezDawg could find them forever homes on the Front Range.
RezDawg does impressive work, spaying and neutering thousands of pets a year, transporting more than a thousand up from the Four Corners region to be adopted.
You raised over $51,000 for pets to stay healthy.
2/14/24: Homeward Alliance's Mobile Laundry |
There are a couple of things that we tend to take for granted, but our lives would change without them. One of those is clean clothes.
Imagine going to work in the same dirty clothes day after day or being a kid and self-consciously wearing dirty clothes to school each day.
That's why this week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports the nonprofit Homeward Alliance's Mobile Laundry program. They serve Northern Colorado.
Often single parents without laundry at home, who are working and taking kids to school, are grateful to be able to drop dirty laundry and have it cleaned and dried and folded by the end of the day.
The mobile laundry van also serves the working poor and homeless. Having clean clothes can make the difference in getting a job and being able to keep it.
The nonprofit's Mobile Laundry truck was recently hit by another vehicle.
While it's getting repaired, and insurance isn't likely to cover all of it, their volunteers are taking the laundry to laundromats. They've been shelling out a decent amount of money so all those loads can still get cleaned, dried and folded in time to get it back to people who need it.
You raised over $20,000 to help our neighbors with the basics.
2/7/24: Sunshine Home Share | 191 weeks into your Word of Thanks micro-giving campaigns, and we featured a nonprofit unlike any we've supported before. A nonprofit that does extensive background checks, screening, and follow-up to match older Coloradans who want to share their homes with Coloradans who need an affordable place to live. That's Sunshine Home Share.
They take seniors who need help staying in their homes, help with some physical tasks, help paying the property tax bill or mortgage. Sunshine Home Share pairs them with a Coloradan willing to move in, share the home, and provide that help.
The screening process to find people who will make a good match is intense. Then come the meetings, often involving family, friends, and sometimes even clergy to make sure everyone feels comfortable.
Then Sunshine Home Share helps draw up the contract. Then comes the follow-up - sometimes lasting years - to make sure it's still a fit. And that's when it's a win-win: A senior stays in their home, and someone else gets an affordable place to live.
You raised over $10,000 to help Coloradans with housing.
1/31/24: Kids At Their Best | There are so many terrific organizations working to break through generational poverty in Colorado cities, and we've talked about many of them here. This week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports the nonprofit Kids At Their Best.
Through tutoring, mentorship, leadership programs, summer activities, meal programs and years of one-on-one support, Kids At Their Best helps young people on the eastern plains imagine a different future than what they and their parents have experienced. Often, that means that they're the first in their family to go to college.
When kids are old enough, they're paid to work in the nonprofit's programs to support their families as they learn and grow. Kids At Their Best is based in Morgan County, where one in five kids live in poverty. Some are immigrants. Some are from families who have been in Colorado for generations.
The nonprofit's programs serve young people across the plains, from up in Sedgwick down to Rocky Ford from Hugo out to Yuma. The nonprofit's founder has said that people talk a lot about bootstraps, but there's nothing noble about children going hungry and without hope in life. Kids At Their Best Changes those lives.
You raised over $8,000 to help kids working towards brighter futures.
If you're interested in giving to this week's cause, you can donate here.
1/24/24: Loveland Community Kitchen | Feeding folks who are hungry a hot, nutritious meal goes a long way. But it does more than that, too. The folks at Loveland Community Kitchen know this. That's why their mission isn't just to provide food for those who are hungry, but also conversation for those who are lonely, rest for those who are struggling, and a voice for those in need.
The Kitchen's goal is to provide people in need with a supportive community and easy access to nutritious, daily prepared meals. The Kitchen has been a staple of the community for over 25 years and is supported by over 350 volunteers and two staff members. They serve over 100,000 meals annually, and recently completed their 2,500th consecutive day of service, with days off for weekends or holidays, or even bad weather.
The Kitchen serves the homeless community as well as the working poor, and those struggling after losing a job. They provide meals onsite and package meals for take away.
In a recent survey, their guests were asked what measures they took to stretch their food budget. 71% said they skipped a meal, 57% said they purchased inexpensive, unhealthy food, and 41% said they watered down food and drinks.
Donating the cost of a meal is just $3.45, and all donations go towards purchasing more food and supplies for the Kitchen.
You raised over $12,000 to keep a community fed.
1/17/24: Elevating Connections |
A relationship with a sibling is the longest relationship most people will have in their lives, which is why it's so heartbreaking when siblings are separated in the foster care system.
That's why this week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports Elevating Connections, a nonprofit that helps brothers and sisters separated in foster care stay connected through twice monthly meetups and activities and a summer camp. These are frequent chances to stay in each other's lives despite whatever other challenges they face.
Elevating Connections also has arts programs for kids in foster care, which help them find their voice and develop meaningful friendships. Think back to one of your favorite memories with a brother or sister. Almost certainly it involves a shared experience, something you did together.
That's what siblings in the foster care system can miss out on, years of relationship building through shared experiences. That's what Elevating Connections does.
You raised over $14,000 to keep sibling relationships meaningful.
1/10/24: The Reentry Initiative | It's a New Year. Let's talk about second chances, and the people who specialize in them. For Coloradans who are coming out of the criminal justice system and looking to be productive members of our community.
This week's Word of Thanks micro-giving campaign supports The Re-Entry Initiative, an organization that's had great success in helping people start fresh.
The Re-Entry Initiative (also known as TRY) pairs people coming out of jail or prison with two-pronged help - from trained clinical staff with expertise and from peer mentors with lived experience building a life after incarceration.
They work to rebuild careers, relationships with family and friends, and mental health. They help with getting clothes and tools for work, help with education expenses, and housing.
The folks who run The Re-Entry Initiative say housing is where they'll use our donations. It will help lock in apartments where people coming out of the criminal justice system can stay, be safe, and be surrounded by positive influences. Colorado's recidivism rate, the rate of people going back in, is not good. It's upwards of 50%, but for people in The Re-Entry Initiative, it's in the single digits. What they do works.
You raised over $10,000 to help folks take their next steps forward.
1/3/24: Sun Valley Youth Center | Kids are headed back to school this week. And in Sun Valley, one of Denver's lowest income neighborhoods, students are headed to the Sun Valley Youth Center after school. They know they're having fun, but what they might not realize is that they're laying the groundwork to break through generational poverty.
That's why we're the Sun Valley Youth Center. The nonprofit uses a trauma-informed process to help kids handle whatever is going on in their lives. This could look like one-on-one tutoring to stay on top of schoolwork, nutritious food after school and on summer break, or field trips all over Colorado for a glimpse of life outside Sun Valley. It's a safe place to play and be a kid - whether they're five or 16.
Young people grow up in the Sun Valley Youth Center, then get hired to help the younger ones come along behind them. It's a place where kids develop their talents and the confidence that they can go anywhere in life.
You raised over $13,000 to help kids escape generational poverty.
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