FD, IA - Bridging the Gap

I believe I mentioned that all of the furniture and household items that the family didn’t take from Lug’s home, were donated to a local charity called ‘Bridging the Gap.’ It’s a part of the United Way and was begun recently when some of the people at United Way recognized that there was a ‘gap’ in their services, that there was no group which provided household items and that children were eating on the floor, that they were sleeping on the floor and that they did not have the household items that make life easier. Their motto is ’Every child has a table to eat on and every child has a bed to sleep in.’

Jess, pictured to the right, is the director of the program. She had begun with United Way as an intern in the accounting department, thinking that she was not a ‘people person.’ However, someone at United Way recognized that she actually was a people person and asked her if she wanted to be in charge of the program. She said she’d try and the rest is history.

In her position, she had to recruit volunteers, had to find donated warehouse space, had to get the word out and had to get a way to get the donations into the warehouse. She spoke to a realtors group and our realtor mentioned the program to us when we spoke with him. She was at the UPS office and, when the manager asked what they could do, she said that they needed trucks and men. Then she looked around and said, ‘I see a lot of men and trucks here.’ ‘Done’ said the UPS manager and you can see the UPS guys and the truck above.

She’s done a marvelous job with the program and knowing Lug’s drive to donate, we’re sure that he would approve of this donation of furniture and other household items to this very worthy local charity.