One-Day Giving That Can Change a Lifetime

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” –Anne Frank

This quote strongly resonates with us as we see individuals and families being helped and lives being changed – one day at a time. It’s a beautiful thing to see. With Arizona Gives Day quickly approaching, we want to share some stories with you of the kind of changes you make possible with your gifts.

Laurie and her husband Jake are a loving couple with a two-year-old daughter and another child on the way. Jake works, but doesn’t bring in much income due to his part-time status. As a result, their bills were piling up.

 “We have gone to sleep with nothing at all—just ice water from the Circle K,” Laurie said.

Her worst worry: “How are we going to pay for food for our daughter? Can we give her at least one meal before she sleeps?” So they began attending our Family Evening Meal at the dining room on our main campus. Despite her family’s hardships, Laurie said, “This one meal to end the day...it’s putting food in my child’s stomach. We are down now, but we are not always going to be down. Someday we will be able to help in the same way.”



Jennifer watched as her one-year-old Ashley played contentedly with her doll, completely unaware that she was homeless. Jennifer’s three other children knew that something was wrong, but they were still too young to understand why their mommy was crying.

Fortunately, Jennifer was able to find a housing unit in which she and her children could live, but they couldn’t move in for three weeks. All the shelters were either full or had intake procedures that took several days to fulfill, which meant that she and her children were on the streets. She turned to SVdP for help. We were able to pay for temporary housing at an extended stay hotel apartment building. Jennifer’s crying turned to tears of joy and relief knowing that she and her children would have a safe place to stay while waiting for their permanent home.

Due to downsizing, Tom lost his job and took odd jobs trying to make ends meet for his family. His wife, Michelle, found part-time work at a convenience store. With careful planning, they were able to get by. That is, until they received a call from their daughter’s school.

Faith, a good student, was struggling to finish assignments at school because of pain in her hand. Her parents took Faith to a clinic to have her hand examined and received the devastating news--it was cancer.

The doctors told them that with treatments and surgery, Faith would recover. But, Tom and Michelle knew their financial situation made treatments and surgery impossible. After a long search, they found an insurance company to cover the treatments, but then had difficulty making the premium payments. The family paid three months to get started, and we were able to help with the additional premium payments—and love and emotional support--so that Faith could complete her treatments and have the surgery. The surgery was successful and Faith is back at school—and back on the honor roll.

Arizona Gives Day is a 24 hour online giving experience open to all Arizona nonprofits and this year it's on April 5. Prizes are available for those with the “most donors” and “most donations” in 24 hours. Last year, with your help, we raised $57,000 and won an additional $8,000 for placing 3rd in Most Dollars raised!

Will you join us this year as we vie for 1st prize — $15,000? Here’s what you can do:

• Go to St. Vincent de Paul’s AZ Gives Day page and schedule a donation today or go to the website on April 5 to give.
• Tell your friends! Share this blog post or this message on social media: I'm going to support St. Vincent de Paul on #AZGivesDay...will you join me?
• Sign up to be an SVdP ambassador! Create a personal fundraising page and invite your friends to participate. Visit azgives.org for more info.