Compassion for Campers End of 2023 Fund Appeal

A video from December 2001 with images of Compassion for Campers' 13 years of solidarity and support of un-housed humanity in McHenry County.

I know that most of us are deluged at the end of the year by fundraising appeals for causes we have supported in the past, from charities that bought your e-mail address from somebody else’s list, or targeted you from social media algorithms.  You can’t support them all.  But if you haven’t made up your mind about tax deductible contributions yet, I ask you to consider Compassion for Campers.  We serve the unhoused and housing insecure of McHenry county by supplying life saving camping gear and equipment, hygiene and basic health care items, non-perishable food,  and assorted items from sewing kits to cooking gear.  All of this is offered for free to all who come to us in need at the Community Resource Days held on Fridays at Willow Church Crystal Lake.

No where will you donation of any size have greater impact and be more quickly translated into action.  You will also get the greatest possible bang for your buck because 100% of your gifts go directly to our client’s needs.  Tree of Life UU Congregation in McHenry donates all the administrative expenses.

Compassion for Campers volunteers and stocked shelves at a Community Resource Days distribution earlier this year.

I could tell you dozens of stories about those we have helped over the last year including record numbers of women and families with children, teens and young adults, many LGBTQ, immigrants, and African Americans.  We served everyone from the expected hard-core homeless to wide-eyed and frighted first timers on the streets because of job loss, medical emergency, divorce or family breakup, mortgage foreclosures, and soaring rents.

Some information from our hosts and partners about Community Resource Days will give you an idea of the scope of the need.  [We] served 593 adults as well as a host of children.  We had 468 new guests this year.”  Of course, Compassion for Campers did not serve all of them.  We can only afford to make our distribution two of the four Fridays the event is open every month.  But we routinely service 30+ individuals or families.  It would be more, but we frequently run out of basic items like tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, tarps, camp stoves, and propane fuel tanks.  With better funding we could buy more equipment to serve everyone who comes to us and even expand to participating in more Fridays.

If I have been persuasive the best way to make a donation to qualify for your tax advantage, it is best to use the option by credit or debit card using the drop down menu, selecting the Give to Unpledged Donations, and designating Compassion for Campers on the donation page of Tree of Life Congregation