The Business of Helping Children and Families in Need

While it’s vital to take care of your own backyard, it’s also important to remember your backyard connects with the rest of the world. At The Giggle Guide^®, we applaud organizations who make it their business to reach out to those in need. K.I.D.S., Soles4Souls, First Candle and Dignity U Wear take the adage, “love thy neighbor,” seriously. Together with many volunteers and donating companies, these organizations work hard to make the world a better place, and provide wonderful opportunities for the children’s industry to lend a helping hand.

K.I.D.S. Helps Children at Home and Abroad

K.I.D.S. was founded in 1985 to assist children in Ethiopia who were suffering from famine. Within the first 60 days of its launch, members of the children’s industry donated $250,000 worth of merchandise. In the first year alone, K.I.D.S. was able to send $600,000 worth of clothes, toys and shoes to children in Ethiopia and mudslide victims in South Africa.

This pioneer effort has created a unique global charity model that aligns hundreds of companies with more than one thousand leading local agencies in the US and Canada. This alliance has allowed children and families who are at risk to benefit from provisions of new clothing, shoes, books, and toys. In addition to helping children around the globe, K.I.D.S. has established programs to provide literacy education, clothing and supplies to reach needy children in rural areas in the United States. K.I.D.S. continues its mission to help families, as it has reached record-breaking levels of donations since its inception.

For more information about how to help, visit kidsdonations.org

Through Soles4Souls, One Step Can Change a Life

Soles4Souls is an outstanding Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies as well as from consumers’ closets. The shoes are distributed free of charge to people in need. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has been honored to give away over 7 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes and is proud to currently hold the record of being able to donate one pair every 9 seconds to people in over 125 countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States.

At Soles4Souls, it is the amazing gift of support from footwear companies, retailers, civic groups, individuals and organizations that helps achieve their goals. Soles4Souls is a company that understands that the reward of buying a new pair of shoes cannot compare to the joy of giving a pair of shoes to someone in need.

Recently, this charity has expanded to include a Clothes4Souls division which operates on a like principle to donate clothing and supplies to those in need around the world.

Help is needed from manufacturers, retailers and designers in the clothing and footwear industries. To find out how to give, go to www.soles4souls.org and www.clothesforsouls.org

Keeping a Light Burning at First Candle

First Candle is one of our nation’s leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the promotion of safe, healthy pregnancies and the survival of babies through the first years of life. With life-shattering events like stillbirth, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUID) happening at unacceptable and tragic numbers, First Candle is dedicated to research, education and advocacy programs to assist grieving parents and their families, and to actively pursue the research and outreach needed to prevent further loss.

When a baby is stillborn, or dies of SIDS or other tragedies, hopes and dreams are shattered and lives are forever altered by the pain of loss. First Candle provides free support and education to assist families that suffer the unexpected loss of an infant.

Find out how you can help at www.firstcandle.org

Dignity U Wear Clothes the Needy

Providing brand new clothing to children and families in need is the mission of the Dignity U Wear Foundation, Inc. This organization was created by Holocaust survivor Henri Landwirth, who knows intimately what it means to be stripped of dignity and to give up hope. He founded Dignity U Wear to create real change in the lives of children and adults in need, helping restore broken spirits with the hope, dignity and self esteem that comes from wearing new clothing.

Studies show that brand new clothing helps improve self esteem, fosters better school performance, assists adults with job placement and helps parents take better care of their families. Dignity U Wear creates partnerships with key manufacturers, retailers and distributors who provide new clothing from overruns, excess inventory or seasonal items. Currently, they have been able to provide 5.7 million pieces of brand new clothing valued at over $101 million, reaching over 390,000 families in need. These items are collected, warehoused and distributed to a network of over 300 schools and nonprofit agencies nationwide.

Dignity U Wear specializes in soliciting, warehousing and distributing brand new clothing nationally, at no cost to recipients. Dignity U Wear has never operated from city, state or federal grants or funding, and thrives exclusively through the generosity of individuals, corporations, and private foundations.

To find out how you can help, visit www.dignityuwear.org