With the holidays coming and the spirit of generosity awakening, students have an opportunity to bring happiness to people who need help, and in turn, help the community.
Here are charity organizations that students can visit and support during the winter holidays.
Switcpoint Community Resource Center
Switchpoint Community Resource Center cares about the homeless and provides them with their basic needs. The organization provides an emergency shelter and access to meals.
The organization also offers case management services, mental health services and employment services to help homeless people find a job and be healthy.
Robin Bailey, a faculty member at Switchpoint from Billings, Montana, shared the long history of the charity.
“[A] lady by the name of Carol started this business for homeless people because she saw a need for people who are less fortunate, and she started it about 10 years ago,” Bailey said. “They [the organization] help homeless people get back on their feet.”
Switchpoint’s main goal is to give people a second chance and provide them with all the necessities.
“Once in a while, we all sometimes fall on hard times, and it just makes it a better place to live in our community when we can all help each other,” Bailey said.
The organization also reuses plastic bags and clothing.
“It helps the environment too by not throwing all this stuff into the landfill,” Bailey said.
Switchpoint Community Resource Center will gratefully accept help from every person who wants to donate money or the necessary resources for people in need.
“There are all kinds of things people could do that would really help,” Bailey said. “You can come in [and] clean, or you could go through our clothes and help tag [it], or if you like decorating, you could come in and decorate.”
Students are also welcome to donate clothing and wrapping paper for the organization to use to rewrap dishes and valuable things.
Anyone who is interested in finding more information about the organization can check the Switchpoint Instagram and Facebook.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah
Another charity organization that helps people is the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Utah organization.
The goal of the organization is to help children in need and support them by providing a mentor.
“Our main goal is to help children here in St. George and all throughout Utah, and we do that by having a mentoring system that gives support to children, whether they are in elementary all the way to high school,” Shay Herring, a donation attendant of the Big Brothers Big Sisters in St. George from Aiea, Hawaii, said.
The organization encourages adults to volunteer who could be a Big Brother or a Big Sister to children.
“We are always looking for more adults, since there are so many children here in St. George on the volunteer aspect,” Herring said.
The organization also has additional possibilities for people to volunteer and help the community.
“We do clothing drives, so we are always looking for the muscle to help us carry all the items as well,” Herring said.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Utah also host holiday events for Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“One thing that was special is just seeing the hard work from everyone [at the event]. Not only our office, but the hard work that the volunteers put into mentoring the little kids,” Herring added.
Students who want to volunteer can find the website and donation bins around St. George.
“We have 17 bins around St. George and also have our advertisement that you can always look us up on,” Herring said.
To learn more about this organization, students can visit the their Instagram profile and website.
