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Dear AP Community,

Thank you for all of your generous support of our programs and our youth and families for 8 years now, but especially during the pandemic! We could not have accomplished all we did during this tumultuous time if you had not shared our belief that kids and teens need our mission more than ever.

We truly are ALL healers and the contributions of each one of us matters and is so needed especially right now when there is so much pain in the world, including right down the street from us.

Even while struggling to engage with remote learning, 220 youth, primarily from the gateway cities of Lawrence, Lowell and Lynn. completed 253 projects last year for the benefit of 7,000 members of these communities that were hit disproportionately hard in all aspects by the pandemic. 96 of these youth were new to Aaron's Presents as well, due to our strong word of mouth referrals. Our youth were very creative with social distancing guidelines and did grocery runs for the elderly, activity bags for kids stuck at home, grocery gift card mailings for those struggling with food insecurity, and much more.

We were also able to engage over 200 of our Alumni in self-discovery and self-development opportunities, including online courses in areas of interest outside of school, art supplies, college counseling, residential summer camps and academic programs, connections to jobs, tutoring, and a live Zoom personal finance class.  

You also helped provide support and hope for more than 100 of our AP families who were struggling to work, care for children, meet their increased food budget with their kids at home all the time, pay for consistent internet service, and more.

We believe that in order for our youth to achieve our mission to GIVE their unique gifts and qualities for the good of the world, they also need to DISCOVER and DEVELOP those gifts and qualities, so everything we do at Aaron's Presents empowers and equips them to do all three, starting at the ideal ages of around 9-14 and continuing through young adulthood.

It is exciting to be back at our partner schools working directly with the kids on their projects, and we are already busier than ever with them as well as our Alumni projects and opportunities! We have been hiring new Mentors and need the funds to be able to hire enough Mentors for all of our schools the large demand by the kids, as well as the supplies for the 250+ projects we expect them to initiate and complete this year!

Our goal from now until the end of the year is to raise $50k so that we have the resources to continue our policy of not turning away any child who wants to do something positive for others and their community. Our organization is still small ($250k annual budget) and very grassroots, and we depend on large numbers of small donations more than small numbers of large donations, so please share our work and mission with your friends and family. Every gift makes a huge difference for an organization like ours driven by the desire of young people to make meaningful contributions in their own special way! They truly are our future, and every dollar is an investment in that future for our society.

Thank you for your support this holiday season!!

With all our thanks,

Leah Okimoto
Founder & Executive Director
lokimoto@aaronspresents.org
(978) 809-5487