ABILENE, TX — Abilene Gives is coming up with Tuesday, May 4th.
It’s a 24-hour event where you can give to the charities of your choice, online.
Soft tacos were on the menu at the Salvation Army.
Just last year they served up 92,000 meals out of their kitchen. The Salvation Army is just one of the 135 nonprofits that benefits from Abilene Gives.
“It’s just a beautiful thing to see people coming together to help the betterment serving the community of Abilene,” said Captain Joshua McKain, with the Salvation Army of Abilene.
“It’s not just the homeless. We serve probably 80, 85 percent of the working poor,” said Mark Hewitt, the executive director of Love & Care Ministries.
They also have a busy kitchen.
“We’re growing. We’re getting ready to put in another walk-in freezer another walk-in refrigerator because we just need to expand,” Hewitt said.
Abilene Gives pumps thousands of dollars into local nonprofits that help the less fortunate, but it also supports all kinds of other groups including those that entertain us.
At the Paramount Theatre about 75 to 80 percent of their funding comes from ticket sales, renting out the building and selling popcorn — and during the pandemic that came to a standstill.
That’s why Executive Director George Levesque says Abilene Gives is so important.
“If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we want to protect what’s important to us, and so when someone puts the Paramount in their cart at Abilene Gives before they hit send, they’re saying that that building or that programming or what I see on stage is important to me, and you can’t ask for more than that when you run a nonprofit,” Levesque said. “That’s what you want. You want to be important to them.”
“Just know that whether it’s for the Salvation Army or any other, there’s so many good organizations to donate to and it won’t be a waste,” McKain said.
