When re-gifting is good news!

This year my mom gave me the ultimate re-gift. For Christmas 1990, I bought her a mushroom candle (the kind stoners like) on Telegraph Ave. For the next several years lighting it every Christmas eve became a treasured part of our family’s holiday tradition.

As I moved away and grew old(er),  I forgot all about the stoner mushroom Christmas candle–until this month when my mom sent it in the mail. When we re-lit it for Christmas dinner, it was like rediscovering good news from my past!

In our last Giving Week blog, I’d like to share some more good news from the (much more recent) past. For our Stimulus Jubilee Giving Week this spring, we were blessed to have two stellar opportunities to give locally. CWOW members Jane Lee, attorney for Centro Legal de la Raza, and Jessica Qian, vice-principal of Achieve Academy, helped us direct our record-setting gifts to benefit undocumented families in Oakland who had been excluded from federal stimulus relief.

But in the tumult of the election, new lockdowns, and the holidays, I (and probably many of us) lost track of what was happening with those donations.

So I’m excited to report that, according to Jane, Centro Legal has now given $500 mini-grants to more than 2300 undocumented families, totaling over $1 million!

And Jess tells us that Achieve has been unflaggingly supporting more than 325 undocumented families with weekly groceries, technology, and at-home academic resources, all while supporting local businesses of color!

Doesn’t it feel like a gift to know that money we may have forgotten we gave is still benefiting those who need and deserve it most?

So as a second round of stimulus checks roll out soon, maybe it makes sense to re-invest in undocumented families through Centro Legal and Achieve. That should keep the good news coming in 2021.