#SpotlightOnCLT: Bright Blessings
Written by Amy Andrews
Bright Blessings lives up to its name, as a bright spot in the lives of local homeless and impoverished children by helping them celebrate their birthdays. Bright Blessings has grown since its founding by Amy and John Cervantes in 2005 to now include programs like Bless-a- Baby, which provides baskets of newborn items for new homeless and impoverished mothers and babies.
“COVID has certainly affected what we are able to do now, as a great deal of our birthday care packages were delivered via CMS schools which are not in person right now,” shared Tisha Henderson, Executive Director, Bright Blessings. “We are still sending supplies to shelters, which have been each handling their celebrations differently.”
She added, “We have gotten really creative since April in ways to distribute supplies and serve our community. We are pumping out thousands of snack bags, hygiene kits and joy bags, which include fun activities like sudoku or cards to keep kids busy.”
Bright Blessings has shifted to utilizing lunch distribution sites for CMS, Union and Gaston counties as well as working with shelters and school resource specialists. They have also been serving through the co-working/remote nexus schooling space at Matthews Ridge Church and through the Steve Smith Family Foundation.
According to Henderson, demand is huge. “We have been distributing on average between 300-700 care kits a week through the lunch distribution sites, serving 100 children through the Steve Smith Foundation Virtual Lab and 30 through the nexus space with our birthday bags.”
For families or groups looking to get involved, Bright Blessings offers a rare COVID-friendly way to participate through its From Your Location service projects. Bright Blessings is also open to small volunteer groups thanks to sanitation stations and its ability to space out participants and they even recently hosted their first outside volunteer project on-site.
Bright Blessings is always grateful for readers who would like to donate directly through one-time gifts or monthly giving or those who would like to fulfill items from their Amazon wish list. Henderson also encourages readers who would like to help with urgent needs, such as a week where they are out of diapers, to subscribe to their social media channels.