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Catholic Charities Sponsors ‘12 Days of Christmas’ Challenge

Family Activities Bring Home the Joy of Giving Through an Extended Season

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York is sponsoring #12DaysOfChristmas, an opportunity to perform acts of charity while enjoying fun-filled family activities. Participants are asked to follow along beginning Dec. 26:

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day One, Share Time with your Children

This week, most children are off from school. It is a great opportunity to spend quality time with them.

Your Day One #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge — Play a board game or take part in other fun activities like visiting a children’s museum. Studies show that spending time with your children brings families together, increases your child’s focus, and increases laughter.

At Catholic Charities New York, 53,387 children are enrolled in after school, sports, Head Start, and day care programs, getting the dedicated attention they need to help with their development.

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

Smiling makes us and others feel better. Your Day Two #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge — Share your smile with someone. Smiling can help lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and make new friends – and you never know, that simile might be the only smile someone sees all day.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Two, Turn that Frown Upside Down – Smile

Each year, more than 5,000 volunteers work with people in need, sharing smiles that create hope. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, please visit our volunteer page.

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Three, Warm Clothing

Each winter, thousands of men, women, and children in our area don’t have warm winter coats or other winter essentials. Your Day Three #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge — Donate warm winter clothing. Our Amazon Wishlist is curated to provide winter clothing to New Yorkers in need. As the temperatures drop this is more important than ever. Your donation goes directly to those others.

Each year, Catholic Charities New York’s St. Nicholas Project and Adopt-A-Family Program help more than 5,000 individuals receive warm winter clothing such as coats, scarves, socks, hats, and gloves.

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Four, Share an Encouraging Note

Who doesn’t like small encouraging handwritten notes? Your Day Four #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge — Write an encouraging message to someone using a Post-It. Everyone needs a little reinforcement. Words of inspiration maintain positive attitudes and might just be what someone needs today.    

In any given year, Catholic Charites New York connects more than 82,000 people to case management services and answers more than 24,000 calls to our helpline in 20 languages. Learn more in our story: How the Catholic Charities of New York Helpline Became a Lifeline.

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Five, Take Action and be Part of the Solution

Help support Catholic Charities with a year-end donation. Believe it or not, you matter to Catholic Charities. With your help, more than 400,000 New Yorkers are assisted each year. Your Day Five #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge — Please consider making a year-end gift to help someone today.

Tells us what giving means to you using #TeamCatholicCharities.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Six, Forgiveness

Your Day Six #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge — Forgive someone. Sometimes it’s tough to forgive someone — and we’ve all been there. To forgive someone is a hallmark of charity. Forgiveness opens a person up to provide and, likewise, receive compassion. Compassion creates hope. Learn more about how Catholic Charites New York creates hope every day in this video.

Tells us why forgiveness is important to you using #TeamCatholicCharities.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Seven, Spend Time with Senior Citizens

Loneliness can be emotionally and physically detrimental. There are more than 1.73 million older New Yorkers in the City. Your Day Seven #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge — Spend time with senior citizens. Sharing your attention will help them feel valued, whether it’s by them sharing their wisdom, or by simply having a visitor.

Encore Senior Services, an affiliate of Catholic Charities New York, offers seniors a safe place to gather, participate in recreational activities and enjoy meals. We serve over 5,000 seniors each year. Read Jake Vu’s story of volunteering with seniors in this New York Times article, “Lean on Them.”

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Eight, Read to a Child

We all know reading to children is important for their development. Your Day Eight #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge – Read to a child. Children adore attention and encouragement. Plus reading to kids strengthens their reading skills and takes them on a journey of imagination. It will be fun to bond!

At Catholic Charities New York, strengthening families is part of our core mission. In any given year, about 200 children are adopted by loving families, nearly 4,000 children are placed in safe foster care, and about 46,500 children are enrolled in after-school and sports programs. Learn more about how we help children every day.

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Nine, Give Back, Mentoring Someone

Not everyone is blessed to have positive role models in their life. Your Day Nine #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge – Become a mentor. Mentoring is a noble gift to children and adults. Data shows that positive role modeling increases school grades and graduation rates, and steers kids away from crime. There are even programs where adults can mentor other adults with their careers or with parenting advice.

Each year, we provide approximately 1,500 children with quality mentoring services. Bigs & Littles NYC is an agency of Catholic Charities New York that focuses on mentoring children and adults. Learn more about mentoring.

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Ten, Donate Socks, Underwear, and Hygiene Products to your Local Shelter

We’ve heard 1,000 times that shelters and women’s programs need new socks, underwear, and hygiene products – but it’s absolutely true! Your Day Ten #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge — Pack care packages filled with these items and drop them off at your local shelter or center. You might want to consider including diapers, wipes, and children’s undergarments if you are helping a family or women’s shelter.

Each year, Catholic Charities of New York helps more than 14,000 New Yorkers with emergency shelter and saves another 5,572 people from homelessness and eviction.

POTS (Part of the Solution) and Xavier Mission are just two of our agencies that can use your help. Visit their websites to learn more about how you can make an impact.

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Eleven, Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen or Pantry

One in five New York City residents is food insecure. That’s 20% of the population. These individuals can be our neighbors or people we’ve never met. Your Day Eleven #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge – Volunteer at a soup kitchen or food pantry. Soup kitchens and pantries provide meals and food without judgment or discrimination. Volunteering to provide food is a powerful and rewarding activity. Bring a sincere heart and you’ll make a difference in someone’s life.

In any given year, Catholic Charities New York will provide more than 8 million meals to New Yorkers from the City to the Hudson Valley through 40 food programs. This includes almost 28,000 home-delivered meals to the housebound.

The Feeding our Neighbor Program, Xavier Mission, Abraham House, and POTS are just a few of our family of agencies and programs that provide hot meals and food assistance every day. Read Nishi’s story about how a college student struggles with food insecurity

Use #TeamCatholicCharities when posting a photo of you and your family completing the challenge.

12 Days of Christmas Challenge: Day Twelve, Pray for Someone in Need

Charity is no stranger to prayer. Prayer is powerful. Prayer is love. Your Final #12DaysOfChristmas Challenge, Day Twelve, is to pray for someone in your own way. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or of another faith, praying for someone is a selfless act of charity for your neighbors.  It brings us closer in relationships and to the things that need our attention. As we wrap up our Catholic Charities 12 Days of Charity Challenge, we hope that you will pray for all those in our city and in the world, that they may find comfort in these 12 actions of charity and that through our participation we may inspire others to become involved in providing help and creating hope every day of the year.

Be sure to visit our volunteer portal for fun and exciting volunteer opportunities throughout the year.

Tell us why prayer is important to you using #TeamCatholicCharities.  Post a photo of your place of worship or quiet place of reflection to meet this challenge.

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