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My friends all know that my family is in the dry cleaning business. My father, Jeff McPherson, and my uncles started their business in the community and it has been a vibrant (or maybe relentless?) part of the community for over 40 years (starting about the time I was born).
About 6 years ago, at Christmas time, my Dad, my younger brother Jay and the rest of the staff (by staff I mean Diane) started collecting money and gifts for families and children in the community. This has been about as grass roots an effort as it gets.
Each year, dad and his entourage prepare a hot meal, and serve it. And every year, Santa shows up with gifts for each child and their parents get a bag of gifts from the childrens wish lists for Christmas morning. This year Daryle Singletary is performing for the families. (I have no clue how they pulled that off)
They also provide canned goods to the Wilson County Sheriffs SCAN program (Senior Citizens Awareness Network ) which in turn helps to provide food to the ederly in the community.
My dad and his elves have been pulling this thing off for the better part of a decade by the seat of their pants. It's a metric ton of work, but it's very rewarding, and it makes my dad downright jolly (goofy) each year. They started out helping a handful of families at the beginning, but six years later they've more than doubled the effort and served around 60 children last year.
I've helped out myself the last couple of years, donating some cash, helping to serve food, and gophering for the folks that really run the show. This year I thought I'd try putting together this GoFundMe site to try and help out with managing the donations.
So here comes the pitch: I know there's tons of places for your holiday time giving, but if you've got a little more to spare, here's an option that goes straight to the community. Any amount is helpful and you'd do me the (huge) favor of making my dad think I'm a genius. So if you're a friend and I spewed this link all over your facebook page, or you ran across it some other way, how about chucking a few bucks our way? We'll do something really special with it, and you'll make my dad, who's a pretty swell dude, really happy this year for christmas. It's far and away the best gift I can give him.
The elves start shopping Friday the 25th (that's black Friday, those poor souls) so time is of the essence, unfortunately. (No cracks about procrastination please. I know, I know.)
On a side note, the elves can also always use helpers to serve the food. If you're interested in volunteering and will be in the Lebanon area on December 18th, you can reach out through this campaign and we'll help you connect.
To sweeten the pot, the folks at the cleaners are offering some incentives this year. Donations of $40 and over are entered into a drawing to win $600 worth of free dry cleaning ($50 per month, starting January 1st, 2017) Donations under $40 (Cash, a new childs toy, or a non-perishable food item) receive 10% off a single dry cleaning visit. Toys (new and unwrapped) and food can be donated at either of the McPherson cleaners locations (Gallatin Road in Nashville or West Market Street in Lebanon)
Happy holidays everyone, and thanks for reading this far. If you like this, please consider sharing on your own social networks and help me give my dad his best christmas yet.
Twinkle Stars is not a 501 c3 yet, just some folks doing some good. So, unfortunately, your donations are not tax deductible. However, we hope to explore that in the christmas future and if you have some expertise in that area, we'd love to hear from you.
Thank you,
-Chris McPherson
About 6 years ago, at Christmas time, my Dad, my younger brother Jay and the rest of the staff (by staff I mean Diane) started collecting money and gifts for families and children in the community. This has been about as grass roots an effort as it gets.
Each year, dad and his entourage prepare a hot meal, and serve it. And every year, Santa shows up with gifts for each child and their parents get a bag of gifts from the childrens wish lists for Christmas morning. This year Daryle Singletary is performing for the families. (I have no clue how they pulled that off)
They also provide canned goods to the Wilson County Sheriffs SCAN program (Senior Citizens Awareness Network ) which in turn helps to provide food to the ederly in the community.
My dad and his elves have been pulling this thing off for the better part of a decade by the seat of their pants. It's a metric ton of work, but it's very rewarding, and it makes my dad downright jolly (goofy) each year. They started out helping a handful of families at the beginning, but six years later they've more than doubled the effort and served around 60 children last year.
I've helped out myself the last couple of years, donating some cash, helping to serve food, and gophering for the folks that really run the show. This year I thought I'd try putting together this GoFundMe site to try and help out with managing the donations.
So here comes the pitch: I know there's tons of places for your holiday time giving, but if you've got a little more to spare, here's an option that goes straight to the community. Any amount is helpful and you'd do me the (huge) favor of making my dad think I'm a genius. So if you're a friend and I spewed this link all over your facebook page, or you ran across it some other way, how about chucking a few bucks our way? We'll do something really special with it, and you'll make my dad, who's a pretty swell dude, really happy this year for christmas. It's far and away the best gift I can give him.
The elves start shopping Friday the 25th (that's black Friday, those poor souls) so time is of the essence, unfortunately. (No cracks about procrastination please. I know, I know.)
On a side note, the elves can also always use helpers to serve the food. If you're interested in volunteering and will be in the Lebanon area on December 18th, you can reach out through this campaign and we'll help you connect.
To sweeten the pot, the folks at the cleaners are offering some incentives this year. Donations of $40 and over are entered into a drawing to win $600 worth of free dry cleaning ($50 per month, starting January 1st, 2017) Donations under $40 (Cash, a new childs toy, or a non-perishable food item) receive 10% off a single dry cleaning visit. Toys (new and unwrapped) and food can be donated at either of the McPherson cleaners locations (Gallatin Road in Nashville or West Market Street in Lebanon)
Happy holidays everyone, and thanks for reading this far. If you like this, please consider sharing on your own social networks and help me give my dad his best christmas yet.
Twinkle Stars is not a 501 c3 yet, just some folks doing some good. So, unfortunately, your donations are not tax deductible. However, we hope to explore that in the christmas future and if you have some expertise in that area, we'd love to hear from you.
Thank you,
-Chris McPherson
Organizer and beneficiary
Jeff MCpherson
Beneficiary