I want to provide a status report of how Kiwanis Family House is faring amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. Last month, we responded to the Governor’s stay-at-home order by:
- Suspending new referrals and halting new guest check-ins.
- Taking half of our rooms out of service to reduce occupancy and create greater distance between room assignments.
- Prohibiting visitors and restricting building access to registered guests.
- Cancelling all meetings and events in our conference room.
By welcoming no new guests for most of April, our house rent revenue dropped precipitously, as we expected it would. Painful, yes. But we have prioritized health and safety and we feel we have made prudent decisions.
Several weeks ago, you may have seen my initial message on the impact of the pandemic. That message targeted individual supporters and sponsoring Kiwanis clubs and included a call to action. I asked those of you who were holding your planned donations to KFH for the upcoming Big Day of Giving not to wait for that May 7 event. We needed immediate help to offset pandemic-related revenue losses.
Sponsor clubs responded to our call for action by sending us $44,000 while we received an additional $7,000 from individual donors. You let us know you had our back and we are so grateful for the compassion shown by these donors.
Today’s message comes one week prior to the Big Day of Giving and targets our wonderful individual donors and Sponsor Clubs that have not yet made this year’s donation to Kiwanis Family House. Please make your donations now so that we can include your participation in the Big Day total. You have several options for making your donations:
- Donating offline: Mail a check to us at KFH. We need to receive it on or before next Thursday – May 7 – to be included in BDOG totals.
- Donating online: https://www.bigdayofgiving.org/kiwanisfamilyhouse
- To pre-schedule your donation, follow the easy steps on this website to schedule your donation. The transaction will process on May 7.
- On May 7, go to this website to make your live donation.
Like most of you, Kiwanis Family House cannot predict when we will return to more normal operations and dependable revenue streams. Our house rent income will remain suppressed until we can once again operate at full capacity. With your support on the Big Day of Giving, we will endure today’s formidable challenges and continue to shine as the great story that we are. Thank you.
