{"id":17420,"date":"2021-02-16T23:04:56","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T07:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=17420"},"modified":"2021-02-16T23:04:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T07:04:58","slug":"thoughts-and-gifts-project-invites-community-to-grand-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/thoughts-and-gifts-project-invites-community-to-grand-opening\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts and Gifts Project invites community to grand opening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Thoughts and Gifts Project welcomes Polk County residents to celebrate the move to their new permanent location\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Sydney Carpenter<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

On Feb. 20, the Thoughts and Gifts Project nonprofit organization will be commemorating their permanent move to 427 Main St. E from 1 to 3 p.m..<\/span><\/p>\n

Established in 2018 by founder Jean Love, TAGP <\/span>celebrates the birthdays of underserved youths and qualifying senior citizens by providing $30 worth of gifts, three books and two birthday cards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Prior to COVID-19, TAGP would host one large birthday party each month for all participants within their program. Adapting to COVID regulations, the nonprofit does not have large birthday parties, but now does monthly prize drawings with donations from the Dollar Tree in addition to their other gifts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Love had the idea after listening to a Toys for Tots commercial on the radio during Christmas time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that there\u2019s such an outpour of support for one day, but what about the other 365 days of the year?\u201d explained Love.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the organization first began providing services to the public, their original location was temporary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a partnership with the Polk County Service Club \u2026 They allowed us to use their club house free of charge and we were there for three days a week,\u201d said Love, \u201cbut we did not have on site storage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Love, they spent the next few years fundraising until they were able to purchase a storefront in Monmouth during the fall of 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought about doing a grand opening in October, but at that point you\u2019re getting into November and December where the main focus is Christmas,\u201d Love explained. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to compete with anything Christmas because there is too much good that happens then.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For the event, TAGP is doing a ribbon cutting ceremony in front of the store at 1:30 p.m. in addition to three different game stations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will be quick fast games and after they can win prizes,\u201d said Love.<\/span><\/p>\n

Participants will also be able to receive some TAGP swag bags that contain various branded items. At this time, food will not be provided due to COVID regulations. People interested in attending the event are required to wear a mask, but no RSVP is required.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really doing something positive for our community,\u201d said TAGP volunteer Kathy Grudle. \u201cIt\u2019s such a wonderful feeling to be able to say this something we\u2019re giving you and because we care about you having a birthday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To learn more about qualifications or to donate to <\/span>The Thoughts and Gifts Project, students can visit their website at thoughtsandgifts.org.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Contact the author at scarpenter18@mail.wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Thoughts and Gifts Project welcomes Polk County residents to celebrate the move to their new permanent location\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":17404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[737,735,741,143,744,463,146,145,740,736,742,743,738,739,734,39],"class_list":["post-17420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-education","tag-educators","tag-grant","tag-news","tag-polk-country-residents","tag-polk-county","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-carpenter","tag-teacher-prep-student-support-services","tag-teachers","tag-thoughts-and-gifts","tag-thoughts-and-gifts-project","tag-tpsss","tag-tpsss-grant","tag-trio","tag-wou"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}