Compassion for Campers in Urgent Need of Funds

Compassion for Campers, the program that provides camping gear and equipment to the unhoused in McHenry County, has become the victim of its own success and is in urgent need contributions to continue its service effectively. We have been distributing essential supplies including tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tarps, stoves and fuel, as well as non-perishable food, mosquito spray, sunscreen, and personal hygiene items at Warp Corp, 114 Benton Street in Woodstock on a daily walk-in basis. We recently joined the Community Empowerment Shower collaborative service event at Willow Crystal Lake, 100 S. Main Street, where we served more clients than at any previous individual event. The next scheduled Empower event will be July 16 and then the first and third Fridays in August—6th & 20th.

We are out of our big ticket items for both Warp Corps and Willow and need to reorder but our funds are way down. In May and June, we ordered supplies for $1,866 and $1,315 respectively but will have to significantly up our order to meet the current demand at both locations. The trouble is as of June 28 we only had $904 on hand—less than we need to completely supply even one of them.

With two events at Willow beginning in August we will need even more. And we are also trying to build reserves so that we can contribute to supplying hotel rooms in case of another cold weather emergency this winter.

We hope that you can help us out with an urgently needed donation.

Contributions to support Compassion for Campers can be made by sending a check made out to Tree of Life UU Congregation, 5603 Bull Valley Road, McHenry, IL 60050 with Compassion for Campers on the memo line. For information on how to make donations online or by direct deposit from your account contact Judy Stettner at office@treeoflifeuu.org The donations are placed in a dedicated fund and not used for any other purpose. Tree of Life also donates all the administrative expenses of the program so 100% of all donations go directly to client assistance.

For more information contact Patrick Murfin, Compassion for Campers coordinator and Tree of Life Social Justice Team Chair at 815 814-5645 or pmurfin@sbcglobal.net

Thanks so much for your consideration!