THIS YEAR'S IN-PERSON ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS FAIR WILL TAKE PLACE ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3!
Welcome to our 2023 Alternative Christmas Webpage! Take your time looking through the incredible organizations on this page, then join us on Sunday, December 3 to turn in your shopping list and payment!
(If you can't join us in-person on Dec. 3, you can still participate anytime in December. Please read the "At-Home Instructions" below!)
AT-HOME INSTRUCTIONS:
This year there are two options for completing your Alternative Christmas donation from home: Mail in a check (along with a printed-out shopping list) or submit an electronic payment online (along with an online shopping list).
If you have any questions or would like assistance, please contact the Office Manager at (909) 626-1201 or officemanager@claremontucc.org.
STEP 1:
Look through the 19 amazing organizations below to decide what you would like to give! Under each organization's section you will find photos, a short video, the items available for "purchase" on their shopping list, and more. (The “items” describe examples illustrating the work of the organization, not a mandatory accounting category.)
STEP 2:
CLICK HERE to download the full 2023 Alternative Christmas Shopping List.
Fill it out to tally up your total donation!
STEP 3:
After you have made your selections and are ready to submit your payment and shopping list, follow the instructions below:
Paying by CHECK:
- Please send only one check for the full total of your donations
- The check should be made out to “Claremont United Church of Christ” with “Alternative Christmas” noted in the memo line
- Please include a copy of your filled-out shopping list with your check!
- Your check and shopping list should be mailed to:
Claremont United Church of Christ
233 W. Harrison Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711
Paying by CARD or BANK TRANSFER:
- You will need to fill out an “online shopping list” before submitting your credit card payment
- Click the "PAY BY CARD/BANK TRANSFER" button below to fill out the online shopping list
- After your form is submitted, you will be automatically directed to our online payment page to complete your donation
"MEET" THE ORGANIZATIONS
Check out the many organizations below and learn more about what they do and how you can support them!
ALL OUR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL
All Our Children International works with orphaned and disadvantaged children in two regions of Ethiopia. Sponsorship programs, orphanage support, caregiver training programs, tutoring services as well as social service support are all involved in our efforts to create permanent change in the lives of these children.
$15 New shoes for orphan child
$25 School supplies for 1 year
$50 Feed a family of 4 for 1 month
CHURCH WORLD SERVICE (CWS)
Church World Service is a faith-based organization related to the National Council of Churches in the USA, transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disaster.
When you give through CWS, you give fresh food sources to those who are hungry. You provide clean water to those who are thirsty. And you offer welcome to those who are sidelined as strangers. Your generosity goes a long way - and you can feel confident that your gift supports the program sector that the item represents.
$15 10 concrete blocks for house walls in Haiti
$35 Drop-in shelter services for a child for a week in Serbia
$60 Home gardening for three families in Indonesia
CLAREMONT AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM (CLASP)
CLASP's mission is to help elementary-school children enhance their academic, organizational, and social skills by providing high quality after-school programs in Claremont Unified School District neighborhoods.
Your donation helps CLASP tutor academically at-risk elementary school students in the Claremont Unified School District. Part-time paid site supervisors and a program director recruit, train, and coordinate volunteer community tutors at neighborhood sites and one online site. Volunteer tutors provide homework help and encouragement, building positive relationships with students. As a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization, CLASP collaborates with the Claremont Unified School District and the City of Claremont, as well as many local nonprofits, local businesses, regional foundations, and individuals from the community to provide the resources necessary to offer these personalized services. Your donation will go a long way to help CLASP change lives, one student at a time, and prepare academically vulnerable students for scholastic success. Contact us to become a tutor yourself!
$15 Children's book & healthy snacks
$50 A complete tutoring session with snacks & supplies
$100 Two tutoring sessions (one week's worth) with snacks & supplies
CLAREMONT CANOPY
www.facebook.com/claremontcanopy
www.instagram.com/claremontcanopy
www.claremontcanopy.org
Claremont Canopy serves as an ally and advocate to newly-arrived refugees, empowering them to thrive in their new community. We currently serve over 100 families, representing nine countries!
Welcome to Canopy - a community of volunteers that uses crowdsourcing and social media to connect people like you, who want to help, with new refugee families. Claremont Canopy is a 501c3 non profit corporation founded to support people displaced by forced migration who have resettled in Claremont and surrounding areas. We work to provide a community that is welcoming, affordable, and sustainable as they build new lives here. To achieve this, we connect people and organizations and create opportunities in education, employment, and community integration. We believe that community integration is enriching not only for our new neighbors but also for those of us who have called Claremont home for a while.
Donations will be used to fund our rental supplement program, college textbook reimbursement program and overall assistance to families as they rebuild their lives here in the United States.
$50 Overall assistance to families to rebuild
CLAREMONT COMMUNITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC (CCSM)
The mission of Claremont Community School of Music is to enrich the lives of individuals and the community through music; to provide outstanding instruction for amateur and aspiring professional musicians of all ages; to reach out to the community through diverse programs and public performances; to promote and nurture a lifelong passion for music; and most importantly to make music education available to all …one note at a time.
$10 Instruction books
$30 Instrument/Equipment rental
$100 Towards Private lessons
CLAREMONT MEALS ON WHEELS
Claremont Meals on Wheels utilizes caring volunteers to deliver hot lunches and promote social wellness to older adults and people who are disabled or chronically ill, so they can live with dignity in the comfort of their own homes. Since 1972, Claremont Meals on Wheels has operated as a private, nonprofit, all-volunteer organization. By supporting CMOW, you help relieve food insecurity and social isolation!
$15 Birthday and holiday remembrances
$18 1 week of meals
$70 1 month of meals
CLAREMONT UCC EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER
$25 Day of childcare
CROSSROADS, INC.
Since 1974, the mission of Crossroads in Claremont and Pomona is to provide housing, education, support, counseling, and employment readiness in a homelike environment for women who have been incarcerated. Our primary goal is to empower women with new skills to help them step out of the revolving door of prison and move towards economic independence.
Licensed by the California Department of Healthcare Services, our six-month residential program provides services at no cost to the women. Crossroads has two homes: Harvard House and San Jose House located in Claremont. Crossroads provides housing, food and clothing at no cost to the women. We offer: case management to help set incremental goals, life skills programs including: critical thinking, financial literacy, and learning how to live independently, alcohol and drug education, employment readiness including interviewing skills, resume writing, and good employee habits, and coordination of essential appointments including: healthcare, banking, and getting a license or ID.
We are proud to be a member of the Claremont community for 50 years and that we were the first program in California to take women serving life sentences.
$15 Housing & transportation assistance
$25 Food & nutrition assistance
$65 Healthcare Program
DAVID & MARGARET FOSTER CARE & ADOPTION AGENCY
David & Margaret Foster Care and Adoption Agency is a non-profit organization that serves children ranging in age from birth to 18 years old, who will not be spending the holidays with their families. We provide the opportunity for a child to experience a stable normal family environment with loving foster parents or through adoption. This year, for our Annual Bright Angel Scroll Program, we are inviting businesses, community partners, and individuals to get involved, and sponsor a child’s “wish list” for the Holidays!
$40 Foster & Family Adoption Services
HOUSE OF RUTH
House of Ruth is dedicated to preventing domestic violence and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of those impacted by it. Recognized throughout Southern California for its effectiveness, House of Ruth has been providing comprehensive domestic violence services to the surrounding communities for over 43 years. During its most recently completed fiscal year, House of Ruth served over 15,000 survivors and community members through multiple programs and activities: 24 hour Crisis Intervention Hotline, residential shelter, children’s program and counseling, transitional housing project, and more!
$10 Residential Shelter Program
$25 Children's Program
$50 Counseling Program
INLAND VALLEY HOPE PARTNERS
Inland Valley Hope Partners brings together faith communities, businesses, individuals, and community groups, and ensures the empowerment of people in need by providing food, shelter, and supportive services.
Inland Valley Council of Churches, dba Inland Valley Hope Partners, has been building hope for homeless and no or low-income families in the east end of Los Angeles County and the west end of San Bernardino County since 1968. Through our comprehensive service delivery, and collaboration with local service providers, families and individuals in crisis find hope once again and are empowered to break the cycles of poverty and despair.
Over the years, our programs have evolved and changed to reflect the needs of the communities we serve. We annually serve approximately 70,000 children, women, and men throughout our three core programs: Food Security, Housing and Healthy Living.
$20 Food Security Program
$45 Temporary Housing Program
(CLICK HERE for more information on Inland Valley Hope Partners.)
INTERFAITH MOVEMENT FOR HUMAN INTEGRITY
For more than twenty years, the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity has been joining hands with people of faith to act on these core beliefs. We defend the humanity of the immigrant and fight for the rights of the incarcerated.
Working at the intersection of spirituality and social movements, we mobilize congregations to take a stand on issues of social justice like immigration and mass incarceration, and we engage people of faith to develop their leadership so they can stand up against racism, discrimination, and the political challenges of the day. We bring a faith voice to social movement coalitions, providing a compassionate religious perspective amidst the clamor of angry political actors.
By supporting the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, you are growing a statewide faith-rooted organizing network that seeks to end detention, end mass incarceration, and engage people of faith to stand up against the biggest challenges of the day.
$10 Interfaith Mover
$25 Peace Promoter
$50 Change Advocate
JUSTICE FOR IMMIGRANTS SEEKING ASYLUM (JISA)
Justice for Immigrants Seeking Asylum (JISA) advocates for justice for asylum seekers detained and located generally within Southern California. We focus our funding on helping immigrants seeking asylum by providing assistance in funding legal and accompany support during and post detention.
Justice for Immigrants Seeking Asylum (JISA) is supported by residents of Claremont and surrounding communities, including members of local churches, synagogues, and other faith groups, the academic community at area colleges and concerned citizens.
$20 Commissary or telephone expenses during detention
$35 Cell phone to assist with communication after release while traveling
$50 Legal assistance while detained
MARERA COMMUNITY SELF-HELP PROJECT
Marera Community Self-Help Project (MCSHP) is a Community based and driven Non- Profit Organization. It was born out of a desire of a holistic approach to serve HIV/AIDS Orphans, other vulnerable children and their caregivers in Marera and the greater Community. Marera is a village located 4 miles South of the Equator, near Lake Victoria, in Kisumu District, Nyanza Province, Kenya.
$10 Education Program
$25 Poverty Reduction Program
$40 Health Program
(CLICK HERE for more information on Marera Community Self-Help Project.)
NEWCOMERS ACCESS CENTER
Newcomers Access Center (NAC) helps refugee and immigrant families connect with appropriate services and resources in order to aid them to become self-sufficient and integrate meaningfully into the larger society. NAC finds organizations to work with newcomers to build integrated communities where all cultures are respected.
Refugees are some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Faced with war, persecution or terror, they leave everything behind to rebuild lives in a new country. Newcomers Access Center (NAC) was formed to welcome refugees into our community and help them become independent. Our partners and donors enable us to assist with temporary housing, rent subsidies, household items, diapers, car seats, college tuition and textbooks, driving lessons, down payment for a car and other needed items. Volunteers help with transportation, tutoring English, school enrollments, homework help, job sources, shopping and much more. NAC assists families throughout the Inland Valley.
$25 Rent Subsidies
$40 Baby Items/Diapers
$50 Driving Lessons
PACIFIC LIFELINE
Pacific Lifeline is a long-term transitional shelter, serving women and their children from east Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties and the surrounding communities. Its mission is: "Pacific Lifeline, a faith-based ministry, empowers women and their children facing chronic homelessness and helps them achieve personal and social stability." Families stay for up to two years, with the average being ten months, while they work toward and achieve stability. In addition to providing for basic life needs such as shelter, food, clothing, and essentials, support services help the women and children overcome obstacles that have kept them in poverty, improve their health (mentally, physically, and spiritually), and gain the skills needed to achieve personal and economic independence, minimizing the threat of future homelessness. Our case manager helps them set and achieve goals, overcome barriers, and develop resources, providing credit and budget counseling, career counseling, housing and childcare search support, and more. ChildLife Specialists help children heal and thrive through developmental play sessions and weekly group activities. Our therapy team provides individual, group, family, and sibling therapy. And once families move out on their own, our Extended Services Program includes continued case management and therapy, access to donated food and essentials, back to school clothes and supplies, and holiday gifts. Our Extended Services Program also includes two homes, located on our campus, with reduced rent. Pacific Lifeline provides a comprehensive approach to ending poverty, hunger, and homelessness, and its commitment to the long-term stability of families and its comprehensive program approach distinguish it from other shelters.
$30 Case Management & Therapy Program
$30 Food & Essentials Program
$75 Back to school supplies & clothing
PETER'S WORK
We work in and through the Russian speaking churches in Russia and Ukraine. In the St Petersburg region we carry out ministry inside 9 orphanages, 2 group homes for disabled adults, and a shelter for women and their children. In Ukraine, we've supplied Ukrainian church leaders with 7 vans and minibuses and ongoing food supplies and equipment that are delivered into villages on the front lines of the war. We are also supporting three orphanages in Ukraine.
Peter's Work is a charitable organization, formed in 2005, by missionaries to Russia Sam and Yulia Naylor. This is our 4th year participating in the Alternative Christmas program.
$40 Christmas gift for a Russian or Ukrainian orphan
$60 Portable heater for a Ukrainian family
$100 Van for feeding & evacuating pensioners & the disabled ($12,000)
PILGRIM PINES
The Outdoor Ministry Team, Youth and Young Adult Ministry Team, and the events hosted at Pilgrim Pines Camp and Conference Center, ministries of the United Church of Christ, affirms persons of all ages, sexes, genders, gender expressions, sexual orientations, racial or ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic positions, intellectual, developmental, emotional, and physical abilities, or religious affiliation. We seek to provide an inclusive and safe environment for personal and spiritual growth, nurture community by building personal relationships, and encourage care and concern for all of God’s creation.
Through Pilgrim Pines you are giving so much more than a week of camp. You are giving the gift of confidence and leadership, acceptance and love, caring adults and the gift of experiencing God's love in real ways! We believe everyone needs camp, and with your help we can make that possible. This camp, in Oak Glen, has been at the center of UCC regional work in Southern California/Southern Nevada sine 1944.
$25 1 week of craft supplies for 1 camper
$100 1 day camper scholarship
$500 1 week camper scholarship
POMONA VALLEY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Your gift to Pomona Valley Habitat for Humanity helps us to continue to build or renovate homes locally for people in need! PV Habitat for Humanity is the local chapter of a non-profit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry, serving 16 local cities.
Habitat for Humanity was founded on the conviction that every man, woman, and child should have a simple, durable place to live in dignity and safety, and that decent shelter in decent communities should be a matter of conscience and action for all. To accomplish these goals, we invite people of all backgrounds, races, and religions to build houses together in partnership with families in need.
$25 Roofing materials
$50 Vanity
$100 Kitchen sink
(CLICK HERE for additional information about Habitat for Humanity.)
PROJECT SISTER FAMILY SERVICES
Project Sister Family Services is a local non-profit rape crisis agency dedicated to reducing the trauma and risk of sexual assault and child abuse. We have 24-hour hotlines to assist with crisis intervention and accompaniment services to forensic medical exams, police reportings, court proceedings, and Title IX meetings. We offer counseling to adult survivors of sexual violence, and to child victims of any type of child abuse, school based bullying, and witnesses to crimes. We also offer free community education and violence prevention workshops. All services are completely free of charge.
