12 Days of Giving celebrates work of local organizations

ALPENA -- Several Northeast Michigan nonprofits and organizations will get some early Christmas presents over the next two weeks.

For the second consecutive year, HPC Credit Union is doing its 12 Days of Giving event, which recognizes a local organization each day over a span of 12 business days. The event begins today and runs through Dec. 16.

Each of the organizations will get a $500 check -- a small way for the credit union to say thank you to each of the organizations for their work in helping members of their community.

Lydia's Gate Homeless Shelter in Mio is this year's first recipient and the list also includes Friends Together, Hope Shores Alliance, and St. Vincent de Paul among others.

"I started it last year and the goal of it was kind of just to create a campaign that kind of showcases different nonprofits and organizations within our community," Ellie Kindt, marketing coordinator and event planner for HPC Credit Union, said. "We want to showcase the good that they do, so with each stop that we go to, we make sure to highlight an introduction of who they are, what they stand for and all of that good stuff."

Kindt said Giving Tuesday served as somewhat of an inspiration for the credit union's 12 Days of Giving.

Giving Tuesday -- held annually the Tuesday after Thanksgiving -- sees millions of dollars raised in the United States alone.

Kindt wanted to take that day's spirit of giving and do something more to highlight the work of local organizations.

"Giving Tuesday kind of gave me the idea of doing something different," Kindt said. "Everyone gets together on (Giving Tuesday), but I wanted to do something outside of that highlights these organizations and nonprofits individually. There's the 12 Days of Christmas, why not 12 Days of Giving?"

In the event's first year in 2021, local nonprofits and organizations were grateful to be honored by the credit union. This year, the event will stretch across 16 days and $6,000 will ultimately be donated -- the same amount as last year.

To ensure that each organization's staff is on hand to be recognized, the organizations are told about it ahead of time.

But knowing ahead of time doesn't take away from the happiness the organizations and their staffs feel by being recognized and different members of HPC's staff are on hand at each organization to highlight its good work and present a check.

"There was a lot of happiness," Kindt said. "They were all very grateful. Some of them (from last year), we are doing it with them again. We did switch a few up to get some new faces, but everyone I called again this year was just really excited and they're very grateful."

The credit union plans to stick with just 12 Days of Giving for now, Kindt said, but there might be potential for it to grow in the future.

"I hope so," Kindt said. "Our budget is growing and we hope to get bigger. We're always looking for ways to give back to the community, so we just thought this was kind of an end-of-the-year special."

12 Days of Giving

These local organizations will be recognized during HPC Credit Union's 12 Days of Giving this year

Dec. 1 Lydia's Gate Homeless Shelter

Dec. 2 Rea Family Animal Shelter

Dec. 5 Claws and Paws Animal Shelter

Dec. 6 Northern MI Children's Assessment Center

Dec. 7 Ogemaw Toys for Tots

Dec. 8 Habitat for Humanity

Dec. 9 St. Vincent de Paul

Dec. 12 Alpena Operation Holidays Vietnam Veterans

Dec. 13 Friends Together

Dec. 14 Alpena County Animal Control Shelter

Dec. 15 Hope Shores Alliance

Dec. 16 Friendship Room