Contacts

92 Bowery St., NY 10013

thepascal@mail.com

+1 800 123 456 789

Category: News

News

The Angel Shop

The wait is over – we have brand new merchandise! Visit The Angel Shop to get all of your Angels’ Arms gear. Sport your favorite charity organization while golfing with our stylish new quarter-zip. Or get the kids involved with our first-ever toddler and youth graphic t-shirt. You can have your ordered shipped to you for a small shipping fee, or pick it up from our office. 100% of the proceeds go directly to the foster families living in all of the Angels’ Arms homes.

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A message from our Founder & Executive Director

What started as an idea of getting the community involved in foster children’s lives is now a 20-year-old organization that has served close to 600 children. No single person can be given the credit of starting this thing. From the very first day as we gathered around my dinner table with close friends, the support and determination and hard work began. Each day that we shared the idea of providing a loving family to foster children with a focus of keeping siblings together, more and more people came forward and showed their love.

First was the 501c3 application process. (No one told me I could have an attorney handle this.)

Next was gathering a group of passionate and committed individuals to form a board. 

We needed to generate funds so we sold cookbooks resulting in a whopping $4,000 profit. 

Then Tom Hartanagel (founding Board Member) decided to host a fashion show/auction. We had 100 guests and were beyond elated.

Then came the first house. John Dennis, a teacher I worked with at Sperreng Middle, decided to help us obtain the house across the street. It was big. It had a huge yard. It was a great location. It was $400,000. John Dennis believed.

From that point on every weekend over the course of 9 months was dedicated to transforming this dark and old house with shag carpet throughout (they even left us a rake!). Volunteers poured in from all over the place and made this house a warm home. People adopted rooms, made meals for the volunteers, donated supplies, held garage sales, painted, remodeled, replaced, tore down, and gave and gave until 12128 Tesson Ferry was ready to be called a home and to welcome children of all ages. 

Next came the search for foster parents. Interview after interview finally resulted in Becky and Jesse Hughes being chosen as the inaugural house parents. Their application read like this: “How long do you see yourselves doing this?” “Until we’re physically unable or until God calls us home.” 

Next enter the Greek ladies. From the time that we had one home all the way to 13 of them, these selfless and beautiful souls hosted activities every single month for all the families. Their outings started with a family of 12 and ended with over 100 participants each month. 

The foster system is broken. Most people in the field either quit from burnout, sadness and frustration, and they’re told to keep quiet about what happens. 

It doesn’t have to be that way. We should all have the opportunity to be a part of these children’s lives. 

And that’s what happens every day at Angels’ Arms. People give in countless ways. Lemonade stands. Cereal drives. Meal drop-offs. Birthday celebrations. Hundreds of fundraisers. Tons of work days. Activities and opportunities. We’ve had everything from a carnival in the backyard to kickball and wiffle ball tournaments to Easter egg hunts and more. We’ve witnessed more acts of love and kindness than we ever would have imagined.

But at the end of every single day we know this: all children need love. And all children who’ve lived and are currently living in one of our 13 homes get just that. There is so much love in every action that people take. We get to witness this every day. And more importantly, each child experiences this love. 

Sometimes we deal with heartache. Sometimes we feel defeated. Sometimes we get tired. But then we are energized by the smile on a child’s face or the letter that a youth writes us or the story that a foster parent shares conveying something that may seem small to most but is huge for them. 

I’ve said this since the year 2000 and I say it almost daily: we’re all in this together. Giving and showing love is something everyone can do. That is what changes lives. Truly the most powerful therapy is human love.  We are filled with wonder and excitement to see what another decade brings. Yes, the foster system is broken. Yes, we are fixing it…one child at a time. 

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New Year; New Decade; New Logo!

As we head into the new decade, we head into a new chapter of Angels’ Arms as well. We are so overwhelmed and overjoyed with the outpouring of support we’ve had for the past 20 years. We couldn’t have made our mission possible without the help of our supports, donors, board members, junior board members and staff. Because of this monumental year, we have rolled out THREE new logos to showcase our excitement.

“There’s much work to be done,” says Bess, our Founder and Executive Director. “More kids, more outreach, more homes, more families and more love.”

 

 

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Making the Season Merry and Bright

The outpouring of love that our families have received in the past week is overwhelming. We had over 40 companies and individual donors who adopted our families in order to ensure they were taken care of this holiday season. Joy, laughter and love are three words that simply describe how we felt seeing the support for our families. From all of our at Angels’ Arms, including our families, staff and board members, we wish you a happy holidays.

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Christmas Lights Raffle

Click HERE to Enter!

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Why They Give

The Spirit of St. Louis Women’s Fund interviewed our Founder and Executive Director as a part of their Grantee Profiles. We are so grateful they continually support our Life Launch program, which helps the youth ages 14-21 living in our homes. We appreciate this group’s desire to know more about what we do and how their contributions directly impact Angels’ Arms.

You can view Bess’s Q&A at the link below:

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Grantee-Profile—Angels–Arms.html?soid=1108582230413&aid=VCyKWDNWhhQ&fbclid=IwAR0ZQUSZ65KiwZ4Q2avTRDy-4_XkCo2xvIC7mbovbbhTBbZ2t43THKVzYfk

 

 

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MO Tax Credits Available to Eligible Donors

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**TAX CREDITS

Did you know that you can make your charitable dollars ($1,000 and up) stretch further by using Missouri state tax credits for contributions to Angels’ Arms? You can donate twice as much, at less out-of-pocket expense to you!

To check eligibility and to reserve credits, contact Jasmina Schue at 314-842-8400 or email jasmina@angelsarms.org.

Download Tax Credit Flyer below:
aa_ahap-tax-credits

 

**IRA Charitable Rollover Donations to Angels’ Arms
If you are 70 1/2 or older, you can make tax-free donations from your IRA to Angels’ Arms.    

Benefits to donors:
– Funds rolled over directly from your IRA account to Angels’ Arms will not be recognized as gross income for federal tax purposes. Keep in mind, the funds transferred also will not qualify for a charitable deduction.
– If you have not yet taken your required minimum distribution, you can satisfy your required minimum distribution in whole or in part by having the funds transferred directly from your IRA to Angels’ Arms.
– The funds can be used to satisfy a pledge or to make a new gift to Angels’ Arms. (Unfortunately, the law does not permit the funds to be used to establish a charitable gift annuity or other planned gift.)

For more information, contact us at 314-842-8400. We encourage you to consult with your tax advisor or accountant if you are considering making an IRA charitable rollover gift to Angels’ Arms.  

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Keeping us in Check

In the past two weeks, Angels’ Arms has been invited to FOUR check presentation ceremonies! All of these amazing local businesses have supported Angels’ Arms through profit shares or grants. We truly cannot thank our community enough for the love they show our families. We couldn’t do what we do without their help.

 

Tapped

Cardinals Care

The Cup

Kiwanis Major Gift Award

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If the Shoe Fits

Over the weekend, our Junior Board held our annual BBQ for all of our foster families. We grilled, played and laughed. On top of that, the kids were given a very special surprise. Sneakers with Soul is an organization dedicated to positively impacting children in the greater St. Louis area; their mission is to ensure that one day no child will go back to school without a new pair of shoes. Maurice “Moe” Parisien, the founder and president of Sneakers with Soul, and his wife joined us at the BBQ where he made sure all of the new Adidas shoes fit our kids just right. We were blown away by the generosity of Moe and his organization. “Thanks so much for this generous donation,” one of our foster parents exclaimed. “The kids LOVE their new kicks!” There’s something special about a brand-new pair of tennis shoes to start off a new school year.

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The Community has our Back (to school)

Over the past few days, we have witnessed an outpouring of support from our community for our foster children. Going back to school can be stressful for foster children, and we wanted to make the transition from summer break to a new school year as easy as possible for our families. Our Back-to-School clothing drive fundraiser exceeded our $6,000 goal in only three short days; because of these donations our kids will be able to pick out brand new clothes for the upcoming school year.

Aside from the clothing drive, several groups and organizations donated backpacks, school supplies, shoes as well as clothes, which will help our kids walk into their new classrooms with confidence and a ready-to-learn attitude.

We want to extend our immense gratitude to the following people and organizations:

 

Linda Robben with RedKey Reality for making a matching contribution for the first $1,500 raised for the Back-to-School clothing drive. Also, to Jennifer Wallner for using her Facebook birthday fundraiser to support the clothing drive. And last but certainly not least, Nick Matlock for getting his donation matched by his employer, helping us surpass our goal.

 

 

 

 

The Crossing Church who collected 20 new backpacks, filled to the brim with supplies, to give to our kids.

 

 

 

 

Distribution Management for donating countless school supplies such as notebooks, binders, pens and pencils among other must-have supplies for a successful school year.

 

 

 

 

 

Sophia Chrysler and Clothes4Confidence for putting together gift bags for the children. Each gift bag contained new school clothes for the kids that donors personally bought.

 

 

 

We truly couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you for your continued support!