During her husband's campaign for Town Council in 2009, and once again in 2013, Stephanie Baucom came to the conclusion that with thousands of people showing up on election day, there was an opportunity to use that as a platform to develop a community initiative aimed at supporting local charities which are critical to the area, but in constant need of community support. The Harrisburg Giving Init
iative – The Launch. On May 6th, 2014 that vision will become a reality. Our goal will be to utilize the Primary Election in May, and the General Election in November as a platform to launch “The Harrisburg Giving Initiative” (or HGI). The goal of The Harrisburg Giving Initiative will be to benefit two local non-profit organizations which have a major impact on the Town. The first is the GATE Pregnancy Resource Center which is a place of giving, acceptance, teaching, and empowering young women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation. We are also hoping to partner with a local food pantry as well; however we haven’t finalized the details with that organization. Hopefully I can provide you with more details on that shortly. How does The Harrisburg Giving Initiative work? The Harrisburg Giving Initiative will ask area residents who are already planning to show up at the polls to support political candidates to also bring a few extra items to benefit the local charity. For example: The GATE Pregnancy Resource Center is always in need of newborn diapers, wipes, towels, or washcloths. Donations or contributions of these items would go a long way to meeting the needs of the GATE PRC. Also, while we haven’t finalized the details with the local food pantry which was discussed above, I’m quite sure that they could always benefit from non-perishable food items among other things. In addition, for those who may not be able to bring physical items but would like to contribute, we would ask that they consider donation directly to the charity of their choice. What is the goal of the HGI? The goal of the HGI is to stuff the shelves of the targeted organizations in an effort to support local charities which re-invest in our local community. While the details haven’t been finalized, we would hope to accept items or donations at least three polling locations, if not all of them. We will provide more details shortly, but look forward to offering Harrisburg Area voters another opportunity to support the community through the Harrisburg Giving Initiative.
