Support Dawn's COTS Walk
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Dear friends,
I am asking you to donate money to provide emergency shelter, services, and prevention for people facing the crisis of homelessness.
The annual COTS Walk typically draws more than a thousand people from the community onto the streets of Burlington to walk together in support of our neighbors who are facing homelessness. The event serves as a critical fundraiser for COTS shelters and services. A huge gathering like that obviously could not happen this year during the pandemic. So we decided to dig in, go big, and bring the walk to prospectively even more people than ever.
My team of six colleagues spent the past seven weeks creating a way for anyone in the world to follow the 3.5-mile journey that a person experiencing homelessness in Burlington would take to reach COTS services in a day. You can travel that route right now at cotsonline.org/cotswalk. You have the option to walk in the real world with mindful prompts or to delve into the virtual walk on your computer, tablet, or phone (best on your desktop though!).
We also designed fun micro-activities that you can enjoy even during stay-at-home orders, as a resource for engaging with issues that surround homelessness. The activities are cool. I'm talking cooking, dancing, hiding time capsules, making art, playing Twister, coloring, writing poems. There's even one where you just listen to people talk about their experiences with homelessness. Please check out the activities, and share them, because learning and sharing together is how we get to the essential next step of acting together to solve big problems. And the big one we are working to end is homelessness.
We need the work that COTS is doing. At this very moment, people are taking refuge in COTS emergency shelters. Today, and throughout the pandemic, COTS is delivering groceries and meals so that vulnerable guests can stay indoors. Right now, COTS staff are helping parents get through their day, playing educational games with children in homeless shelters, working with adults to save for down payments on affordable mortgages, and helping people move into stable homes of their own. This and so much more go on behind the scenes all the time in order to shelter our neighbors. And after pandemic restrictions ease, COTS will still be working hard to give everyone who needs it a safe place to sleep and access to sustainable housing.
Please help me support the mission to end homelessness. Donate to my COTS Walk campaign. And thank you deeply for your gift and for caring.
COTS is Vermont’s largest provider of services for people who are homeless, at risk of becoming homeless, and marginally housed. We focus on solutions to end homelessness, which goes well beyond merely reacting to the need. Information about COTS is at cotsonline.org.
Every dollar raised through the COTS Walk goes directly to shelter, services, and homelessness prevention for people in crisis.
Please support me in this important project by contributing generously. You can write a check made out to COTS, give cash, or donate through my online link right now.
Any amount you can give helps. Lots of people doing what they can is how we make a difference. It’s how our personal actions combine to make a huge collective impact.
Thank you so much.
Respectfully,
Dawn Ippolito
Photographer
Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS)
Burlington, Vermont, USA
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