Classic Toyota Celebrates Giving Tuesday: Highlighting COOL Ministries and Ways We Can Give Back to our Community This Holiday Season

Today is Giving Tuesday, and we’re celebrating this charitable event by highlighting a great local organization that needs our help, as well as amazing ways to support our most vulnerable in the community.

Taking care of one another is what community is all about!  If you’ve been following our page or blog for a little while, you’ve probably heard us mention local nonprofit COOL Ministries.  We have partnered with this organization for all sorts of community giving including coat drives, food bank donations, community cookouts, and more!  We look forward to each and every one of these special events, and we find it reassuring to know that COOL Ministries provides so much support to the people of our community.  Let’s learn more about ways you can help!

COOL Ministries is a not for profit charitable organization serving families in Illinois.  Their aim is to provide support and assistance to families in need by reducing hunger, homelessness, and empowering people with confidence and life skills.  COOL Ministries believes in supporting vulnerable members of the community by sustaining personal growth, job skills, and leading to eventual self-sufficiency and stability.

Founded by members of six Lutheran Churches, the organization first opened its doors to the community in 1983 with its inaugural COOL Food Pantry project.  They opened an additional location in 2007, COOL Pantry West, in Ingleside by way of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, which remained in operation through 2018. COOL pantry provides local families and veterans with breakfast, lunch, and dinner; they also provide accommodations for cardiac and diabetic diets, as well as options for those with allergies, and a wide array of ethnic food offerings.

Since 2015, COOL Ministries is now a fully recognized social services organization run by the COOL Board of Directors who put their heart and soul into their work.  In 2016, after 30 years of operation out of a storefront in downtown Waukegan, headquarters relocated operations to a beautiful facility downtown at the Glen Flora Building on West Glen Flora Avenue.

The COOL pantries receive an immense amount of community support from everyone here in Lake County; everyone from churches to individuals to the United Way of Lake County, and incredible grant funding and corporate donations.  We are also proud to count ourselves in the midst of those who support the efforts of COOL Ministries as they help local families and veterans find their footing on stable ground!  The support for COOL Ministries and the COOL Pantries is as diverse as the beautiful community we all love, work, and live in.

Please, join us in supporting our community by helping raise funds and collecting donation items for COOL ministries from this list:

Other fantastic ways you can support your community:

• Donate your time and physical presence to helping stock food pantries or serve meals
• Give blood at local blood banks or blood drives
• Offer ride share service to your neighbors, local seniors, and disabled individuals. Oftentimes these folks may need rides to important appointments, picking up their meds, and gathering groceries! Providing transportation as needed can be a great help!
• Start a community garden and urban agriculture project and encourage your friends and neighbors to join in planting, cultivating, and harvesting fruits and veggies and other edible plants.
• Ask if your employer will contribute a “gift match” to your personal donation, and make a few contributions to local organizations like COOL ministries and others.
• When shopping on Amazon, set http://Smile.Amazon.com as your homepage and contribute a percentage of your purchases to the charity of your choice.
• Create care packages for the local unhoused population and distribute, or bring to warming stations around the city. Remember to include some additional bags for pets; many unhoused individuals do care for family pets, have service animals, and general animal companions. Providing food and water and treats for peoples’ pets can help as well!
• Collect gently used toys, books, and clothing in good condition which has been laundered and folded neatly, and bring them to a local family shelter or to warming stations around town.  Remember to include extended sizing from infant to toddler to juniors as well as adult XS to XXXXL when purchasing or collecting clothing! All bodies deserve comfortable clothing and warmth.
• Volunteer at a local animal shelter to do dog walking and animal playtime sessions, drop off canned and bagged animal food and kitty litter, donate gently used blankets and sheets and towels, bleach, pet safe salt/gravel, and other daily use pet items.
• Contribute specialty food goods, seasonings, and allergen friendly items to local food banks, pantries, and community fridges.  Just because someone is unhoused does not mean they no longer have dietary restrictions or don’t deserve a healthy, delicious meal!
• Remember to contribute personal hygiene items such as diapers, diaper rash cream, sunscreen, deodorant, soap and shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, over the counter medications such as fever reducers and children’s meds, and toilet paper to local food drives, shelters and collection banks in addition to food.
• Spend some time at local senior centers, nursing homes, and care facilities, especially around the holidays!  Due to the Covid19 pandemic, many elderly and disabled people have had a difficult few years in isolation, and spending time with fellow community members can lift their spirits!  Remember to protect our vulnerable populations, though, and adhere to social distancing and vaccination/mask requirements.

And of course, all of us here at Classic Auto Group send a comforting virtual hug to you all in thanks for your support and dedication to building a better community!

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