02/12/2025
Shout out to Team Bethlehem for coordinating this awesome Give Back Project!
Please consider checking out the Amazon Wishlist and participate if you are able. Thanks!
With Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, Bethlehem Special Olympics is proud to announce the return of a beloved holiday tradition for our program - BSO Gives Back.
BSO Gives Back is a group holiday service project for our athletes, coaches, and volunteers. Our athletes and our programs here at Team Bethlehem benefit from the kindness and generosity of our wonderful community all year long. As a way to show our gratitude and say Thank You, we like to contribute something back to our neighbors at this time of year. We look at BSO Gives Back as a Christmas Gift to our community❤️
This year BSO Gives Back will be supporting the efforts of Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering (BES). Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering operates a shelter in downtown Bethlehem, where homeless members of our community can have a hot meal, a place to shower, and a safe place to sleep. BES also assists those struggling with food insecurity by distributing free bagged lunches to the community every weekend.
Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering has a wish list of donation items they rely on to help them provide these services to our neighbors. Our BSO Gives Back project this year will be helping to collect some of those requested donation items for BES.
We have included a picture that lists the items Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering has told us they need. You will find both personal care items and food items on the list, and they are listed in no particular order. There are no high-end items on the list - everything they are asking for are simple, everyday things.
There are two ways we will be gathering these donation items:
1. Team Bethlehem and Team Lehigh athletes, coaches, and volunteers can drop off their collection of donated items during our shared Christmas party on Friday, December 5th. We will have collection boxes there. Our hope is that everyone attending the party will bring at least one donated item.
2. We also have created a convenient online option for friends, family members, and those in the community who might want to help us. Below is a link to an Amazon wish list that we have created out of items that Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering is looking for. If you order from the Amazon list, we have included an address where your order can be shipped directly to our corporate office.
A group of our athletes and coaches will take the donations from the Christmas Party and those that get shipped to our corporate office, and will deliver everything to Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering in mid-December.
We here at Bethlehem Special Olympics would be incredibly grateful for any items you might be able to donate to this effort.
The link to our Amazon wish list for this donation drive can be found at the link below. (Please note – it is not necessary to purchase the specific brands of products we opted to put on our Amazon list. Any brand or type of item that fits into the categories of products listed below would be welcome!)
Thanks so much - here’s the link to our Amazon list ⬇️
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/QNYHZ4SC4G0C?ref_=wl_share
