Members Helping Members

Have you seen our Members Helping Members Wish List yet? Now is the time to donate to your fellow members who need a little help giving their children a nice Christmas! Each branch has paper copies of the wish list for you to take, and you can find the full list on our website. Warning: the Wish List may make you feel old and prompt you to say, “What kind of new-fangled toy is this?!” Well don’t worry, some of us felt the same way. Here is a little help with deciphering the toy list! Goosebumps Chapter Books: Goosebumps is a popular book series for kids written by R.L. Stine. While they first became trendy in the 90s, a recent movie starring Jack Black based on the book series has put them back on bookshelves for today’s youngsters! You can find Goosebumps books at most book sellers including Barnes & Noble, Target and Amazon. LED Skyboard: A great way to get kids active, this helps kids build coordination and balance. This can be found on Amazon for $39.98 Roblox Toys: Roblox started out as a video game, and has expanded to a tangible toy line. These Lego-like toys come is a wide variety of themes, packs, and options and can be found at retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. iTunes Gift Card: iTunes is a program from Apple that allows you to buy music and other media from Apple to list to on your Apple device. Many local stores sells iTunes gift cards, usually close to the cash register. Some of the local stores that we’ve seen selling iTunes gifts cards include Target, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Michael’s, and Walgreens. These cards come with preset amounts when buying them in the store – you cannot choose a custom amount. If you want to help, but you’re not quite sure what to get, please consider speaking to a Member Services staff in person or by phone at (218) 729-7733 to donate cash and we will pick up the gift cards on your behalf! Since many of the children on the list asked for iTunes gift cards, we would very much appreciate cash donations so that we can purchase the gift cards, on our members’ behalf, to make sure each child receives that same amount in gift cards! LeapPad Tablet: LeapFrog is a brand of educational toys and offers the “LeapPad” which is a tablet filled with educational games to help toddlers and young children learn letters, reading, counting, and other developmental skills. This toy can be found at any department store (Amazon, Target, Walmart) that sells young children’s toys and is usually priced between $75 and $87. Again, we are accepting cash donations so that we can purchase any remaining Wish List items after all members have made their donations. Any amount is appreciated! We appreciate the generosity of our members! Members Helping Members has been a program that partners with Lutheran Social Services Financial Counseling to assist Centricity members who have sought out financial counseling and have made budget cuts and sacrifices to improve their financial health. We’ve found that these members need help giving their children a great Christmas while they are working toward getting out of debt, improving their credit, or staying on a budget. Please make your item donation at any of our three locations. You can make a monetary donation by phone (as long as you already have an account at CCU) or in person. Happy Holidays!