BEDFORD COUNTY, Va. – If you’re looking to lend a helping hand, there are about 40 nonprofit organizations you can give back to Wednesday on SML Gives Day.
SML Gives is a 24-hour fundraiser for several organizations around the Smith Mountain Lake area. There are also nonprofits in Roanoke and Franklin County participating.
SML Good Neighbors, Inc. has hosted the event for several years now, and Wednesday is important, especially for the Smith Mountain Lake area.
“These organizations, a lot of them, are 100% volunteer ran or they just have one staff or two staff [members], and they’re doing the work of probably 100 people, being super resourceful with volunteers to uplift our community, and from animals to people, food insecurity to the arts, there is so much need, and they need support to continue doing their mission,” said Executive Director Lisa Lietz of SML Good Neighbors, Inc.
You can donate to the Bedford Area Educational Foundation, Boys and Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia and the YMCA of Franklin County.
You can also give back to the Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Bedford Christian Ministries. The Bedford Christian Ministries gives food to people in need. It also provides clothing and household goods at its center in Bedford.
“We have a lot of senior citizens that live in this area, and a lot of them are on [a] very low fixed income, and so they’re in a great deal of need and a third of our clients are young families,” said Food Pantry Manager Bonnie Norman.
Another organization participating in SML Gives is Food for Kids. Food for Kids packs about 470 bags of food for Bedford County Elementary school children during the weekends.
“Bedford County, although a very prosperous county in some sections, does not serve a lot of the children that we serve because in the five elementary schools that we’re in it’s about 80% poverty, so we feel like we can best help them by sending bags of food home to help them get through the weekend with their family,” said President Susan Tinsley of Food for Kids.
SML Good Neighbors, Inc. also said it’s collecting donations. SML Good Neighbors, Inc. provides arts-based after-school and summer activities for children.
If you’d like to donate, you can donate online on SML Gives’ website until midnight. You can also donate in person on Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Smith Mountain Lake YMCA.
SML Good Neighbors, Inc. is hoping to raise $200,000 in total for all of the nonprofits on Wednesday.