Good Neighbor Settlement House and the Brownsville Wellness Coalition are joining forces to host the “1,000 giving hearts” a nine-prize fundraiser that hopes to raise $100,000 that will be divided evenly among both organizations so that they can continue to help the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Instead of competing against each other, because at one point we had to go and do a fundraiser, so we decided to join forces; Brownsville Wellness Coalition has their supporters, we have our supporters so we decided to bring them together so they can learn about two different organizations,” Hugo Zurita, executive director at Good Neighbor Settlement House, said.
“A lot of the funds will be used for programs that did not receive any funding or lack of funding because we have different programs for our organizations, and we were lucky enough to receive a lot of funding for the food, for the food distributions, but there are other programs that lack funding throughout the year. The funds will be used for those programs that are lacking funding,” Zurita said.
Tickets are $100 each and can be purchased online at 1000givinghearts.com, Saturdays at the Farmer’s Market and at Good Neighbor Settlement House. Prizes are the following:
>> Three-night stay at a two-bedroom cabin in the northern part of Washington State, round trip airline tickets for four and a restaurant gift certificate.
>> Three-night stay at a four-bedroom beach house at South Padre Island, a restaurant gift certificate, and passes to the island’s biggest attractions.
>> Peloton Bike: High-end indoor bicycle, which is Wi-Fi enabled with a 22” touchscreen ready to stream live and OnDemand classes.
>>A $500 bicycle credit from 7th and Park, a Camelbak, and a set of T-shirts from Brownsville Wellness Coalition, 7th and Park, and Good Neighbor Settlement House.
>> Wine basket of over 15 bottles of wine and a $50 gift certificate from Bocata.
>> A day of guided deep-sea fishing complete with a Yeti Hard Cooler to store your catch in, and a restaurant gift certificate.
>> Gift certificates from Brownsville’s best restaurants to indulge your inner foodie.
>> Apple Watch, Apple Air Pods, three 60-minute sessions at All In One Fitness Studio, and a dietitian meal plan.
>> Two custom 4×8 garden beds, an outdoor wooden farm table, outdoor decorations, and a La Maquila Brownsville tote bag.
“For this raffle, we have had a huge financial impact on both organizations, both non-profits, we run on grants and fundraisers and because of COVID that came to a halt. Together, we’ve been thinking on how can we have a bigger impact with the resources that we have and that’s how the raffle started,” Veronica Dimas-Rosenbaum, executive director at Brownsville Wellness Coalition, said.
“It’s funny that up to this day a lot of people don’t know that we have community gardens … or how Good Neighbor’s run and what really are the services. Other than doing the raffle and raising funds, we are also giving that awareness of these two organizations, how we help during COVID and what we do for the community” Dimas- Rosenbaum said.
The primary sponsor for the raffle is Valley Day and Night Clinic but there are several others who are partnering to help such as Tipton Auto Group, Alegria Law Office, Insurance Advisors Agency, AV Garza Enterprises and Unlimited Printing & Embroidery.
“Our goal is to sell 1,000 tickets that’s a $100,000 and we have been very lucky to get some sponsorships to be able to buy some of these prizes and this is a board effort, the board is doing a lot of hard work to be able to provide some of these prizes to have very little or none cost to us,” Dimas-Rosembaum said.
