Liveability organization offering free Blessing Box to community
Trending
ELKINS -- LiveAbility is bringing food, hygiene, pet food and more to their clients and the community with a new Blessing Box.
Located just outside of the LiveAbility office on 109 Randolph Ave, the new Blessing Box has been receiving plenty of use by LiveAbility clients and community members alike. Brenda Dasher, LiveAbility's Community Integrations Specialist and IL Manager, called the endeavor "awesome," saying they can't keep the box full.
"It's fun to watch someone come and take one thing out, but they take one, they put two in that they're not using," Dasher told The Inter-Mountain. "It's been really cool to watch... It's amazing how fast the things go."
Dasher explained the idea to create a Blessing Box outside of their building came from necessity. LiveAbility is "an all-inclusive advocacy and resource center for people with disabilities and the communities in which they live," according to its website, and several of the people the organization works with have also suffered homelessness and financial strife.
"We found that a lot of them, even after they got their apartments, it's hard with the price of food going up for us, let alone them, to live on $800 a month if they're on disability," Dasher said. "So we had people start saying, 'Do you ever have any food?' Well, we started bringing food in from my family and the secretary's family, and all of a sudden it was like, 'You know what? There's not a Blessing Box up here.'"
Dasher also credits her mother for the inspiration to have a Blessing Box, as her mother's favorite thing to do was to go fill boxes on Saturdays.
Pet food has also become a staple of the LiveAbility Blessing Box. Dasher explained that, for a lot of people with disabilities, pets can be the only family they have, so they just had to include items for their consumers' "furry family."
Dasher also said that books are also welcome in the box, as books can become an escape for those with disabilities that are unable to travel or take vacations. They've also received crosswords and word searches.
In the winter, Dasher said that LiveAbility plans to include hats, gloves and crocheted afghan blankets in the box.
LiveAbility asks that all donations to the box be non-perishable and not harmful to those who may partake.
To learn more about LiveAbility, visit liveabilitywv.org or call the Elkins location at 304-636-0143.