Thanksgiving Fundraiser
Donation protected
My name is Coach Jim Greco & I run Living Legends Baseball Club here in Santa Clara... This year was going to be our 5th year passing out turkeys to kids and families who maybe otherwise would not have one. Each year we have had substantially more turn outs going from handing out 80 turkeys our first year to well over 500 turkeys each of the past 2 years!
Because of the pandemic it has really altered everything we usually try to do for the community including the fact we usually pass out over 500 back packs for back to school, but unfortunately that could not happen either.
As many know I have a good friend John Caravalho who is the Pastor of the local Mission City Church here in Santa Clara. He and I started partnering on this venture together and it really took off. I have known John and his family for over 10 years initially meeting each other as our daughters played on the same softball team and I also ended up coaching his son in baseball. One thing I know about John is that he is a very giving and thankful man! He is about solutions and trying to make things in our community better. He is also a positive mentor to everyone he meets and especially our kids. Since I run a baseball program with players aged from 8-18 years old I have always felt it is up to us to teach our youth about giving back. This is when we decided doing the back packs and turkeys and getting our players and families involved in helping make this a big event!
Another great thing about Pastor John and his family is that he has helped me and my players tremendously. We joined forces to build a batting cage a few years ago, and it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t cheap, but when I proposed what we could do, he immediately said yes! Saying yes meant so much to me because it was also saying yes to over 150 kids who would now have a place to work out and practice baseball year round. With the pandemic hitting us hard this year, our kids still had a safe place to practice while almost everything was shut down. Due to this I really believe it was a life saver for these kids! Again it was just another of many great acts of kindness by John and his staff at the church and his awesome family!
On Sept 16th John was not feeling well and his wife Jennifer decided to take him to emergency and on the way John suffered a massive heart attack! Yes while Jennifer was driving in traffic, you can only imagine what she was feeling at that moment as her husband passed out in the passenger seat. When she pulled up to the hospital John had no heart beat! Right there on the spot the medical team was able to get his heart beating again and admitted into the hospital. What was more scary and frustrating is because of the pandemic his son and daughters and his wife could not be with him and just had to wait for updates for several days. It was a traumatic experience for all of us but I am very happy to say he survived and a month later he was able to come back home. He however has a long recovery and did suffer some long term damage. Financially we don’t know what the future will hold for him as he must continue to see more doctors and is limited in what he can do. At the same time he is the Pastor of his Church and really leaned on in his community to help keep it afloat. The pandemic has stopped all in person gatherings for most of the year and thus halted the ability to raise money to pay the bills and it’s a constant stressful struggle at this point to keep things going
I put this go fund me together because I want to help my friend and his family and I also still want to help our community this year. It’s been such a tough year for so many and giving back is very important to myself and John
Our plan this year is to raise money to purchase gift cards for turkeys (this is already set up) and we will hand those out before thanksgiving to those that need it. I also would like to help cover some of the bills that help keep the Church up and running and take the pressure off John so he can focus on recovering. All proceeds will absolutely only go towards those items.
Mission City Church is also a 501(3)c non profit as you would expect and if you want to make a donation directly to them and get a receipt, it is no problem and you can do that here —-> https://missioncitychurchsc.givingfuel.com/mission-city-church-tithe-and-offering
Please share this with all of your friends and family. Since I own a small business I know that I have an amount of money I can donate every year as a tax write off. Since many businesses may still need to make donations, this would be a great cause! Any donation will be accepted and it all will go to a great cause!
If you have any questions or want to donate in another way, please contact me via email at: [email redacted]
Because of the pandemic it has really altered everything we usually try to do for the community including the fact we usually pass out over 500 back packs for back to school, but unfortunately that could not happen either.
As many know I have a good friend John Caravalho who is the Pastor of the local Mission City Church here in Santa Clara. He and I started partnering on this venture together and it really took off. I have known John and his family for over 10 years initially meeting each other as our daughters played on the same softball team and I also ended up coaching his son in baseball. One thing I know about John is that he is a very giving and thankful man! He is about solutions and trying to make things in our community better. He is also a positive mentor to everyone he meets and especially our kids. Since I run a baseball program with players aged from 8-18 years old I have always felt it is up to us to teach our youth about giving back. This is when we decided doing the back packs and turkeys and getting our players and families involved in helping make this a big event!
Another great thing about Pastor John and his family is that he has helped me and my players tremendously. We joined forces to build a batting cage a few years ago, and it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t cheap, but when I proposed what we could do, he immediately said yes! Saying yes meant so much to me because it was also saying yes to over 150 kids who would now have a place to work out and practice baseball year round. With the pandemic hitting us hard this year, our kids still had a safe place to practice while almost everything was shut down. Due to this I really believe it was a life saver for these kids! Again it was just another of many great acts of kindness by John and his staff at the church and his awesome family!
On Sept 16th John was not feeling well and his wife Jennifer decided to take him to emergency and on the way John suffered a massive heart attack! Yes while Jennifer was driving in traffic, you can only imagine what she was feeling at that moment as her husband passed out in the passenger seat. When she pulled up to the hospital John had no heart beat! Right there on the spot the medical team was able to get his heart beating again and admitted into the hospital. What was more scary and frustrating is because of the pandemic his son and daughters and his wife could not be with him and just had to wait for updates for several days. It was a traumatic experience for all of us but I am very happy to say he survived and a month later he was able to come back home. He however has a long recovery and did suffer some long term damage. Financially we don’t know what the future will hold for him as he must continue to see more doctors and is limited in what he can do. At the same time he is the Pastor of his Church and really leaned on in his community to help keep it afloat. The pandemic has stopped all in person gatherings for most of the year and thus halted the ability to raise money to pay the bills and it’s a constant stressful struggle at this point to keep things going
I put this go fund me together because I want to help my friend and his family and I also still want to help our community this year. It’s been such a tough year for so many and giving back is very important to myself and John
Our plan this year is to raise money to purchase gift cards for turkeys (this is already set up) and we will hand those out before thanksgiving to those that need it. I also would like to help cover some of the bills that help keep the Church up and running and take the pressure off John so he can focus on recovering. All proceeds will absolutely only go towards those items.
Mission City Church is also a 501(3)c non profit as you would expect and if you want to make a donation directly to them and get a receipt, it is no problem and you can do that here —-> https://missioncitychurchsc.givingfuel.com/mission-city-church-tithe-and-offering
Please share this with all of your friends and family. Since I own a small business I know that I have an amount of money I can donate every year as a tax write off. Since many businesses may still need to make donations, this would be a great cause! Any donation will be accepted and it all will go to a great cause!
If you have any questions or want to donate in another way, please contact me via email at: [email redacted]
Organizer
Jim Greco
Organizer
Santa Clara, CA