This corporation is organized exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as now enacted or hereafter amended, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that also qualify as Section 501(c)(3) exempt organizations. To this end the corporation shall through a community of volunteers, share a passion to offer love through a simple act of agape (pronounced "ah-GAH-peh" or "AH-gah-peh" is the Greek word for divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing love, love of humanity.), inspiring hope in the lives of orphaned children, cancer patients, AIDS patients, homeless families, and those in need of encouragement. The corporation will provide a handmade gift that is altruistically assembled by our volunteers to fulfill our vision to reach a life, one gift at a time. More specifically; it addresses a pressing community need by creating a solid, unduplicated program represented in the following ways.
Sock Monkey Ministries, Inc., fosters and involve various communities' participation by promoting volunteerism. There is a specific need in our society for volunteer service. In our program, every individual regardless of age or race can volunteer promoting social acceptance, and a unified purpose to encourage and give hope to others. As a result, these individuals provide a solution to the ever-growing need for volunteers.
This organization welcomes a sense of service and fulfills a desperate need in the Elderly. For older people, their life is a time of fulfillment, satisfaction with life's accomplishments. For some older adults, however, later life is a time of physical pain, psychological distress, and dissatisfaction with present, and, perhaps, past aspects of life. They feel hopeless. As an outreach service to the elderly, this organization brings a healthy activity creating a positive affirmation to these groups of aged individuals.
This ministry not only helps the elderly as a group of individuals, but by bringing our ministry efforts further to the nursing homes, or those that are homebound on a scheduled regular basis, they are able and welcome the opportunity to participate in assembling our handmade crafts (e.g. a Sock Monkey). This program effort brings a simple solution that reaches out to these citizens renewing their sense of worth and community service.
Our ministry has been seen to increase awareness and coordination in Alzheimer patients. These patients have used their eye-hand coordination to help us assemble these crafts giving them and their families a bond to share. By utilizing these patients, it gives them the ability to serve in a unique capacity which was unknown to many. To date these patients have provided us over 50 hours of volunteerism.
This ministry brings a new avenue of volunteerism and self worth in the homebound, economically disadvantaged, handicapped, homeless living in shelters, and disabled Individuals in our society which are often forgotten or ignored. Hosting workshops with these individuals, bringing supplies to their community centers, aids in their emotional well-being by giving them a sense of renewed purpose and participation. Today, these volunteers have helped assemble over 150 sock monkeys, using 300 volunteer hours. Social contact with our volunteers on a consistent basis impacts their emotional growth benefiting their sense of community service.
Church groups and members volunteer on a regular basis assisting in the assembly of our handmade crafts (e.g. a Sock Monkey). Hosting workshops to assemble our handmade crafts for their own community or church members, enables them to work together for a unified purpose of helping others in need of emotional encouragement and hope while receiving the benefit of mission and service. To date our community workshops have made over 5200 sock monkeys by our volunteers providing 15,500 volunteer hours.
Youth and children groups that participate in our ministry, teaches all ages the significance of service to the society by doing good for others and helping those that are in need by making a handmade craft providing a relief of the poor, distressed or underprivileged. To date our children and teens alone have made over 1700 handmade sock monkeys utilizing over 1300 children volunteers and over 5400 hours of volunteer hours.
By involving community civic groups in our ministry efforts we can utilize these resources to help promote volunteerism, service, missions, and the advancement of our organizations purpose and vision to help the poor, orphans, disabled, elderly, and the ill; providing them hope and encouragement by demonstrating that these selfless acts of agape shows the empowering love of others.
Our organizations handmade gifts (e.g. a Sock Monkey) provide the recipient with a renewed view of our society. At risk youth in group homes, those that are incarcerated, living in shelters or foster homes, are given our gift as an act of kindness demonstrating agape love. This gift gives them encouragement that they are accepted in spite of their circumstances. Our ministry aids in the relief of their emotional dysfunction by giving them a feeling of hope. Many of these children come from abused homes and the stuffed animals give them something to cling to and hold while adjusting to a new living situation. As a representative from Presbyterian Children's Home and Services (an orphanage that received several handmade monkeys from our organization) said, "The stuffed animals provide comfort to children who come to them with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. A handmade treasure is a glimpse of hope in their dark world." A youth at a children's home in Alaska wrote to our organization quoting, "Because someone made me this sock monkey, I now understand that there are people out there that love me and don't even know me. Because they show me this love, I am promising that I will take this and do something nice for someone else... thank you." It is our organizations desire and stated purpose that our efforts will help change their view of society; thus changing their destructive ways.
The widowed, divorced, and recently bereaved are at high risk. Our ministry makes efforts to reach out to these individuals and seek to provide them with our handmade crafts as an effort to give them hope and encouragement in a time that they may feel alone and hopeless. It is our desire that once they receive our gift, they will develop a need to volunteer and be a friend to other elderly individuals encouraging them to participate, or be more actively involved in community service efforts.
Our organization has a special awareness sock monkey that has the specific color designated ribbon attached to its chest that has a unique purpose for those suffering from cancer or AIDS. By providing these handmade gifts, it gives encouragement and hope that they are not alone in their fight for survival.
Each one of our awareness monkeys has a card attached in an effort to offer support as well as emotional healing. This act of agape sends them a message that they are thought of and the recipient has been prayed for by our many volunteers. It is an opportunity to give them an emotional support and a foundation on which we can visit or encourage them on a regular basis. Many of these patients feel abandoned or neglected. This act of agape reaffirms that they are a part of society and their emotional well being is being considered.
Where we see a direct need of an individual suffering, the orphaned, poor, distressed or underprivileged, our organization is there to provide hope and relief through a handmade gift. To date we have sent out over 8500 sock monkeys to these individuals reaching 46 different states and many different countries.
Several recipients have noticeably changed their destructive ways, view of society, and received the gift of hope and encouragement by our random act of providing a handmade gift. For example, recipients received our sock monkey gift during a distribution handout in an Indiana homeless shelter providing a special gift for 106 children who are living on the streets with their families who would otherwise not have a gift at all. An orphanage in Louisiana that housed over 160 children from the Katrina disaster that lost their parents who became orphaned received our handmade sock monkey providing hope in a time of turmoil and confusion.
Our organization works to promote our ministry's mission and vision by sending literature, media packets, and start up kits to various groups that desire to start our ministry in their community.
Having communities all over the US develop our ministry enables this organization to reach beyond our capabilities to touch more lives offering continual encouragement, and hope.
While accepting our ministries purpose, many organizations do not have the required funds to start their own satellite ministries. We offer them the start up package that is required so they can successfully develop the ministry efforts in their community. Currently we have communities in several states that adopted our ministries program.
With the ability to promote, publicize and train other volunteers about our organizations program, we can reach potential supporters that will enable us to increase our ministry efforts further; obtaining our ever-growing needs of society.
With increased expansion, it will not only help promote our vision and mission of offering hope, encouragement and a changed view of society by an act of agape through a handmade gift, this ministry will increase the volunteerism in the United States achieving the correlated needs of all aspects of our society.