Make An Impact campaigns helped raise more than $200K in 2022

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Through our Make An Impact campaign, you helped eight local charities boost their efforts.

We asked and you answered the call. Whether it was with donations of food, diapers, backpacks, animal care products, boots, beds, money or your time - you helped us make an impact for charities in Mid-Michigan.

“It didn’t just help us, it helped so many other agencies that may be suffering and struggling,” said Mike Karl, with the Capital Area Diaper Bank.

This year, the Capital Area Diaper Bank distributed more than 160,000 diapers to families in need.

During our Make An Impact telethon in March, WILX viewers donated more than 300 baby care products and more than $14,000 to the cause. Since then, the organization has expanded its efforts.

“We have been giving out thousands and thousands of diapers,” Karl said. “We’ve been joining with new organizations and new schools and churches and nonprofits all around the area to give out as many diapers as we can and we reached our 100,000 diaper goal quicker than we thought we would, which is a good thing.”

In October, volunteers helped build beds for Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit that provides new beds and bedding to children who otherwise wouldn’t have a bed to call their own.

Our Make An Impact telethon raised more than $20,000 and $3,000 worth of bedding - enough to give 80 children their own bed and enough bedding to make 100 beds.

“Since Make an Impact, we’ve actually been able to purchase a trailer to use for deliveries,” said Jarrod Olson, with Sleep in Heavenly Peace. “ We’re also moving into a permanent warehouse space where we are going to be able to build and assemble, store and ship and deliver out of that warehouse, make a bigger impact.”

It’s a big step forward that fills a huge and hidden need in our community. As more people are aware of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, the call for help has grown louder.

“As people started knowing we were in the area and what we did, we were flooded with applications, 500-700 at a time,” Olson said. “We’re finding that 2-3% of the area we are covering they don’t have a bed, kids don’t have a bed.”

Now more volunteers are signing up to build and others are giving money every month to keep the beds coming.

Hundreds of children in Mid-Michigan have brand-new boots to keep their feet warm on the playground in the winter. Our Make An Impact telethon raised $17,000 for Boots on the Playground for Footprints of Michigan.

With that money, the nonprofit was able to buy 900 pairs of children’s boots. It doesn’t even count the donations of boots News 10 viewers brought to drop-off sites.

“The need is great,” said Geronimo Lerma, with Footprints of Michigan. “There’s a lot of kids out there that are in the school districts that are hurting.”

Now those school districts and parents are aware of the help and reaching out to make sure no child walks through the snow without a warm pair of boots.

“A lot of the parents are kind, of ashamed to come out and ask for help, but in a sense, everybody needs help sometimes,” Lerma said. “That’s why we want to be there, no questions asked. We don’t need your personal information, we just want to help the kids and help them out if they need it too as well.”

Help that makes an impact by changing people’s lives for the better. Charities are grateful for the support of WILX viewers like you.

That’s what Make An Impact is about - raising awareness and money to help people in our community.

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