'Tis the Season - Urban Vision Christmas Store - Akron, Ohio

The Christmas season is here and knowing how much we all like to receive gifts (including me) this time of year is really about giving. This year we had the opportunity to give back by helping out our new friends at Urban Vision Ministry. Urban Vision is located in the Akron Ohio community and their mission is to live, listen and serve within the neighborhood in order to have a better understanding of community needs for Christ one Child and Family at a time.

 

The Urban Vision Christmas Store is their biggest event of the year and something the children and staff look forward to all year. The basic idea for the Christmas Store is items are donated to Urban Vision of all sorts from toothpaste to bicycles and everything in-between. Throughout the year the children earn Urban Vision dollars for doing various chores and projects. They are placed in a mock bank account for the children to save and/or invest in the Urban Vision stock market. All of this to teach the children the value of a dollar and the importance of saving your money and they even get taxes taken from the money they earn. Then they get to shop at the Christmas Store for their family and friends (and a few things for themselves). As you will see the joy on the children's faces says it all.

What a great job by the staff putting this together with thousands of gifts and hundreds of kids and volunteers. There are not words to express how thankful we are that Urban Vision allowed us to document this wonderful event and we hope we are invited to do it again next year.... Enjoy your little peek and have a very Merry Christmas!

\

Comments

[Kathy Kreis]

Thank you, Robert, for these beautiful photographs that will help preserve the memory of the children's joy and giving spirits. I'm so glad you have a heart for the work of Urban Vision!