Southwest Florida celebrates Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, a day for giving to those who need it most.

In Southwest Florida, the day helps ensure non-profits get monetary gifts during the holidays.

“We realized our children were getting too many gifts for Xmas, so we would rather use that energy to go towards a local organization for kids who could use those gifts,” said Justin Brown.

Justin Brown is the director at Excel Cleaning and Restoration. For the last ten years, his team, friends, family, and other companies have been donating toys to kids every year.

They started off donating to 50 kids. Fast forward to 10 years, and it’s now 900 kids.

“What makes our drive different is we get actual wishlists from kids in the foster system in the children’s network,” said Brown.

Not far down the road is a non-profit called Valerie’s House, a place that has many programs to help kids and families who are grieving

“Today [Giving Tuesday] is special. We had special donors who agreed to match up to $25,000 of whatever anyone contributes to us, which allows us to give dinners for family activities.

That money will help people like Kathy Burg.

“My kids were here. I lost my husband about 4 years ago, very unexpectedly, and I didn’t have the tools to do this, and this was exactly what I needed,” said Burg.

Nineteen-year-old Alexis Dehtere says that because of Valerie’s House, she is going for her master’s degree.

“Valerie’s House gave me a purpose. I was so sad. The thought of becoming something one day was not on my radar until I came here,” said Dehtere.

You can see just how far these donations can go in changing lives.

Excel Cleaning and Restoration expects to give 10 truckloads full of presents to the Children’s Network of Southwest Florida on Wednesday.