XCEL Christmas Store
Last night I got to watch a very cool thing happen…
We have been a part of CCDA since we launched Renovation and the impact of that grass-roots association has had on us has been and continues to be profound! We have learned and been exposed to so many different issues/thoughts/practices/strategies… One of those strategies was us (Renovation Church) being a part of the empowerment process in our under-resourced community of NW Buffalo. One of the things they helped rethink and process through was the idea of moving from strictly mercy ministry such as food/clothing/toys give-aways which is needed and extremely helpful… to a first step empowerment ministry. This looks and feels a little different. So we decided to do that this Christmas through the XCEL Leadership Center.
So we told the kids that based upon their grades… doing and completing homework in a satisfactory way… social skills… living out the months virtue in acts of kindness and their behavior… they could earn “XCEL Dollars” that they could then use to purchase items in the XCEL Christmas store.
Toni Benjamin (our awesome) Director of XCEL told me that the kids immediately became much more motivated to do the “right thing” when they began to realize their actions could either benefit or cause them to lose “money” because of good/poor decisions!
We went out and purchased items for the entire family through contributions from The Chapel at Crosspoint and City Mission and we then created a store where things were divided by age/gender. We then marked down the gifts 80-90 % off the purchase price.
Last night was our Christmas party which allowed the kids to go into the store… they could buy up to 5 items for themselves based upon the amount of purchasing power they possessed and what ever they had left they could buy items for their family and friends. For the items not purchased by the kids we allowed the families to come into the store and do cash purchases to help supplement their shopping for Christmas.
It was very cool to see kids walk into the store keeping track of their “money” and deciding what they wanted most… seeing them excited about having the ability to actually purchase mom/dad or sister/brother a gift because of what they earned. It was also cool to know we helped some moms in making gifts affordable for them to purchase.
A little step toward helping kids learn what it feels like to earn something and to share something… empowerment at the beginning stage!
