WAAY partners with Toyota and Chamber for Coronavirus Emergency Relief (1)

WAAY partners with Toyota and Chamber for Coronavirus Emergency Relief (1)

>> najahe sherman: waay 31 is partnering with toyota and the madison county chamber of commerce to support take five, give five for the community foundation of greater huntsville.

Earlier today our own marie waxel and pat simon spoke with the foundation's president to learn more about how question all support the community right now.

>> dan shaffer: we here at waay 31 news are honored of the take five give five partnership with the huntsville madison chamber and toyota.

>> marie waxel: joining us now is melissa.

Thank you so much for joining us.

>> thank you for having me.

>> marie waxel: first of all, give us an idea of what our goal is here.

>> our goal is to come together and raise half a million dollars to support the non-profit tons front likes trying to provide relief during this covid cia sis.

We have so many that are trying to do things like provide meals and personal protective equipment, providing resources for our homeless population.

A whole variety of things that are helping make our community better.

We need to provide the resources so they can do the work they do more effectively.

>> pat simon: that is what it's all about.

For those of you who don't know what it does year-round, tell us about that.

>> it's a greater -- at the community foundation for greater huntsville our goal is to make it easy for people to be generous, whatever that looks like for them.

So we know whether someone wants to donate $5 or $50,000 we want to help them do it in a way that is tax advantaged and that gives them that true joy of generosity.

We work year-round to work with donors in the community to get those resources out.

But in times of crisis, we want to make sure that we're a part of the solution because our community needs us now more than ever and they need philanthropy to come and fill in some of the gaps where governmental funding might not be there and people are just hurting right now.

So to the extent a philanthropy can be part of that equation we certainly want to be part of that.

>> marie waxel: this take 5 give 5 is a simple concept.

Tell us how it works.

>> we're asking every person in this community to take five minutes to give $5 or $50 or $500, whatever works for you in your situation because together we really are all part of this community.

And so we can each do our parts.

So we have companies like toyota who have stepped up in a big way to put a challenge out there to say, hey, we're going to provide $50,000 for this relief effort.

But we know other companies might be able to do $5,000 or some individuals might want to give $5.

Whatever that looks like for you, we want to help you be part of something that's bigger than any of us are individually.

Our emergency relief fund has really been the result of a lot of donors coming together to try to make a difference.

Because we love this community.

And we want these non-profit organizations who are on the front lines providing relief, we want to come alongside them and say we support you, we support the work you're doing, we know the work you're doing is making a better community for all of us.

>> pat simon: melissa, how can people give?

>> so they can visit our website at communityfoundation, hsd.org/covid.

That will take you to a donation link or they can also text to give.

They can text the letters hsvgives to 44321 and they can give in that way.

So whatever that looks like for you, we encourage you to get involved and to give in a way that you're able to.

On our website you will see the number of organizations that have been supporting to date and organi organizations that our grants committee is recommending for funding.

You get an idea of the scope of work being done right now and the broad brush that our non-profit organizations are providing for our community in this time of need.

>> marie waxel: we are all, in fact, stronger together, remember.

Take 5 give 5, as simple as that.

Melissa thompson with huntsville greater community foundation, thank you so much for your time.

>> thank you so much for having me.

>> najahe sherman: tonight we are joined by pammie jamar from the huntsville madison county chamber of commerce.

Pammie, how important are these kinds of efforts during times like this?

>> ms. jimmar: oh, my gosh, gentleman that, very, very important.

As we talked about small businesses, you know, we cannot forget we have amazing non-profits in our community.

And at this time, you know, a lot of non-profits are hurting right now.

And especially the non-profits like melissa talked about in the interview, that are the non-profits that are helping others in the community.

You know, as far as the health and wellness and in things of that nature.

So they may not be receiving those funds right now just because of the climate we're in covid-19 right now.

And with companies, you know, with layoffs and things of that nature, they're not able to give like they were giving two months ago.

And so this emergency -- to help this emergency relief fund, i love the it takes five to give five.

It ticks literally five minutes to go to the fight and donate and amazingly to have toyota give a $50,000 and, hey, let's c challenge other companies, let's see who can give the most to this very much needed emergency relief fund.

So the non-profits can continue to take care of our community.

>> najahe sherman: $5, every dollar makes a difference.

>> ms. jimmar: every dollar makes, from 5 to 50 to 500, whatever you can donate will be greatly appreciated.

>> najahe sherman: thank you so much.

And stay with us.

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