For Giving Tuesday, Ways To Give In Verona – My veronanj

It’s Giving Tuesday across America and, here in Verona, it’s a fresh opportunity to put your philanthropy into local needs.

This year, we begin by highlighting Let’s Lift Connor. The Barshay family’s teenage son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and VeronaTogether has been running fundraisers to help them remodel their house to meet Connor’s needs. Photographers Jeff Stiefbold and Stephen Ruggiero have created a 2022 calendar filled with images of New Jersey landscapes. The calendars are $20 and you can buy them through VeronaTogether’s Facebook page.

The organizations below are the bedrock of volunteer Verona. Your donations may also be of use to Scouting groups like Verona Boy Scouts Troop 2, Verona Cub Scout Pack 32, and Verona Girl Scouts Unit 26; and youth sports teams, particularly those like the Verona High School field hockey and swim teams, which are entirely pay-to-play.

We’ve highlighted the Verona Park Conservancy, which maintains our beautiful park, but many groups use the park for fundraisers. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Essex County Out of the Darkness Walk was started in 2017 after two young Verona men died by suicide, but it now supports mental health programs across the county. Also beyond our borders but deeply rooted in Verona: Backpacks for Life. Created by a Verona native who is a Marine Corps veteran, it supports homeless and at-risk veterans in New Jersey and elsewhere who want to rejoin civilian life.

And please remember that, if you can’t make a local donation this year, there are other ways to help. All of these organizations run on volunteer energy. Think about giving a few hours of your time to support their work.

GIVING TUESDAY 2021