Our Thanksgiving Tradition

[LPM606]

We have a lot of newer club members that may not know the history of our Moundsgiving event and of course a lot of folks come check out our website in the days after to see more info and find out how we did, so I thought I would provide a little background/recap here for everyone:

Back in 2007 the club discussed trying to sponsor an event at the Mounds on Thanksgiving day since there was such a crowd out there.  After some discussion at the meetings we decided to just set up at the pavilion and do sort of a "meet and greet" to introduce our club to the hundreds of folks that come through the park on Turkey Day.  We spent $50 on coffee, hot cocoa and snacks to give out at our "Warming Hut" and we met a lot of great folks.  Many people were willing to pay for their drinks and snacks and we told them they were all compliments of the club but - after many insisted on leaving us a couple bucks we wound up putting out a bucket for donations to Whaley's Children's Center.  We were surprised to find $69.00 in the bucket at the end of the day and we passed that money along to Whaley's.

The following year we did the event as a hat and glove drive to benefit the kids at Whaley's and were delighted to receive 100 hats and 81 pairs of gloves along with assorted scarves, jackets and other items. 

In 2009 we partnered with The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and rebranded our Thanksgiving event as "Wheeling Against Hunger".  We put the word our to our friends in the off-roading community to bring their donations of non-perishable food items to the Mounds on the big day.  Many cups of Coffee & cocoa and plenty of no-bake cookies and other goodies were provided by the club for those dropping off their donations and we got to talk to many great people about this great sport and our club.  That first year was the largest food total we ever collected - 575 lbs of food donated and $331 in cash donations were passed on to the Food Bank.

Since then we have continued to show up every year at the mounds.  Our club members are there by 6:00 in the morning to set-up and get coffee started for the folks that are inevitably already lined up at the park and we stay into the afternoon so people can warm up when they take a break, haul a rig out for repairs, etc.  Our Grand total as of our 9th year of "wheeling against hunger" comes to $4,972.64 and 2,232 lbs of food donated.  Here is the breakdown:

2017 - $960.78 and 224 lbs of food
2016 - $546.95 and 171 lbs of food
2015 - $974.26 and 173 lbs of food
2014 - $485.77 and 190 lbs of food
2013 - $562.67 and 118 lbs of food
2012 - $333.00 and 333 lbs of food
2011 - $620.00 and 238 lbs of food
2010 - $158.21 and 210 lbs of food
2009 - $331.00 and 575 lbs of food

Thanks to all the club members who have been involved in this over the years and thanks especially to the amazing folks in the off-roading community who show up every year and give generously to this worthwhile cause.  You can find out more about the foodbank, and make a donation, here:

https://www.fbem.org/

[TechJeeper]

So awesome!  Thank you for putting that together Ed!  Trip down memory lane Many cold morning but always trumped by the satisfaction of knowing you are helping those in need!

[welderman85]

Thank you Ed,
Sara was just asking how the club got started with Moundsgiving.Its neat to know the history behind it.

[Paul Hittie]

That was a good read, never really stopped to think about how long we had been doing this

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[bullhed78]

Well done sir. Pretty cool to see how much the 4x4 community has given through the club.

[NJacobs]

Man that first year was cold. I am so glad we started that all those years ago.

[mlh00]

224 lbs of food delivered to the food bank today.

[LPM606]

Club members that didn't make it to the mounds on thanksgiving, consider donating a few bucks at the next meeting we will add that to our total donation to set a new record for this year!

[Paul Hittie]

I received our official thank you letter from the Food Bank of Eastern MI this week - Thanks to everyone who helped out this year!

[astrogiblet]

Thats awesome, thanks for sharing Paul!

[LPM606]

So as an addendum to our Food Bank Story I would like you all to know that a week or so ago we were informed by the EMFB that we were nominated for a "Hunger Heroes Award" and inviting a representative to attend a luncheon at the food bank.  I attended today on behalf of the club.  They gave out these awards to organizations and individuals that have had an impact on their mission and they divided into categories for Large Corporate donors all the way down to Small Groups such as ours that sponsor donation drives at their clubs, churches, etc.  We were nominated in the Small Group/Organization Category where they let us know that over 250 organizations partner with the foodbank doing local events such as ours.  From that large group there were 5 nominees.

I am so proud to share with you all that for your efforts, What Lies Beyond Jeep Club was chosen as the 2018 Small Group/Organization Hunger Hero!  Congratulations to all of you that have supported the event over the years.  I was able to speak briefly and more or less said we are out at the mounds every thanksgiving and go for the sympathy donations since we are standing out in the cold/rains/snow.  Got a nice chuckle. 

Anyway, congratulations again everyone I am looking forward to shivering with you all again this thanksgiving!

[Yellow TJ]

Nice job everyone!

[welderman85]

Great job to everyone.

[LPM606]

Just bumping this up with a new event on the horizon