Feb. 9—JAMESTOWN — A record-setting day for the 2024 Giving Hearts Day on Thursday, Feb. 8, was also a big day for Victory Christian School in Jamestown, according to Mike Woodley, executive director of the school.
Woodley said community members and businesses donated $35,000 to Victory Christian School. He said the school also received a $30,000 match, bringing its total amount raised during Giving Hearts Day to $65,000.
“We were so excited to meet that match,” Woodley said. ” … It was a wonderful day and that’s the most we’ve ever received for Giving Hearts so we were truly blessed with that.”
The funds raised for Victory Christian School will go toward scholarships and helps with expenses such as salaries for teachers, small improvements for the school and general maintenance.
“Thanks to all the community members and businesses that supported and continue to support Victory Christian School because there are a lot of people that aren’t directly involved with the school that donated too from the community,” Woodley said. “I just really appreciate how our community is looking out for the nonprofits in the community and supporting us in all kinds of ways.”
The 2024 Giving Hearts Day event raised over $29 million in North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. The event is hosted by Dakota Medical Foundation, Impact Foundation and the Alex Stern Family Foundation.
On Giving Hearts Day, golden ticket drawings and contest prizes were awarded throughout the day. The Jamestown Parks and Recreation Foundation received a $5,000 “Early Giving Golden Ticket — Goods” sponsored by the Dakota Medical Foundation, and the Anne Carlsen Center received a $1,000 golden ticket sponsored by Happy Harry’s Bottle Shop.
“It was exciting,” said Amy Walters, executive director of the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District about $5,000 prize. “It was obviously unexpected so it helped push us over the edge to meet our goal, which was great.”
Walters said the Jamestown Parks and Recreation Foundation, a nonprofit organization, raised a match of $7,000 and had a goal of raising $14,000. When it was all said and done, the Jamestown Parks and Recreation Foundation received over $17,000.
Walters said individual donors had opportunities to designate their donations toward specific projects. The Jamestown Parks and Recreation Foundation Board of Directors chooses how funds are spent if the donations weren’t earmarked for a specific project.
The James Valley Youth for Christ received almost $19,000, said Troy Gunderson, executive director of the organization.
“We had a match of $7,500 and we were able to meet that plus some,” he said. “We consider it a very good success.”
He said the donations will be used to help support staff salaries and expenses and helps keep Youth for Christ’s afterschool programs, ministry events and camps going.
“We really do have people with huge hearts here in Jamestown and the surrounding area and Valley City,” he said. “Any of these ministries and nonprofits simply can’t exist without the generosity of the people in our communities.”
The Jamestown Parks and Recreation Foundation, Victory Christian School and Youth for Christ are all members of the
Jamestown Area Giving Hearts Day Collaborative
. The goal of the 17-member collaborative is to raise awareness about Giving Hearts Day and share resources to get the word out about the event.
“I love being part of that group,” Gunderson said. “All of the individuals that are in charge of their funding for their nonprofits are all really great people. There’s a lot of really good organizations in Jamestown that benefit from working together. … Giving Hearts Day is best pulled off when everybody works together to promote it because then we get much more coverage and exposure.”
Gunderson said the collaborative brings people together who have different skills.
“We all bring to the table a little different talent that we can take part in and say, ‘I can do that part; I know how to do that,’ and somebody else will take this part,” he said. “It’s nice to have a big team that has different skills.”
Woodley said the collaborative is “great” because the nonprofit organizations can pool resources together.
“It does really help to have that collaborative so we can just get all of our names out there because there’s a lot of good nonprofits that need support,” he said. “It’s nice to work together to get names out.”
Walters said the Jamestown Area Giving Hearts Day Collaborative will meet on Tuesday, Feb. 13, and plans to have its members share totals on what each local nonprofit organization raised.
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