COMPLETED PROJECTS

The "SURPRISE" Holiday Giving Journey Story

Here is the story of our first holiday miracle! It's amazing what can happen when you try!
If you'd like to enjoy the giving journey, feel free to listen to the AUDIO VERSION above.

Our "SURPRISE" Holiday Giving project journey began at the end of November 2020. We were determined to get our first CUGIVE project off the ground. With little time left in the year, would we get any donations, would we find deserving recipients and would we able to hit our goal to have 100% of the donations be given by December 25th, 2020? But with a little Christmas magic, WE DID IT! You'll see... it was one miracle after another.

After sending out emails to friends and family and a few Facebook posts, we sat patiently waiting to see if any donations would come in. With the COVID virus in full force and unemployment surging, we understood that the timing of our project wasn't the great and we'd do our best, with what we'd received. CUGIVE is all about HOPE, LOVE and MAGIC and we were leaning on these to pull us through.

By Dec 19th, some donations came in. It was just the wind we needed to mobilize our team. Our project had started... and we needed to get moving. Time wasn’t on our side. With a quick call to Carrie, the owner of our local OFFICE BOSS in Truckee, CA, we asked for her help! She was amazing and donated a project bag full of supplies.

12/20 With the supplies in hand, the CUGIVE Team quickly assembled our Holiday Bags, to help distribute our CASH surprises!

12/22 Our bags were ready… but how would we find deserving recipients. We quickly looked for local churches to help us find our families. One church name stood out and the call was made to GRACE CHURCH Reno. After sharing our story and the struggles we’d faced getting our non-profit started, Jennifer, the gal on the other line, was committed to helping us find deserving families. She then had her husband Rick, one of the Pastors at the church, call us back to learn a bit more. After that conversation, Pastor Rick and Jennifer helped us find two deserving families! It was amazing! Within minutes, we had two families and two appointments the following day, to deliver our special surprises! We couldn’t believe this was happening! Holiday magic was in full force.

12/23 (4:30 pm) We drove to Reno with holiday bags in hand, to meet Pastor Rick, Jennifer and the two families they had found for us. Fate was working… the holiday magic was in the air.

The CRUZ’s were our first family. They were a loving mother and daughter, new to GRACE Church and they had just come in, asking for prayers for their father who was ill. This all happened magically within minutes after our first call to Jennifer.

Pastor Rick felt like “THIS” family was a SIGN from GOD and deserving of our special treat. We couldn’t agree more.

We were so grateful to have meet them, learn more about their life and will continue to send out prayers for the father's health recovery. What a wonderful family they are and we hope or special gift brought them a little happiness during a rough time.

Our next recipient , Alex, was a 27 year member of GRACE Church Reno and had experienced some life hardships. We were thankful to have had the opportunity to meet and get to know her. She is an amazing lady and we were happy that we could sprinkle a little HOPE, MAGIC and LOVE into her holiday this year.

Another recipient of our "SURPRISE" Holiday Giving project was a military non-profit called USAHands who help local military families. A donation was made in FRED GAYER's name who was my mother’s (Diane and COO of CUGIVE) husband, who gave his life for our country. Thank you to our military for all they do... and thank you to FRED for his service and giving his life for us. We love you FRED! The military has a special place in the heart of CUGIVE. We will continue to do more projects, in the future, to honor current families and all of those that have served and lost their life for our country.

Shivon is an essential worker at a local restaurant and she was another recipient of our project. Shivon is a hard worker and always has a smile on her face. Her attitude is always positive, never reflecting life's hard times. Thank you Shivon for being such a great example in all that you do.

On our way home from a magical day of giving, we found out we’d received MORE donations! We couldn’t believe it! Our project was not done yet!

12/24 (5:11am) The early morning local news was on and shared a very special story, and as fate would have it, we amazingly found our next recipient named Kelly. She had been reporting her fight with pancreatic cancer, which had now metastiszed, on her Instagram post. A local Reno catering business owner, of BIG BLUE Q (serving Tahoe/Reno area) happened to have heard about her story and wanted to do something special for her and her family. He was donating a special Holiday home cooked meal, which he'd deliver on Christmas Day. When the news heard, they shared that story. Both their stories touched our hearts and we knew Kelly would be our final recipient. But how could we get our gift to her by Christmas? We had to try.

12/24 (8am) Next we called the news station and left them a message, with the hopes they’d help us locate Kelly. We also looked up BIG BLUE Q catering, in TAHOE/RENO, and sent an email hoping to connect with Shane. He was going to bring dinner to Kelly and her family tomorrow and we hoped he could bring our gift along too. We'd done all we could do. If it was meant to be, we'd get a call.

12/24 (11am) Our phone rang. It was Shane from BIG BLUE Q! He’d received our email, visited our website and read our story. He’d done the research on CUGIVE, to make sure we were "real" and our giving intentions were good! He was excited to help us and willing to do whatever he could. We couldn’t believe it! He was the exact Christmas angel we needed right now, however he was in Reno… about an hour away. But the story gets better!

Could we meet up? We were happy to drive to make this happen. When Shane found out our where we were, he told us he was heading this way TONIGHT, to celebrate Christmas Eve with his family... and he’d be happy to pick up Kelly’s Holiday gift to give to her tomorrow! Was this really happening? Jingle! Jingle! Jingle! Sprinkle! Sprinkle! Sprinkle! Mom and I couldn’t believe it! The magic of the holiday was all around us! It’s what stories are written about.

12/24 (3pm) Right on time, Shane and his wife arrived to pick up Kelly’s surprise gift. In his big truck, our CUGIVE "angel" was here to save the day and deliver our present! With his warm smile and sparkly eye’s, he waved goodbye. Shane would be presenting our gift, along with his wonderful holiday cooked meal. This couldn't have happened without his wonderful giving spirit! How amazing is that? We had to pinch ourselves.

12/25 Our final SURPRISE Holiday Gift was delivered to Kelly, our final recipient! Shane sent us a picture and the giving video. Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE! WE DID IT!

Project SURPRISE Holiday Giveaway is COMPLETED!

Thank you to our donors and CUGIVE Angels!
We did it… together!

12/20 With the supplies in hand, the CUGIVE Team quickly assembled our Holiday Bags, to help distribute our CASH surprises!

12/23 (4:30 pm) We drove to Reno, with holiday bags in hand, to meet Pastor Rick, Jennifer and the two families they had found for us. Fate was working… the holiday magic was in the air.

Pastor Rick felt like “THIS” family was a SIGN from GOD and deserving of our special treat. We couldn’t agree more.

On our way home from a magical day of giving, we found out we’d received MORE donations! We couldn’t believe it! Our project was not done yet!

12/24 (5:11am) The early morning local news was on and shared a very special story and, as fate would have it, we amazingly found our next recipient named Kelly. She had been reporting her fight with pancreatic cancer, which had now metastiszed, on her Instagram post. A local Reno catering business owner, of BIG BLUE Q (serving Tahoe/Reno area) happened to have heard about her story and wanted to do something special for her and her family. He was donating a special Holiday home cooked meal, which he'd deliver on Christmas Day. When the news heard, they shared that story. Both their stories touched our hearts and we knew Kelly would be our final recipient. But how could we get our gift to her by Christmas? We had to try.

12/24 (8am) Next we called the news station and left them a message, with the hopes they’d help us locate Kelly. We also looked up BIG BLUE Q catering, in TAHOE/RENO, and sent an email, hoping to connect with Shane. He was going to bring dinner to Kelly and her family tomorrow and we hoped he could bring our gift along too. We'd done all we could do. If it was meant to be, we'd get a call.

12/24 (11am) Our phone rang. It was Shane from BIG BLUE Q! He’d received our email, visited our website and read our story. He’d done the research on CUGIVE, to make sure we were "real" and our giving intentions were good! He was excited to help us and willing to do whatever he could. We couldn’t believe it! He was the exact, Christmas angel we needed right now, however he was in Reno… about an hour away. But the story gets better!

12/25 Our final SURPRISE Holiday Gift was delivered to Kelly, our final recipient! Shane sent us a picture and the giving video. Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE! WE DID IT!

Project SURPRISE Holiday Giveaway is COMPLETED!

Thank you to our donors and CUGIVE Angels!
We did it… together!

WE DID IT!
Project Completed
(100% GIVEN by December 25, 2020)

Wait until you see... Holiday miracles really do happen!

LIVE the GIVE... with CUGIVE!

Project Completed!

"WE MAKE A LIVING BY WHAT WE GET, BUT WE MAKE A LIFE BY WHAT WE GIVE."

"IT'S NOT HOW MUCH WE GIVE, BUT HOW MUCH LOVE WE PUT INTO GIVING."

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WE DID IT!Project Completed(100% GIVEN by December 25, 2020)