Hello volunteers,

Most of you have seen the emails on our new sponsorship from jcpenney and the Salvation Army Angel Giving Tree challenge.  I want to take a minute to explain what an incredible opportunity this is for us.

First of all, out of the tens of thousands of Meetup groups across the US this sponsorship was only made available to 35 groups!  So this is a very exclusive sponsorship and quite an honor for us to be singled out.  We have already exceeded 10 angles adopted and our group will receive the $120 sponsorship which ends Dec 31st.  However, if we win the challenge, we will receive a 6-month sponsorship and cash prize of an "undetermined amount".  So this could be very exciting for us!

I've been sizing up our competition and I think we have a very good chance of winning this thing.  We are the fifth largest group and from what I can tell one of the most active too.  We are currently in 2nd place behind a group called "Moving Grooving Mammas" who has 20 angels adopted.  

I've set our goal to 25 angels but I'm hoping we can smash that goal and take the prize.  So if you haven't adopted an angel for Christmas then here's your chance.  What makes this so good is that you get to pick from deserving angels that are local to the KC area so you are making an impact here at home.  Even better, you can do it entirely online, in your pajamas!  It may be a little confusing for the technically challenged so I've detailed the steps here:

To pick your angel:

1. Go to our group's online Angel Giving Tree here:  http://angel.jcpenney.com/angeltree/GroupReport.aspx?GroupID=1161
2. Click on the red Adopt Angels button.
3. Now, put in your zipcode and the age/gender of the angel you had in mind.  If you don't care about the age/gender then just check all boxes.
4. Click Search to see a list of local angels still left who match your choices.
5. You can browse through the list of angels and once you settle on one or more you can click on the little check boxes in the lower right corners.  Once selected, it will turn red.
6. Type in your frist name and email address.  Check the boxes if you would like to receive emails from Salvation Army or jcpenney.  Click submit.
7. You will receive confirmation of your selection with an email.  You will also see details on the local Salvation Army corps who will be receiving & giving the gifts for your angel.

Now that you have your angel(s) selected you can choose how you would like to shop for them.  You can either manually shop for them at a store and deliver the gifts to the Salvation Army listed OR you can shop online using jcpenney's website.  jcpenney is even offering free shipping to the Salvation Army listed!  I did everything for my angel online.  You can also just purchase a gift card and Salvation Army will select and purchase the gifts for you!  Folks, it doesn't get any easier than this to help someone in need this Christmas.

Regardless if we win the competition or not I'm so happy we are participating in this sponsorship.  It is a perfect fit for us!  We even have a volunteer event scheduled in December to help out the Salvation Army with their Angel Tree program.  So thanks for considering this opportunity to help out an angel in need and at the same time help Serve Kansas City further our efforts.

Now, let go beat those Moving Grooving Mammas!!

~Aaron

p.s.  Please share this with all your friends and family too!