旧金山49人Corbin Kaufusi在奥克兰推出捐赠机

旧金山49人Corbin Kaufusi在奥克兰推出捐赠机

圣殿山

2021年12月3日

慈善机构, 提升圣徒

文章作者：Miriam A. Smith

A massive 6 foot 9 inches, 275 pounds, San Francisco 49er offensive lineman Corbin Kaufusi looks menacing on the field. But Saturday night he was all smiles as a member of the Giving Machines ribbon-cutting team at Oakland Temple Hill (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).”

“很多人都宁愿相信我们天生是自私的，”Kaufusi 对聚集在开幕式上的人群说。“但是”，他解释说，"事实恰恰相反, 我们天生倾向于给予和服务他人的。” Kaufusi 指出，在我们的社区中拥有捐赠机呈现出了一个帮助参与组织的机会。 “我很幸运能与在社区中做出如此多贡献，如此出色的人一起来到这里。所以，我只是想，哇，让我们继续做捐赠吧！”他说。

The Giving Machines are vending machines that, rather than dispensing drinks, food, or some novelty, dispense love, hope, and support to those in need.  Three Giving Machines are available at Oakland Temple Hill through January 3rd. These machines allow all to purchase a gift for one of six humanitarian organizations.

Participating non-profits include three local and three global organizations. Tri-Valley Haven, the George Mark Children’s House (George Mark), and Emeryville Citizens Assistance Program (ECAP) serve adults and children in the Bay Area while UNICEF, Church World Service (CWS Global), and Water Aid address humanitarian crises around the world.

“What a fantastic idea!” said Christine Dillman, Associate Director of Tri-Valley Haven, a domestic violence, sexual assault, and homeless service agency serving the Tri-Valley and East Bay areas. “What a great way to get kids involved, teens involved, adults involved,” she said. The work of Tri-Valley is driven by people who give and by volunteers. “What a great, innovative way to connect with the community,” Dillman said.

Linda Ashcraft Hudak, CEO of George Mark, found the Giving Machines to be incredibly unique, current, and perfect for the Bay Area. “It fits right in with our technology culture here,” she said. George Mark takes care of children with an end-of-life diagnosis that need end-of-life care or those with a life-limiting condition. Hudak said their work cares for families in every way and gives them a needed opportunity to focus on their other children or even take a vacation. While children come from all Bay Area Counties to George Mark, they particularly serve the nine Bay Area counties, Hudak said. “Most importantly, our families never see a bill,” she said.

ECAP 自 1985 年由 Nellie Hannon 创立以来一直是一个 100% 志愿者组织，当时她开始在她的车库里收集食物以提供给需要的人。今天，他们每天为 300 多个家庭和个人提供服务，每周 6 天，每周分发 25 吨食物。 “当然，我们需要帮助他人才能生存，”ECAP 总监兼Hannon 的兄弟， Bobby Miller 说。 “非常感谢我们所得到的任何支持，”他说。

Welcoming the Giving Machines to Oakland’s District 4, Council Member and Mayoral Candidate Sheng Thao, said this opportunity for Oakland was fabulous. “It truly allows for thousands of people to come and actually touch the lives of so many people around the world,” she said. When Thao first heard about the Giving Machines she thought it was a really, cool idea but didn’t know what to expect. “Now that I’m seeing them I thought, why not sooner,” she said. The machines allow everyone to make a direct impact on other people’s lives, one person at a time. Thao said she was very happy that Oakland had been selected as one of only 10 locations in the world to host Giving Machines.

主持开幕式的康特拉科斯塔县主管 Candace Andersen指出，捐赠机将有益于整个湾区的人们。她说，需求并不受行政边界的限制。 “有需要的人不会考虑国界。”那三个已被强调的非营利组织满足了更广泛的领域关键需求。“这将对社区产生非常大的影响，”Anderson说。

Steve Merrell长老，持有大湾区的主领权钥代表捐赠机赞助商耶稣基督后期圣徒教会，为非营利组织的工作表示感谢。他说很容易看出该地区有巨大的需求，并感谢教会可以与这些组织合作。 “希望这会吸引我们社区的成员来奥克兰圣殿山，并找到来自捐赠的快乐，”他说。

捐赠机于 2017 年由耶稣基督后期圣徒教会首次推出，在一个地方有三台自动售货机。那一年有超过 50万美元被用于人道援助机构。 2019 年，捐赠机被分布在10个城市，为当地和全球慈善机构筹集了超过六千二百万美元。这些机器在 2020 年处于大流行中断状态。总体而言，这些独特的自动售货机已为世界各地的救灾工作捐款超过九千一百万美元。

机器的所有管理费用，从建造到安装到操作，甚至信用卡费用，都由教会承担。收集到的所有捐款中的 100% 将交付给各自的非营利组织，每个组织确保收到的至少 90% 资金直接用于有需要的人。

一年一度的圣殿山圣诞彩灯和圣诞的日子音乐会系列与捐赠机同时进行。 The Lights, Concerts, and Giving Machines are all part of the Church’s 2021 worldwide campaign to Light the World with Love. Temple Hill is open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., 4780 Lincoln Avenue in Oakland. Availability of the machines has been extended to January 3rd with a free closing concert by dance-pop group The Jets.

Other Giving Machines cities this year include Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Nashville, Kansas City, New York, Gilbert, Arizona and Salt Lake City, and Orem, Utah.