Posts by category: News
December 27th, 2011 | Birthdays, Giving, News, Press
Minnesota Vikings players joined Cheerful Givers volunteers on Dec. 27th to assemble 200 toy-filled birthday gift bags for less fortunate children in the community. Andrew Sendejo, D’Aundrae Reed, John Sullivan, Tyrone Mckenzie and Vikings Mascot Victor, along with Brad Madson, Director of Community Relations, and Lester Bagley, Vice President of Public Affairs, showed their support of Cheerful Givers by inviting our key volunteers to a birthday bag event held at their Winter Park facility.
Cheerful Givers was also pleased to receive a $1,000 grant
from the Vikings Children’s Fund. Along with the grant, a note from Mark
Wilf, Owner/President stated “We congratulate you on the vital
contributions you are making in your community and look forward to seeing the
continuation of your fine efforts in the future.”
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December 19th, 2011 | Funding, Giving, News
Cheerful Givers was awarded one of the Dakota Electric Touchstone Energy Community Awards recognizing our service to the local community. Margaret Schreiner, Dakota Electric Board Member presented the award to Karen Kitchel on December 15th at Dakota Electric.
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December 1st, 2011 | Giving, News, Press
MikeBollinger, Cheerful Givers board member and Founder/CEO of Livefront, was recently featured in
Twin Cities Business Magazine as one of the “200 Minnesotans You Should Know.”
He was also being recognized for his work as co-founder of TECHdotMN, an organization that reports on
technology news in Minnesota.
We are proud to have Mike on our board!
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November 17th, 2011 | Birthdays, Children, Funding, Giving, News
Cheerful Givers greatly appreciates everyone who made a donation during Give To The Max Day on November 16th. As a result of 97 donations, we raised $3,955. This will provide birthday gift bags for hundreds more kids!
Overall Give To The Max Day brought in over $13 million for 3,978 nonprofits in Minnesota. Many thanks to all who gave!
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November 15th, 2011 | Events, Funding, Giving, News
Give to the Max Day, the “Great Minnesota Give Together,” is a day for Minnesotans to come together to raise as much money as possible for nonprofits in 24 hours – starting at midnight on November 16 through midnight on November 17.
Of course we’d love you to donate so we can continue to help children in need celebrate their birthday. But you can also help in other ways.
Share from our website
We’ve created a central page on our website explaining what GTMD is and how to donate. At the bottom of this page are various buttons to share via social networks, email, like the page on Facebook and +1 it on Google+. Using these buttons to share will increase the totals displayed for each type of sharing and encourage others to do the same. Use all of them if you like then keep reading for more ways to use social media to help. Continue reading »
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October 27th, 2011 | Donations, Funding, News
A new way to support Cheerful Givers this week is to purchase 50% off restaurant certificates for some of the best restaurants in the Twin Cities — and 10% of every sale until the end of the month at Outstanding Dining goes to support our birthday gift bags.
OutstandingDining.com founder, Ben Berry is a manager at an independent
eatery in the Twin Cities. After working with other gift certificate and
discount websites to expand the customer base at the restaurant, he
came to realize two important truths about online gift certificate
venues: first, that these sites were playing an increasingly important
role in how and where consumers spent their money. Secondly, he
realized that many of the small, independent businesses that
participated often did so at a operating loss. He became convinced that
there was a better system to be had and set out creating one.
His concept: a website that ensured each gift certificate sold benefited
the participating restaurants just as much as it benefited the
consumer. At that point, he realized he needed to take the concept one
step further. The need for gift certificates and discount venues
stemmed from tight economic times. Tight economic times also meant that
most local nonprofits were struggling for funding right at the time
their services to the community were needed the most. Berry not only
saw an interesting correlation, he also saw the next evolution of online
gift certificate websites: a system that met the demands of the
consumer while also addressing the needs of the community.
Check out the options at Outstanding Dining!
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October 21st, 2011 | Birthdays, Children, Giving, News, Volunteers
On Saturday, October 22, which was national Make A Difference Day, millions of Americans helped to change the world. 120 Cheerful Givers volunteers along with mentors and mentees with Kids ‘n Kinship got together to assemble 3,000 toy-filled birthday gift bags for less fortunate children.
Special guests Natalie Davis, Miss Minnesota 2011 and Haley Obrien, Miss Minnesota Collegiate, joined the efforts to help reach more of the 174,000 kids in Minnesota who are now living in poverty. The event was hosted by Thomson Reuters in Eagan. Many thanks to sponsors: AAA Minnesota/Iowa, Hands On Twin Cities, Northern Dakota and Southern Dakota/Scott County Chapters of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
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October 12th, 2011 | Giving, News, Team Building, Volunteers
It was a race to support a variety of charities. Volunteer teams of employees at Land O’Lakes corporate headquarters raced to complete a number of projects which included assembling birthday bags after which each group was required to sing Happy Birthday.
Cheerful Givers board member, Corey Cox, cheered them on.
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October 3rd, 2011 | Donations, News, Press
Thanks to a generous donation from AAA Minnesota/Iowa and support from Hubbard Broadcasting, Cheerful Givers is now being featured in more than 100 thirty-second spots on KSTC-TV, Channel 45 in the Twin Cities area.
Randy Williams, Regional President, AAA Minnesota/Iowa commented “We appreciate your work and what the Cheerful Givers organization does for so many children, families, and communities. I am blessed to be able to be involved, and was very happy to see how our employees rallied in support. We hope the ads help inform and brings lots of additional support.”
Hubbard Broadcasting is offering to personalize this ad to other businesses that may be interested by changing the final logo and tag line. Opportunities for matching spots may exist as well. Contact karen@cheerfulgivers.org for more information.
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May 29th, 2011 | Giving, News, Press, Volunteers
Minnesota Twins Michael Cuddyer, Glen Perkins & Jim Thome were special guests featured at our Cheerful Givers Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser on May 28th at the Chart House Restaurant in Lakeville.
218 attendees learned more about our Cheerful Givers mission and had a chance to ask questions of the players. The Twins generously donated 20 prizes, including autographed shirts, hats, homer hankies, Twins tickets and even a wind-up Michael Cuddyer. Players announced the winners during the event.
A live auction was also conducted by Michael Cuddyer for a bat he had signed by all team members, a framed photo and baseball cards autographed by Harmon Killebrew, and use of the Mauer/Morneau suite for 16 guests.
The event concluded with VIP ticket holders getting their items autographed by these great players. Fox Sports covered the event and there’s a great slideshow now appearing on Thisweek — “Breakfast With Champions and many photos at http://michaelcuddyer.com/photos/?album=2&gallery=2
Thanks to all who attended as well as the Chart House for hosting, Bremer Bank and Thrivent Financial (S. Dakota, SW Hennepin & S. Ramsey Chapters) for sponsoring, and ten great volunteers for helping. Special thanks to Claudia Cuddyer and the players who graced us with their presence. 
