TENTATIVE DETAILS for the Purdue Row-A-Thon 2021 are as follows:
Saturday, February 13
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tippecanoe Mall, 2415 Sagamore Pkwy S, Lafayette, IN
Each year, the Purdue Rowing Team sponsors “Row-A-Thon” in support of the LUM Good Samaritan Fund. Row-A-Thon takes place all day in the Tippecanoe Mall (Lafayette). The co-ed team members row a marathon of 26 miles in three hours on indoor rowing machines while raising funds for LUM. Stop by the Mall on Saturday, February 13 and check it out. You may make a donation in person at Row-A-Thon or by mail. Please make checks payable to Purdue Crew Club and mail your checks to:
Purdue Crew—Row-A-Thon 500 Brown Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907
Thanks to Purdue Crew president, Kelsey D’Amico, Head Coach David Kucik, and the entire rowing team and coaching staff for their continued support of Lafayette Urban Ministry. Please note: the funds raised from Row-a-thon will be split 50/50 between LUM and Purdue Crew Team.
PHOTOS — Check out the photos from last year’s Row-A-Thon, click HERE.
More information:
The LUM Good Samaritan Fund is an emergency financial assistance program which provides our community’s neediest families and children with a strong and reliable safety net. Help is offered for utility bills, rent, and prescription medications. In 2020, the Good Samaritan Fund served 2,017 families; provided financial assistance in averting eviction, utility disconnects and other crises 1,393 times; and shared $229,833.82.
App & Online Orders for Pick Up, Dine In, To Go, Catering Dining Room & Patio Seating Tuesday, February 23 – 5 to 9 p.m. – South St., Lafayette
Eat your favorite burrito bowl and support the LUM Youth Programs. Take a night off from cooking, go to Chipotle Mexican Grill (4030 South St., Lafayette) and LUM earns 33% of your order with the coupon below. Chipotle is also including “online orders for pickup” for the LUM fundraiser. This means YOU will be able to place your orders for pickup either through the Chipotle app or website, skipping the line and maintaining safe social distancing guidelines. Online orders will require a custom code to be used during checkout to be counted — LUM’s online code: 8YL3ZEF.
Join us at Chipotle (South Street, Lafayette, IN) on Tuesday, February 23 from 5 – 9 p.m. — and the LUM After School Program gets 33% of all orders, if you present this COUPON (pictured).
It’s easy! Print the coupon or show it on your phone, order your favorite Chipotle meal (burritos, burrito bowls, tacos, salads or kids meals), don’t forget to get chips, guac’, and a drink — and LUM gets 33%. So — plan to eat out on Tuesday, August25 — all for a GREAT CAUSE — the students enrolled in the LUM After School Program.
If you can’t make it and wish to support the LUM students, click the button below to make a donation.
Lafayette Urban Ministry has recently been the grateful recipient of stimulus funds from individuals “Paying It Sideways.”
One local family shared that, “We just donated our stimulus payment to the (LUM) Good Samaritan Fund so LUM can give it to people who really need it.“
Another shared that, “I hope during this difficult time that my stimulus check can go farther in your hands helping those who really need it!“
A third family shared that, “We knew that our family did not need the stimulus money and wanted to donate it. We wanted the money to benefit our community and knew that LUM was a good place to give. Our family is happy to support LUM, and would encourage others to do the same.”
LUM continues to be right on the front lines of this crisis, helping local families with emergency financial assistance and nutritious food, and helping individuals with safe shelter. If you have decided to use your stimulus money to help others less fortunate and don’t know how, LUM is a great option. LUM enables YOU to give anonymously and with the peace of mind that your gift will be well-utilized to quickly help people in our local community.
To offer a good variety of proteins and paper products, the LUM Protein Food Pantry relies on donations from individuals, churches, companies and groups. The LUM food pantry also needs volunteers each Thursday morning from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., to unload food, set up, check-in & assist families, and breakdown.
FOUR ways YOU can help the LUM Protein Food Pantry are as follows:
Adult incontinence protection aids (unisex briefs)
If you wish to make a monetary donation, volunteer, donate needed items, register for Hunger Hike — or simply have questions or need further information, go to lumserve.org/food-pantry, call 765-423-2691 or email foodpantry@lumserve.org.
As you welcome in the NEW year consider making it your goal to create your own personal legacy by continuing to invest in the mission of Lafayette Urban Ministry beyond your own lifetime.
The kind of help provided by Lafayette Urban Ministry to this community doesn’t happen automatically and won’t happen without your support. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” At the Lafayette Urban Ministry we take those words seriously. LUM offers dozens of innovative programs of service, assistance, self-help, education and social justice advocacy. We will always need to help provide these vital services to the families in our community. During our lifetimes, we invest in these programs and support the families in our community with our gifts to LUM, but creating a legacy through Planned Giving means the ministry will continue for all time.
Giving to Lafayette Urban Ministry is a win-win Estate Planning strategy for you (the donor) and LUM. In addition to the altruistic benefits, your charitable gift to Lafayette Urban Ministry brings tax relief — and also allows you to make a larger gift to LUM than you could make from your income alone. Whether you use cash, appreciated securities/stock, real estate, artwork, partnership interests, personal property, life insurance or a retirement plan, the benefits of Estate Planned Gifts can make this type of donation attractive to you as a well as LUM.
Meet with your professional advisor to learn how informed estate planning can increase the overall value of your estate with a gift of tax-burdened assets (like IRAs, 401(k), or savings bonds) to Lafayette Urban Ministry. We hope you would consider a legacy gift that would support Lafayette Urban Ministry in your plans. Create your legacy this new year to support the mission of LUM now and beyond your lifetime. We are ready and willing to help you leave a legacy and fulfill your philanthropic goals of supporting LUM. If you are interested in beginning the conversation, please email or call Wes Tillett, LUM executive director (wtillett@lumserve.org | 765-423-2691).
More information on giving to LUM may be found HERE.
I come into the peace of wild things Who do not tax their lives With forethought of grief… I rest in the grace of the world, And am free.
December 2020
Dear Friend,
This poem by Wendell Berry has been instructive to me in recent years. When I feel anxious and despairing, it reminds me to keep a bigger perspective. At times I have actually put the words of this poem into practice. I have dropped everything, ventured out into the natural world, observed the peace of wild things, and found my heart quieted and reassured.
At Christmas, I celebrate the faith that this grace of the world is not some vague cosmic force but has a name and a human face. Christmas is the celebration that the grace of the world has taken human form, bringing us everlasting peace, rest, and freedom.
In this, my first year at Lafayette Urban Ministry, I have observed the grace of the world making a difference through our work together. As a faith-based, community-wide effort tackling basic human needs and uplifting the people of Greater Lafayette, LUM has risen to the unique challenges of 2020 and continues to serve people every day and every night.
So far this year, Lafayette Urban Ministry served 2,735 households through one of our 22 programs.
Emergency Shelter continues to offer compassion while serving people experiencing homelessness in our community. The overnight shelter and Winter Warming Station have provided 6,780 bed-nights of safe, emergency housing in 2020.
Good Samaritan Program has aided 1,550 families this year, channeling more than $192,000 to families who are in the midst of eviction, utility disconnects, or health care or transportation emergencies.
These statistics would be impressive in any given year. In this tremendously tumultuous 2020, these numbers underscore the grit and generosity of people such as yourself — people who have not been frozen by forethought of grief but instead have doggedly decided to think of those less fortunate than themselves.
In the spirit of peace, rest, and freedom for this Christmas season, I hope that youwillsupport the important work of Lafayette Urban Ministry with a financial gift. Your contribution of $50, $100, $250, $500, or $1,000 will be used to alleviate the needs of children and their families, right here in our own community.
I have included below Wendell Berry’s poem The Peace of Wild Things. I send it along with a prayer that you will experience the peace of wild things and may rest in the grace of the world. Thank you very much for the great kindness you have consistently shown toward those LUM serves. May peace, rest and freedom be yours this Christmas season. Merry Christmas!
Satisfy Your Required IRA Distribution & Pay No Tax
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that you are required by the IRS to take required minimum distributions from your IRA(s) each year soon after you turn 72 years old?*
When planning your IRA withdrawal strategy, you might consider making charitable donations to Lafayette Urban Ministry through a Qualified Charitable Distribution, also known as an IRA charitable rollover. Since LUM is a qualified 501(c)(3) charity, your gift can be made directly from your IRA to LUM.
The ADVANTAGES are as follows:
It’s an easy way to make an investment in LUM from one of your major assets.
It satisfies all or part of your annual mandatory distribution requirement at age 70 ½ and older.
It is excluded from income so you pay no federal tax on this amount, and avoid potentially being moved into a higher tax bracket.
Once you’re ready, direct the administrator of your IRA(s) to make the charitable distribution(s) directly from your IRA(s) to Lafayette Urban Ministry, Inc. For more information, you may email or call Wes Tillett, LUM executive director (wtillett@lumserve.org | 765-423-2691).
To calculate your mandatory minimum withdrawal use the IRA Required Minimum Distribution Worksheet, click HERE
For a sample letter to your IRA administrator, click HERE
* {If you reached the age of 70½ in 2019 the prior rule applies, and you must take your first RMD by April 1, 2020. If you reach age 70½ in 2020 or later you must take your first RMD by April 1 of the year after you reach 72.}
As New Year’s Day approaches, we ask that you remember Lafayette Urban Ministry in your end of the year plans.
While preparing for holiday celebrations, it’s important to stop and reflect on the joy and blessings in your own life while also being aware that not everyone in your community is so fortunate. Please consider setting aside part of your budget to support the work of Lafayette Urban Ministry with a tax-deductible charitable donation.
If you review the list below, you will see that LUM persevered during the pandemic and continued to provide a number of essential services to needy families and children in our community. LUM appreciates your support of our mission, services and programs, especially during these difficult times when it’s needed to most.
Donate to LUM
During the past year, Lafayette Urban Ministry served 2,725 families through one or another of our 22 programs.
LUM Emergency Shelter has continued to compassionately serve individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in our community. The shelter and Winter Warming Station have served more than 600 guests during 2020.
LUM Tax Assistance Program served 258 low-income workers, returning to them $386,730 in tax credits and refunds
LUM Good Samaritan Program has served dozens of families each day – who are in the throes of eviction, utility disconnects, health care or transportation emergencies. LUM has aided more than 1,550 such families so far this year.
More than, 438 households have received emergency food assistance from the LUM Protein Food Pantry
And of course Jubilee Christmas – gave Christmas to close to 1,500 children
Explore our website to see how you can make your donation to LUM more meaningful to you.
The donation process has been simplified allowing supporters to donate online, by phone, in person or by mail. Donate Onlineby clicking the button below -or- Call us at 765-423-2691. Mail or Drop off your donation to the LUM Office, 420 N 4th Street, Lafayette, Indiana 47901.
Wishing you and your family Peace, Hope & Love in the new year.
At LUM, we’re thankful for YOU and each individual who contributed to the successes at LUM in 2020. Although we were at least six feet apart, you were still in our heart. May you have a blessed New Year — full of family, friends, hope & love in 2021.
Gratefully yours,
LUM Board of Directors, Wes Tillett, LUM executive director, and LUM staff members
New Year’s Message from the LUM Executive Director
| Welcome 2021 | Six Feet Apart | Still in Our Heart |
Thank You…
For your generous financial support of the program & services of LUM
Thank You…
If you volunteered overnight or prepared a meal and delivered it to the LUM Emergency Shelter
If you volunteered as a LUM Camp counselor, After School Program tutor or in one of LUM’s other youth programs that are narrowing the academic achievement gap
If you attended the LUM Retirement Follies, contributed to LUM Good Samaritan Fund or served as an advocate with the LUM Good Samaritan Program, helping 1,550 families to avert utility disconnect or eviction from their homes
If you served as a LUM tax preparer and helped return hundreds of thousands of dollars in refunds and credits to low-income households in our community
Thank you for being a friend in 2020. LUM has impacted a significant number of children and families in our community this year because of YOU. What YOU do for LUM is so important in enabling us to accomplish our mission — and restores dignity to families, encourages and educates children, is a positive force in our community — offering peace, hope & love to the families we serve.
Thank you for choosing us as your community partner this year. Here’s to another day of service to the people of this great community.
The management at Electric Plus, headquartered in Indianapolis, decided to help agencies in the cities of their various offices, including the one in Lafayette. They also wanted to support local business. The employees donated $5,000 and Electric Plus matched that for a total of $10,000. Vince Aynes & Pat McCarthy recently presented LUM with a check for $5,700 plus $4,300 worth of gift cards from more than 15 local businesses. The LUM staff members have begun distributing the gift certificates to the families enrolled in the After School Program and guests in the Emergency Shelter and Winter Warming Station. LUM is grateful to the management and employees at Electric Plus, especially those in the Lafayette office, for selecting LUM as the recipient of this wonderful gift. It is such a blessing especially this time of year. {Pictured L to R: Vince Aynes; Nina Morgan, LUM Protein Food Pantry director, and Pat McCarthy.}
