Every year, Real Word Ministries Inc., a Brooklyn-based organization, selects a community to host its annual Christmas toy drive. This year, the group is collecting donations to distribute toys to children in South Jamaica.
Real Word Ministries Inc. was established as a 501(c)(3) charity in 2018 to build upon the success of Real World TV, a show that promotes opportunities to give resources to those in need. The organization has hosted food and clothing drives and helped to feed the homeless in low-income communities.
According to Rickard Noel-Jean, the founder and executive director of Real Word Ministries, this will be their first time visiting Queens.
“Usually, we get park permits or we just set up tables in front of housing projects or churches on a main street and distribute donations directly to the people,” Noel-Jean said. “Sometimes we just drive around, set up a table, and depending on the donations received, we do multiple locations.”
Noel-Jean is collecting donations on CashApp. To date, the organization has raised $605 and is looking to reach its goal of $1,000.
“There are a lot of ways for people to donate but with CashApp it goes directly to the business account,” Noel-Jean said. “When we receive donations through GoFundMe, Paypal or Facebook, we would spend the money on credit and when the checks came afterwards we would reimburse ourselves and pay whatever we charged the credit.”
According to Noel-Jean, they’re also waiting on a grant to come through, but if they receive cash to use right away, it would be beneficial.
“We’ve worked with Walmart in the past and they’ll give us more toys for the price we have or even buy them in bulk,” Noel-Jean said. “But we’ve done so much on credit that I don’t want to exceed our credit.”
Noel-Jean said they’re looking forward to receiving contributions to give back to the community.
