Perham-area nonprofits raise more than $100,000 on Giving Hearts Day with volunteers

Perham-area charities together raised more than $100,000 on Giving Hearts Day, Feb. 12, organizers reported, with Empowering Kids and the Boys & Girls Club of the Perham Area accounting for more than $80,000 of the total. Local events and volunteer operations—including the Boys & Girls Club’s “Spuds for Love” baked-potato lunch—were credited with driving donations across the community.

Empowering Kids Executive Director Justine Anderson said the joint effort with the Boys & Girls Club brought in the bulk of Perham’s haul and reminded donors of local impact. “As a reminder, all of this money stays local,” Anderson said, as Empowering Kids participated in the annual online fundraising effort for nonprofits in northwest Minnesota and North Dakota.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Perham Area hosted Spuds for Love on Giving Hearts Day, serving baked-potato lunches at the Club and offering to-go and delivery options for supporters. Organizers said the meal event and other on-the-ground fundraisers helped push the Empowering Kids/Boys & Girls Club combined total past $80,000.

Perham Center for the Arts reported an estimated $11,000 raised on Giving Hearts Day, Executive Director Katie Hennagir said, and said those donations will support programming and reduce admission costs. Hennagir cited two planned free concerts in April as examples of how the funds will be used: one performance by the Lakes Choral Singers and another by the Red River Valley Veteran singing group.

Perham Focus coverage noted that each participating organization had more than 100 donors and that nearly 30 volunteers helped pull off the day’s events. The local report also observed that funds raised by Perham charities frequently receive matching donations, although specific matching amounts or sources for the Feb. 12 totals were not published.

Camp Joy was named among Perham participants in the Giving Hearts Day effort, but the Perham Focus article did not provide a separate donation total for Camp Joy. Organizers have not yet published a full line-item breakdown that accounts for every dollar within the “more than $100,000” figure.

Separately, a Frazeeforum excerpt described ongoing grassroots fundraising for the Perham Area Youth Hockey Association’s Arvig Park project, a planned 6,000-square-foot facility that would include an ice rink. Frazeeforum quoted Smith and Preussler on small-donation models and targets: “If somebody just pledged $1,000 over a year that’s not that much a month, same as going out to eat,” Smith said, and Preussler added, “And if we got 100 people to donate $1,000, that’s $100,000.” Frazeeforum reported PAYHA expects the rink to be used about five hours per week for its Mites feeder program and open to the public the remainder of the time.

Organizers in Perham credited the combination of volunteer labor, community events such as Spuds for Love, and online gifts for the Giving Hearts Day results, and they said funds raised will be applied to local programming and greater affordability for upcoming cultural and youth activities.