Though Christmas is over, there's still time to make a gift in the spirit of the holidays to local charities.
At Furniture Plus locations in Nassau, Grand Bahama and Abaco, guests can continue to make a minimum donation of $1 or more with their Charity of Hope angels and $10 or more to Charity of Hope candles that go towards Hands for Hunger, the Grand Bahama Children's Home and Every Child Counts in Abaco, up until December 31.

Such local charities - chosen this year by the employees of Furniture Plus - tie into the foundation's ongoing mission to support the intelligent, emotional and physical well-being of children, explains Krystynia Lee d'Arville, founding director and president of the Charity of Hope Foundation.

"Our mission is to advocate for literacy, education and emotional development of children throughout the nation," says Lee d'Arville. "There's such a strong disfunctionality with broken homes and lack of familial support and also our society has a warped view of what family stands for. Our children are in the midst of that and there is a lot of human wreckage."

Lee d'Arville - who is also the vice president of sales, marketing and organizational development for Furniture Plus - began Charity of Hope seven years ago with the birth of her child. Creating Charity of Hope candles, she decided to chose a charity every Christmas that supports children to donate the proceeds from candle sales.

"I'm an enormous advocate for children," she says. "We can help our kids to be more courageous with honor and integrity and teach them the moral fiber around that."

The following year, through Furniture Plus as a platform, the foundation expanded to include Charity of Hope angels, where people from the community can donate a minimum of $1 or any larger amount in exchange for a paper angel in a person's name to hang on Christmas trees in-store. The proceeds are matched by Furniture Plus and donated to charities that the communities and the employees take turns choosing in alternating years.

It's the perfect example of communities coming together to support their own, and of businessing giving back to the communities in which they operate - something which is of vital importance to Lee d'Arville.
"If we do not start to use our own resources to help and develop this country, then we are equally to blame for our country not developing and individuals in our country for not developing in all ways - whether educationally, emotionally, spiritually, energetically," she says. "We are accountable and responsible because it starts with each and every one of us."

Seven years later, the Charity of Hope candles and angels have gained momentum and the foundation has grown into a fully-formed organization that makes very significant donations to their community. One year they raised $10,000 to go towards the neonatal care ward at Princess Margaret Hospital, and another year they donated $5,000 to the Bahamas Special Olympics.

They are on track to make a significant impact in the lives of those touched by their three chosen charities this Christmas - already 2,000 angels have been donated. On Nassau, Hands for Hunger alone has the capacity to feed many children through their food redistribution efforts to 18 recipient agencies.
"We wanted to make sure with Hands for Hunger that the money went towards children, and what's so exciting for us is $1 gives a meal to a child," says Lee d'Arville. "So every time an Angel of Hope is sold, with that minimum donation of $1 we're feeding a child, and that's just enormously exciting."

Finally gaining status as a non-profit earlier this year, the Charity of Hope Foundation hopes to begin to expand their cause and efforts. Next year they will begin a tree-planting campaign with children and also work with the College of The Bahamas to establish a scholarship fund. But they also want to expand their reach internationally.

"My ultimate goal and dream is for it to be an organization that is national and international. I would love to have international access to more people than just The Bahamas that would put more funds into the foundation," says Lee d'Arville. "My goal is to make it as broad and diverse as possible in its audience but to continue to advocate for literacy and emotional development for children in our country."
Using Furniture Plus as their platform, Charity of Hope has now established itself as a major community supporter and encourages charities on Nassau to use them to help those communities they reach on the Family Islands.

"People know us as a legitimate business, so if the money comes to us, they know it will go to where we say it will go. Those larger charities may not have an established place on any of the islands," Lee d'Arville points out. "I hope the Charity of Hope Foundation can become a segue for that occurrence."
Indeed, Lee d'Arville has been the driving force behind this foundation that continues to support and build up local communities--and Furniture Plus continues to act as its main platform, inspiring people to come together and give back during the most important time of the year.

"I don't want to sit back and say that with Furniture Plus my responsibility is to sell furniture and help people to know they can invest in themselves and finance with us--there's more that we can do," she says.
"You can be overwhelmed in how much work it takes or you can take it one piece at a time and know everything's possible."

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