Although the holidays are over, the season of giving does not stop after December. Not for the city of Monroe, Louisiana, anyway. Mayor Jaime Mayo and the Monroe City Council has created a way to continually give back to the community throughout the year starting with two community service projects for the month of January.
Mayor Mayo announced at the end of December that he and the city council would be starting a new initiative to cater to the people of Monroe. He announced the citywide focus of 2018 would be City Employee Community Benevolent Projects. This effort is #12 on Mayor Mayo’s 60 for 60 projects list. "Our goal is to complete at least one such initiative during each month of 2018. Hopefully, we can inspire other municipalities, businesses, schools, community groups and other organizations to join in or model after our efforts," Mayor Mayo said.
This month's projects are the "Cash for Kits Drive for Homeless and Less Fortunate" and the "Comfort Kit Stuff-A-Thon." The Drive happened Jan.12- 16 and each city department was challenged to to raise $60 dollars. The funds raised were later donated to a budget used to purchase comfort kits for the "Comfort Kit Stuff-A-Thon," happening today, Jan. 29. This project is scheduled to take place in the Fort Miro Room at the Monroe Civic Center at 11 a.m. today. The goal of this project is to provide 200 kits to those in need.
Mayor Mayo said they were able to collect enough funds to purchase 400 comfort kits and additional supplies that will be donated to the Desiard Street Shelter.