Hey everyone! I'm Andy Bagwell, my wife Ruthanne and I organize a pinball charity tourney each year for PADS, and we volunteer once a month at the shelter to cook and serve a meal to 30-40 residents. PADS was nice enough to offer us a direct page for fundraising this year so it can be more easily tracked. If you are planning on attending the event and donating cash in person please still do that! This is for anyone that can't attend the event but still wants to support an excellent charity that does real good for the people it serves. Here is the tourney link:
https://www.ifpapinball.com/tournaments/view.php?t=104803#
Original message from PADS is also still included below this:
Dear Friends,
I'm reaching out to ask for your support for an organization that truly transforms lives right here in our community - PADS of Elgin.
Let me share Hope's story with you. Hope lost her children to DCFS and came to PADS broken-hearted. In six months with us, she stabilized her mental health, completed parenting classes, and surmounted every obstacle in her path. Hope now has her own apartment and is closer than ever to the reunion she's fought so hard to achieve.
That's what PADS does—walks with people as they rebuild, offering not just shelter but a path to stability and the support needed for lasting change.
Thanks to the generosity of Wayside Cross Ministries, PADS is now in a beautifully remodeled facility. Though smaller, it puts them on solid footing for a sustainable future.
But this solid footing begins with us – they need our urgent help to keep their doors open. COVID-era funding has ended. Federal help isn't coming. Their work now depends entirely on the financial assistance of our community.
This year, PADS of Elgin won't be hosting our annual gala. Instead, I'm asking you directly - if you want to support PADS of Elgin, this is your opportunity to make a meaningful difference!
Last year, PADS provided over 12,000 nights of shelter while their no-barrier drop-in lobby served meals, hygiene kits, and relief from the weather daily from 7am-9:30pm.
Yet the need continues to grow dramatically. As homelessness rose substantially in Kane County in 2024, their drop-in visitors surged from 300 monthly to nearly 500 in August alone—a stark reminder of the urgently escalating crisis their comprehensive services are working to address.
Without PADS programs, more families sleep in cars. More veterans slip through cracks. More people facing health crises have nowhere to stay. More children go without safe shelter.
For many, the path home starts at PADS of Elgin—where they show up and find a community committed to showing up for them.
This is who we are in Northern Kane County. When crisis comes, we stand together.
Will you join me in supporting PADS? They need us now—urgently.
Thank you for considering this important cause.
With gratitude!