For the past 15 Novembers, my hometown of Lancaster, PA has held an excellent event called the Extra Give. It’s basically a 24 hour “give-a-thon” where scores of local charities and community-serving organizations try to collect as much money as possible to support the good work they do in and around Lancaster. Typically, the event raises anywhere from 9 to 15 million dollars for about 400 non-profits. This year’s Extra Give is this Friday, November 21. For those inspired to chip in, this post will highlight 3 of my favorite participating organizations.

Whether you donate or not, if you live near Lancaster you should consider coming into town and feeling the energy that flows through the city on Extra Give night. There’s also a dance party-type event at the Lancaster Convention Center, where they keep track of donations as they flow in throughout the night. (I’ll be playing trumpet with the Mama Tried band from 10pm-midnight- so say hi if you stop by).

Here are 3 outstanding groups that could use your Extra Give support:

Hand Up Partners

Hand Up Partners is led by my good friend Dave Costarella, who is a modern day saint. His group cares for the local homeless population by providing them with food, clothing, and part-time work cleaning up parks around the city. Dave has been at this for several years, and is almost single handedly changing the way our community perceives the homeless. Rather than go into detail here about how Dave started and how things grew into Hand Up Partners, please take a look here at his Extra Give page. Dave is an outside-the-box- thinker who is totally focused on helping people.

Allegro Orchestra Lancaster

Allegro is Lancaster’s professional chamber orchestra (not to be confused with the larger Lancaster Symphony Orchestra). Whereas many orchestras employ musicians from all over, Allegro musicians are all residents of or connected to Lancaster county. We have a surprisingly strong music and arts scene for a city our size, and the quality of Allegro performances are a good illustration of that. I’m fortunate to perform with this group frequently and it’s always a rewarding experience. Allegro also runs the Next Gen program which gives talented young players a chance to excel in experiences beyond what they might find in their regular school ensembles. Allegro is conducted by the very highly regarded Dr. Brian Norcross (a professor at Lancaster’s Franklin & Marshall College).

Acorn Acres

Acorn Acres is a wildlife rehabilitation organization that specializes in the smaller, sometimes less respected animals in our area. Cars kill and injure a staggering number of animals each year, and Acorn Acres fights to keep that number from rising by rehabilitating animals and returning them to the wild. They specialize in dealing with squirrels, ground hogs, rabbits, opossums, flying squirrels and even prey animals like mice. Founded in 2020, the group is fairly new, but its impact is growing as more and more people find out about what they do.

Lancaster’s Extra Give is not about a few people donating thousands of dollars (although that’s totally appreciated!), it’s focused on celebrating and building up the countless local organizations that work year round to help make our local community better and stronger. No donation is too small, and there are many, many other non-profits registered for this year’s Give. If you’re inspired to throw a few dollars into somebody’s Give bucket- don’t fight the urge!

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