Lift Letter for Central City Mission

This modest appeal for operating funds for a low-cost housing hotel worked very well -- not the least due to this lift letter.

THE LIFT LETTER

OUTSIDE FLAP
What’s this nice, clean hotel doing right across the street from the city’s hottest drug corner?

INSIDE FLAP
. . . Providing safe, friendly living for people with no where else to stay.

Dear friend of Central City Mission,

I can’t tell you his name. That would violate a confidence. But I can tell you his story.

Jack was a heroin addict. As an addict, he thought first, last and always about buying his next fix. Periodically he cleaned up and people who knew him said he was a great guy. But he always went back to drugs and then you just couldn’t trust him at all. He’d steal anything, sell anything just to buy a fix.

One day shortly after we renovated Abbot Mansions, Jack moved into one of the rooms. About six months later he booked himself into rehab to try to kick his habit permanently.

“It was being with all those other people at the hotel who were just like me, except they were clean and trying to live good lives,” says Jack. “So one day I just thought: ‘Hey if they can do it, so can I.’”

That was about 5 years ago. Jack’s still clean. He has a job and a girlfriend and he isn’t kicking in doors to steal TVs and CDs to support a habit. I think he’s got a great chance of staying clean for life.

Jack’s story is just one of the stories that makes me feel proud to be a part of Central City Mission. We sometimes manage to do things other organizations can’t, and sometimes we help people other groups can’t reach. But it all starts from our goal of providing safe, affordable housing for people with nowhere else safe to stay.

And that all starts with you and the help you give through your donation. I hope you’ll remember us again this winter.

Yours truly,

Campaign Chairman

P.S. There’s a real cash crunch on this year. It would help us hugely if you could make a donation of $50 or more.