STARBUCKS STANDS UP FOR HOMELESS TEENS IN CHICAGO OVER A DOZEN NORTH SHORE LOCATIONS HOST A "GIVING TREE"

DEERFIELD, IL (DECEMBER 2015) – Over a dozen Starbucks locations on Chicago’s North Shore are standing up for Chicago’s homeless teens and encouraging the community to help fulfill holiday wishes by participating in the “Giving Tree” project. Area Starbucks are partnering with Stand Up For Kids Chicago, a non-profit organization dedicated to end youth homelessness through national and local outreach, offering their North Shore customers a chance to donate gifts to homeless teens in Chicago this holiday season.

Starting November 26th, each of the participating Starbucks locations (see list below) will have a “Giving Tree’ inside its store. Along with the usual decorations, these trees will also have ‘wish tags’ filled out with real needs from Chicago’s homeless teens – examples include a bus or train pass, a winter coat, groceries, a gas card, the list goes on. Starbucks customers are encouraged to pull a gift tag from the Giving Tree, grant the wish and return the item to the Starbucks by December 18th. The gift will later be given to the teen.

The idea for this project is based on the popular novel titled The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. The novel focuses on an apple trees that gives as many apples as she can to a young boy. Symbolically, the idea is for each of the Starbucks Giving Trees to do the same–give as many gifts as it can.

Spearheaded last year at the Northbrook Starbucks located at 243 Skokie Boulevard, Fred Knych,

Shift Supervisor was thrilled to see the Giving Tree project expanded to a dozen North Shore locations stating, “The Holiday season at Starbucks is a festive, well decorated time of year in our retail stores. This year we received approval from the District Managers to team up with Stand Up For Kids Chicago and display our Holiday “Giving Trees” in over a dozen locations. Our passionate partners and generous clientele look forward to sharing the cheer, supplying the homeless their needs, and actually giving them holiday presents of gift cards so they can enjoy doing something enjoyable this season and help stabilize and improve their lives in the Chicago area.”

“The Starbucks Giving Tree project is magical,” says Abbey Cross, executive director at Stand Up For Kids Chicago. “It makes giving simple and tangible for people all over the North Shore community who are filled with holiday spirit”.

The participating Starbucks locations are:

• Northbrook Court Mall, 1290 Northbrook Court Mall, Northbrook
• Skokie & Dundee, 820 Skokie Blvd, Northbrook
• The Village Square, 243 Skokie Blvd, Northbrook
• Route 41, 2060 Skokie Valley Rd., Highland Park
• Renaissance Place, 1849 Green Bay Rd., Highland Park
• Deerfield Village Center, 675 Deerfield Rd, Deerfield
• Waukegan & Lake Cook, 60 S. Waukegan Rd., Deerfield
• Glencoe, 347 Park Ave, Glencoe
• Foster and Sawyer, 3232 W. Foster Ave., Lincolnwood
• Devon and Central, 5406 W. Devon Ave., Lincolnwood
• Sauganash, 4159 W. Peterson, Lincolnwood
• Lawrence and Pulaski, 4830 N. Pulaski, Lincolnwood
• Touhy and Kostner, 4368 W. Touhy Ave., Lincolnwood

ABOUT STANDUP FOR KIDS CHICAGO

Stand Up For Kids is a non-profit volunteer organization whose mission is to provide crisis intervention and basic survival necessities for at-risk and homeless youth through national and local outreach. Violence and abuse are unfortunately increasingly common within families and communities, and there are now 1.3 million homeless and street kids. Stand Up For Kids offers an abundance of services, complete anonymity, and ensures that youth do not have to feel alone in dealing with their problems. The mission is to end the cycle of youth homelessness throughout the United States. For more information, visitwww.standupforkidschicago.org emailabbeyc@standupforkids.org or call (773) 817-1684.