Yesterday we hit the tipping point on our Groupon campaign within hours of its launch! While we're excited about the promise to provide services for five children, it's just a start. Those five children would only receive services for a single day, based off the tipping point; it does not account for the fact that many of our children require our resources for weeks, months, and (in some cases, like one boy who's been with us for most of his life) years. This also does not account for the fact that we regularly, unfortunately, have to turn children/families away because our beds are taken by children from the Department of Public Safety, leaving local kids without a chance.

So our tipping point is only a start. To really succeed, we need so much more. We need supporters like you to simply press the "share" button on our Facebook statuses, to Retweet us on Twitter, to continue reading our blog posts, and to donate when possible. We are at 150 at this moment. We want to hit 300 by day's end. Can you help us achieve this? With the average length of time at Crisis Nursery being several weeks (though many stretch longer) our 150 gives 1 child support for the duration of his or her connection to us. That leaves so much more need.

In our last post about life at our Children's Shelter, I talked about the class the under age 5 children attend and free-play. After free play, the kids all get a chance to play outside on a small playground, with two basketballs at the basketball hoop, or with several bicycles. The kids are all incredibly fond of making up imaginary games as they jump down the slide and swing through the monkey bars. At the time I was there, they both pretended there was a little murderer who would attack them if they didn't get down the slide fast enough - causing them to slide down two at a time and making us all a bit nervous - and that they were in space and were weightless. It was so fun to wave at them through the window in my imaginary spaceship as they looked for planets.

The kids soon found that having a friendly grown-up on their side was invaluable, and began to ask me to help them play. A little girl tugged at my arm and asked kindly, multiple times, if I could help her across the monkey bars. I lifted her up and allowed her to swing from one to the next without having to hold her weight, which made her cheer by the end. Soon there was a line forming for all the other kids to get help swinging across, which I gladly assisted with. Each one seemed so accomplished in themselves just getting to the end.

Another one of their caretakers and I played basketball with a few of the other small children at the playground. We took shots to impress them - although they got lots of laughs when we missed. They would chase after the ball as it fell away, dribble it, and then return it back to us to shoot and impress them with. Sometimes they even asked us to pick them up and help them shoot into the basket. The child in the picture above got some assistance with getting closer to the net, but the perfect shot was all his.

There was little time left outside. Some of the kids grabbed my arm and asked me to play in a puddle of water on a tarp near the swings for a bit. They all enjoyed the squishiness of the water inside their socks and shoes. Finally, they were instructed to clean up everything and then politely get into line for lunch, which the kids helped cart into the classroom. They were all so helpful and nice to their caretakers, and I felt like they genuinely saw them as good, older friends.

When we had lunch, they had to wash their hands, and each got in a line and neatly soaped up before they sat down. Once seated, they waited to be given their lunch, talked in their inside voices (so not to wake the babies next door, one kid told me before shushing me nicely), and ate their pizza before requesting more milk. I sat right with them and ate a slice of their homemade pita bread pizza. After, we cleaned up, with each one getting up to scrape off their own plate and put them into the box set aside for washing. I was in awe of how well mannered they all were, and how routine was enforced in such as kind and understanding way by the caretakers.

After lunch, they got separated into two groups to go for naptime. Those in respite were directed to one area, while those at the shelter were directed to their beds. I was unsure where to go, but one of the shelter kids I had helped at the playground grabbed my leg and told me "you're coming with us." "I guess you know where you're going now," the caretaker replied to both of us, laughing. The girl I first helped on the monkey bars grabbed a book and asked me to read it to her before bed, and I got to teach her all about soccer through the narration and pictures. Before I left, she was curled up with a stuffed dog and Barbie doll, the blanket thrown over her head.

Food. Shelter. Classroom instruction. Play. Healthcare. Counseling. These are just some of the services we provide to these children - and why it costs $75 a day for each one. That $75 can truly change the course of a child's development and, ultimately, their lives. This is why campaigns like Groupon are so important. This is why we ask for our requests to be shared.

Please help us reach our goal of 300 for the day. Be a hero for Arizona's children. Stop child abuse, and be the change they need.

Groupon: http://www.groupon.com/deals/gt-crisis-nursery

Twitter: http://twitter.com/crisis_nursery

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrisisNursery