Rene Dennis, Selma Sequra and Nicole Boloyan all took time out create their own calls for action.

We are now just six hours away from the expiration of our partnership with Groupon. Currently, we're at 213 donations - 87 away from our ultimate goal of 300, or $3,000 that would got toward our Children's Shelter. We've been trying as hard as we can to email, Facebook, and Tweet our supporters to both get the word out to friends and to donate themselves. Everyone in the office has been incredibly excited for this week because of the tremendous opportunity our time on Groupon gives us. The staff at the Children's Shelter have been anxiously watching the count on Groupon's website in hopes of being able to give more to their respite/shelter kids.

Rene, Selma, Nicole and Michele are all part of our Children's Shelter because they want to make a direct impact upon the lives of children and families affected by abuse. Each wants to watch the kids that pass through there grow, physically, mentally, and emotionally, into healthy beings. They come into work each day not because of a paycheck, but because they want to give a child a new chance at life. This passion is throughout all of Crisis Nursery, from them, the caretakers, the outside staff, and our administration. It's not uncommon for one of our members of our Leadership Team to go to the shelter to do a simple task, then decide to stick around for much longer just to really see what all they're really working for each day.

Our shelter is comprehensive. It provides health care referrals, meals, a place to stay, classroom instruction, tutoring, lasting friendships and a safe space. For more on what it's like in a typical day at the Shelter, see our previous blog posts here and here. Operating the shelter is expensive, with each child needing about $75 a day to receive these services. While we work to bring these to them, and do receive wonderful support from the community, we are still in a great deal of need.

• Every day, it has become common for the shelter to have to turn away a child/family because of lack of resources. This is especially true because Child Protective Services has needed our beds for children they had to retain custody of after accusations of abuse. That leaves less availability for local need.
• The number of abuse cases in Arizona has skyrocketed in the past year as the economy has worsened and poverty has risen.
• At the same time, resources have fallen as donations have dipped, government contracts have become more difficult to receive/renew, and grants have become more competitive.
• Last year the Children's Shelter cared for over 500 children. If each one stayed for only one day, that would cost $37,500. However, most stay multiple days, weeks, and even months. Several children in our care have been with us the majority of their lives. This makes our expenses much higher.

Please help us reach our goal of 300 donations / $3,000. It would make a huge and direct impact on Arizona's children, as each cent goes directly to their services. Groupon takes nothing - not even credit card fees - and our administration doesn't receive a single dollar. It all goes toward kids that need us the most.

To donate, go to our Featured Cause page on Groupon.

• We are located here. The deal expires at 10pm, Arizona time.
• Register your email, select Phoenix as your home city, and validate your account.
• Click "Buy!" on the page linked above and follow the steps to pledge an amount of your choosing, in incriments of $10.
• If you take your groupon to Crisis Nursery to have it validated, you will receive a letter thanking you for your efforts in stopping the cycle of child abuse and neglect. However, you do not need to validate your groupon for the donation to get to us.

• Click one of the buttons under "Share", located under the "the deal is on!" text, to pass the link to friends on Facebook, Twitter, or email.

Thank you for all you've done to support us! Now let's get our goal together!