Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Splash customers have made a big difference with a small action. Customers took a tag and handed it in at the register to contribute $25 to gift a Paddington plush bear and a backpack to a child in a shelter. This took place across every Splash Car Wash location in Connecticut, with the gifts “raised” as a part of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness’s be homeful for the holidays promotion, which marked the third year of the partnership.

Thanks to generous underwriting by CT Realtors, every dollar raised went into a fund to prevent family homelessness before it begins. The be homeful funds provide emergency assistance that frontline workers can access to help local families remain in their homes rather than enter the shelter system. While the money is raised over the holidays, it is used year-round to reach underserved regions across the state with the flexible funds necessary to resolve a family’s housing crises before they endure the trauma of shelter. Based on CCEH’s most recent Point-in-Time Count data, there are no unsheltered families in Connecticut. More than 2,000 children in Connecticut have remained housed thanks to be homeful funds.