Current Initiatives For the holidays, Current Initiatives sets its sights on Affordable Christmas—a shopping event for lower-income and working-class families who show up to buy new gifts—everything from toys to tablets—for no more than $10 per item. Credit: Photo by Jonathan Latimer via engagecurrent/Facebook

For a decade and a half, Jason Sowell has been a hope dealer. To date, the Tampeño’s Laundry Project—operated as part of his Current Initiatives nonprofit—has served more than 2.5 million families who’ve seen the initiative wash more than 2.5 million pounds of laundry in 18 different states.

Last October, in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Sowell—a chaplain with the Tampa Police Department—teamed up with the City of Tampa to help wash folks’ clothes for free.

For the holidays, Current Initiatives sets its sights on Affordable Christmas—a shopping event for lower-income and working-class families who show up to buy new gifts—everything from toys to tablets—for no more than $10 per item.

On Monday-Tuesday, Dec. 2-3, from noon-4 p.m. at 2915 N Blvd. in Tampa, Storch Group, which is co-sponsoring Affordable Christmas 2024 alongside Ryan Jensen’s Gilk homebuilder group, invites the community to a holiday open house where they’ll connect new unwrapped toys (retail value $30 & up) and also signup additional sponsors for $50-$500.

More information is at @engagecurrent on Facebook.

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This article appears in Nov 21-27, 2024.