For 2010 Santa’s Sleigh will work to provide a Merry Christmas for a small family located in Utah — a hard-working grandmother and her two grandchildren, who live with her. The kids are a boy, age 12,  and at age 9, a girl. They live with their grandmother, who took them in after being abandoned by their parents who struggle with substance abuse problems.

The grandmother was having a difficult time making it on her own before the kids joined her. She has been without a husband or additional means of support for some time. She was working two jobs to make ends meet just for herself. When the situation with her grandchildren arose, she took them in immediately to relieve them of the poor circumsances they were in. She has since juggled three jobs and a number of freelance creative projects on the side to meet obligations.

Her goals for Christmas are modest. But in meeting with the sponsoring organization we discovered a number of additional needs for this family — help with paying utilities bills, medical bills and other urgent monetary needs. We will continue to partner with local clergy to help with these needs and ongoing service projects to help with her yards and small repairs to the home.

We feel our goal of $1000 for 2010 will meet the needs for this family for Christmas, as outlined above. This is a reasonable goal where many small contributions will go a long way to make things merry for this family this Christmas.