Through some generous donations of collected food Santa’s Sleigh was able to deliver to four families in need today. Those efforts, plus collected funds totalling just over $1000 plus funds raised from the sale of the cookbook, the Sweet Treats of Christmas,, Santa’s Sleigh was able to deliver today for all four families.
We still have today and tomorrow to come up with where we’ve fallen short. We are out selling cookbooks door to door in a last ditch effort to do a little more.
Thanks for your support!
We’re pleased to announce the specifics of our Christmas families of 2011 who will benefit from the efforts of Santa’s Sleigh.
This family is from the state of Idaho. The mother and father are both in their mid-30′s and they have two children, ages 5 and 14.
The family recently moved into a home owned by the mother’s parents. This was made necessary due to the tragic events of the past two years in their family. The father, who worked steadily for years as a mechanic, was injured on the job in 2009 when a vehicle rolled when he was beneath it. He was able to escape complete tragedy by some quick thinking but did sustain some complicated internal injuries in his chest and abdomen. Complicating matters, he underwent a surgical procedure that was not executed properly, leaving him with diminish lung capacity that led to other complications. Nearly two years later he remains disabled, unable to work and on oxygen, barely able to contribute to the running of the household.
Their extended family have worked hard to provide for these folks by providing housing and transportation as they work through the medical and now legal issues surrounding their circumstances. The mother has been looking for work for some time but has limited availability due to the in-home care demands of her husband and children.
They are active in their schools, local church and community. Their case is sponsored by local clergy, who are overseeing the effort to provide for their Christmas this year.
We hope to raise the money necessary to provide food, a Christmas tree and Santa’s gifts for the family this year.
We are also working to benefit a 2nd family in difficult circumstances this holiday season.
This family is located in Davenport, Iowa, USA and is made up of a single mother raising three children, ages 9, 7 and 4 — the eldest is a boy and the two youngest are girls. This family is also sponsored by local clergy who we have partnered with to meet the need.
This family lost their father and provider in the spring of 2009 due to a tornado that destroyed their home where they were living at the time in Mississippi. The family moved after that tragic event to be closer to the mother’s family in Iowa. Her only family was her mother, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in late 2010. The family has no means of support except for the in-home efforts of the mother working as a medical transcriptionist. They are living in her mother’s home and are fortunate have a very small monthly house payment. They do have a car that is paid for but lack health insurance.
Their needs for Christmas this year are two-fold: the smallest child, a 4-year old little girl, is disabled and requires a new wheel-chair. This need is being met this month by the local church congregation. But the ongoing medical needs, while not as bad as in some situations, is persistent. Santa’s Sleigh.org has been asked to help provide funds, Christmas cards, Christmas decorations and Christmas music on CD to help brighten their holiday season. Local clergy will work with the mother for clothing for the kids including shoes and outer wear needed for winter. We have also enlisted a visit with Santa with the kids for Thanksgiving weekend to get their wishlists. This need is relatively small compared to others we have supported in the past so we felt we could take this on and help meet the need in partnership with the church there sponsoring her.
We are encouraged with the results of our early fundraising efforts compared to last year (a very difficult year) and we may take on another family or two depending upon on things go.
If you know of additional families in need please contact us. They will need to be sponsored by a local church or charity that we can work with. Thanks.
Christmas 2011 for Santa’s Sleigh is off to a fine start thanks to the generosity of Tiny Prints.com, Package from Santa.com, Gourmet Gift Baskets.com and Santa’s Quarters.com.
These corporate sponsors purchase advertising space on the Merry Network of holiday websites and underwrite the administrative funding needed for the operation of Santa’s Sleigh. Without their ongoing support the launch of Santa’s Sleigh each season just would not be possible.
We encourage our site visitors to consider these fine advertisers during their holiday shopping.
As we begin the process of searching for a family in need this holiday season we do so with the confidence that we have the resources necessary to make Christmas merry and bright by providing money, food, clothing and small gifts for a family who otherwise would do without.
Stay tuned for more information in the weeks ahead about our Christmas family 2011.
It has been a gratifying week. We’re pleased to announce that our goal for our feature family for 2010 has been met. So many sponsors, forum members and other individuals really stepped up to make it happen in the past couple of days. Thank you all so much!
Charities all over are really suffering this year. Earlier this week we received calls from a number of organizations asking if we had any extra because in years past this is what we have done when funds have exceeded our goals. We’re not a huge effort compared to the many that are out there but if we can help we try. We have many friends among the non-profit community and they have been so helpful to us as we have this year and in years past tried to organize our efforts and learn all the rules. Toys for Tots, The Children’s Miracle Network, the Red Cross — they are sometimes very interconnected and help more than the just the folks who benefit from their direct services. And so many of them this year are NOT meeting their goals, due to the economy.
On Friday I was concerned we weren’t going to make it but we received a substanial donation at the last minute from a family in Alabama to put us over the top. Their donation, made from a day’s worth of sales in the Christmas tree lot, was decided upon after a family meeting in reading about Santa’s Sleigh in one of our Christmas forums.
We will keep donations open through December 24th for this year so that any more than comes in might go to another charity. We certainly won’t turn anything away but do encourage any contributions you might want to make in this final week before Christmas be done where you are locally. I can guarantee they are needed.
Thank you all for your ongoing support and generosity.
When we set a lower target in 2010 we did it with the idea that times were tougher. We had no idea just how tough it would be. With the exception of the annual effort of one man to raise money on behalf of Christmas forum members across the Merry Network — a game which yielded a generous donation of $110 — there wasn’t a single donation made in the month of November. To make matters a little more urgent, we have recently learned of a second family we’d like to help — another single Mom, this one with a special needs child and two other children — if we can.
Please come to SantasSleigh.org and make a donation! We’ve got about a week to make it happened before we turn the money over to the sponsoring organization.
Thanks!
As of Wednesday, November 10th contributions to Santa’s Sleigh 2010 tally $355.
“This is a good start to the season,” said Jeff Westover, of My Merry Christmas.com, who spearheads the mult-Christmas site effort. “We purposely made a more modest goal for 2010, given the difficult time many are having in a down economy. I get a little nervous around this time of year but something about Thanksgiving triggers the giving and I’m certain we will be able to take care of our chosen family for 2010.”
In addition to contributions from the community the webmasters of the Merry Network have started a campaign from corporate entities who may be able to help out.
To donate, please use the form below:
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.
For 2010 Santa’s Sleigh will take a more modest approach. In these tough times it is difficult to ask much of folks, especially when they are struggling to provide for their own families. So this year we will be seeking smaller donations in hopes that several small contributions will add up to Christmas for just one family in need.
We are working with a variety of organizations to narrow down our choice for 2010. We will be publishing that information soon.
In the mean time, we are pleased to announce that donations thus far for 2010 tally a little more than $250. We have been advised that the needs for our chosen family can be met with an overall goal of about $1000 for this year.
We will work towards that and should we collect excess funds — which is quite likely considering the modesty of this year’s project — we will be donating the excess to the Children’s Miracle Network.
We’re pleased and excited with how 2009 worked out. Nearly $5000 was raised for Drew, who DID get a visit from Santa and a new van!
We are now actively seeking submissions for Christmas 2010. Like last year, we are looking to fill a real need. We won’t put any other limitations on it — we just want to make Christmas happen for someone who could really use it. We will accept your ideas and suggestions through August 31st, 2010.
To discuss a local need you know of with us please contact us via this link or give us a call at 1-877-Net-Xmas.
We’re pleased to announce that a combination of online and offline efforts have pushed contributions to Santa’s Sleigh 2009 to greater than $4000. Can we make $5000 before Christmas?
It has been an uphill battle. A down economy and an increase in charitable fund raising activity have made it difficult. We have numerous small efforts that have added up to the success we have seen so far. For example, from an 8-year-old New Jersey girl came her Christmas spending money — all $7.33 of it — who felt it was better used in supporting Santa’s Sleigh. At My Merry Christmas.com, for the 2nd year in a row, a faithful community member sponsored a guessing game rallying other site members to the cause, resulting in a $200 donation — and countless other donations — that we have tracked to total more than $800.
In Utah, a Mom and six of her children braved winter weather selling candy to support the cause. In a little over four days they sold more than $700 in candy.
We have also attracted the help of some of our sponsors who have given generously.
As we stated when this began in September, we had no expectation of meeting the entire need for Drew. Other efforts are underway now and scheduled for later in 2010 to continue the work to raise the added funds. But we are humbled by the support we have and the combined total we will be able to add as coming from Santa’s Sleigh.
Our efforts continue. We thank you and wish you a Merry Christmas.