Bring Christmas to area children

by Jessica Murphy

    Have you been trying to find a way to get involved on campus but you just don’t know what to do?  How about getting involved with Santas Miracle Fund, a non-profit
organization that benefits local disabled children and their siblings on Christmas.
    Chris Turner, a sophomore general business major, founded Santas Miracle Fund his senior year of high school and the fund has been a success ever since.
    “I got the choice to pick my senior project and I knew I wanted to do something that would benefit the (Augusta) community and that is why I started Santas Miracle Fund,” says Turner.
    Santas Miracle Fund provides disabled children an entire day of Christmas fun which includes lunch and a movie with Santa Claus.  After they tell Santa what they want for Christmas, they get surprised with a trip to Toys-R-Us, where they each receive a $100 shopping spree.
    Santas Miracle Fund is going on it’s second year here at GCSU and had great success last year.  The fund raised $2,000 for local disabled children in the Macon area. 
This year the money raised will not only benefit children in the local Milledgeville/Macon community, it will also be benefitting children in the Augusta area as well.
    Jennifer Arroyo, a senior history and education major, has been involved with Santas Miracle Fund for over a year now.  Arroyo holds a position on the board of directors for Santas Miracle
Fund and is looking forward to this year.
    “The greatest part about Santas Miracle Fund is the look on those kids faces,”
says Arroyo.
    Santas Miracle Fund has several fundraisers in the works to help raise money for the fund this year.
    “We are in the process of putting together a fraternity boxing tournament as one of the main fundraisers,” says Turner.
    Along with the boxing tournament, the fund will be hosting corporate dinners with local businesses along with getting involved with Wal-Mart to help raise money for the fund.  The goals for the 2006 are to raise $10,000 which will benefit over 100 children, operate a successful website and win program of the year.  
    Patricia Barbre, a sophomore marketing major, found that getting involved with Santa’s Miracle Fund was easy.   “I lived next door to Chris in the dorms last year and I got to talking to him about
Santa’s Miracle Fund and it sounded really cool so I asked him how I could get involved,”
says Barbre.  “I went to an informational meeting and learned more about the fund and I
signed up to help and have been a part of it ever since.”
    Patricia is now maiden of mistletoe.  She takes photos at events, she is in the process of  putting together a scrapbook and she is also in charge of putting together slide shows. 
     Santa’s Miracle Fund is also in need of more board members.  They are in need
of a fundraiser director, event planner and a website designer.  If you are intrested in any of these positions contact Santa’s Miracle Fund.
    Santa’s Miracle Fund is an excellent way to help out the surrounding community
and is also a good way to help those in need during the holiday season. 
    If you are interested in getting involved with Santa’s Miracle Fund join the Facebook group or fill out an application at The GIVE Center and they will provide Santa’s Miracle Fund with your information and they will contact you.   

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 15 2006. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry