Distribution day for the the Lincoln County Christmas Spirit program is set for Saturday, December 14. However, due to the recent weekend snow storm, the organization is now in a time crunch and seeking assistance from the public to fulfill its mission of providing christmas gifts to children in need.
As program coordinator Kelly Olson explains, the Lincoln County Christmas Spirit program is a charity that aims to provide Christmas gifts, including needs and wants, for the children of families in need throughout Lincoln county.
“Yearly we average about 200 families and 450 kids. In addition to gifts, we also provide a meal for the families to take home and prepare.”
“The program relies on the donations of the community and local businesses. We put out applications in September and as we process them, we print out and distribute the tags that you may see on trees in local churches or business around town. People then take these tags to shop for that child – it has info on it such as age, gender, clothing sizes, and items they indicated needing and wanting on the application.
“In early December we collect the all of the purchased gifts,” Olson adds.
“The committee and other volunteers then spend the week at St. Stephens church organizing and packing up each family’s bag.Then we have our distribution day at the Merrill Fire Department here and in Tomahawk.
“Due to the weather we had last weekend, many of the church services were cancelled, so the usual last push we have to distribute these tags could not happen. As a result many of our hosts still have tags hanging on their trees that need to be shopped for.We are looking for community support in a couple ways. People can visit one of the churches or businesses and pick up a tag to shop for. These places include: St. Stephens, St. Francis, the MARC, Johnson’s, Cup and Cone, Incredible Bank, mBank, Good Samaritan, and Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church.
“We also take donations of money or Walmart gift cards as we use those funds to purchase things for the unfulfilled tags. We also accept donations of new with tags children’s clothing, winter gear, and packaged toys and books.”
If you are interested in making a monetary donation, checks can be made to Christmas Spirit and sent to:
Christmas Spirit
PO BOX 912
Merrill, WI 54452
For more information on the program or making a donation, Kelly Olson can be reached at 715-610-4389. Please be advised the program can only accept new, packaged or with tags items.