Sand Mountain Reporter

Lee Hoggle of the Marshall County Christmas Coalition is making one last impassioned plea for residents to step up and help the Coalition give kids a wonderful holiday.

More than 300 additional children signed up for holiday help this year than in 2008, Hoggle said, bringing the total of children receiving gifts to 2,625.

“No one goes without,” Hoggle said. “Once we accept them, we will take care of them and make sure everyone gets something.”

To do that, Hoggle said Coalition volunteers have shopped for 620 children who were not sponsored by individuals, civic or church groups or businesses.

The Coalition now must raise $37,000 to cover those costs.

“The key thing now is that we ended up sponsoring 620 kids. We shopped for them using Coalition credit cards and now we must raise the money to cover those costs,” she said.

Hoggle estimates volunteers spent, on average, $100 per child, depending on the child’s age.

Parents and guardians are slated to pick up donations made for their children today, she said. Area churches designated as drop off and pick up sites for donations are full of black trash bags. The bags are perfect containers for gifts, as they are opaque and parents are able to keep the contents a surprise from curious children.

Donors were asked to mark each bag with a tag on the front bearing only the child’s first name and a unique numeric code issued to each family. The codes ensure a family’s privacy while allowing volunteers to track packages, getting them to the correct people.

“We’re at the end now,” Hoggle said. “We have done what we can to make sure every child is taken care of that we accepted. Now we are asking the public for help.

“Sponsorship is down a little this year and the need is up. That combination makes it important for everyone who can help to do so.”

Donations may be mailed to the Coalition at P.O. Box 71, Guntersville, Al 35976; or by logging onto the Coalition’s Web site at www.christmascoalition.org. Scroll down to the bottom of the home page to a green box with a yellow donate demarcation. Clicking on the yellow bar will take the donor to a secure PayPal site where donations may be made using a major credit card, including Visa, Master Card, Discover Card or American Express, or by bank account.

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Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

Tel: 256-840-3000 | Email

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