Community Spotlight: Paulding Christmas
This year Paulding Christmas, Inc. and Hope for Christmas will be partnering to provide toys and food to local families in need.
Paulding Christmas, Inc is a local non-profit organization that has provided toys to needy children in Paulding County since 1986. Paulding Christmas primarily raises funds by selling funnel cakes at the annual Paulding Meadows Arts & Craft Festival, by sponsoring Pennies for Paulding each November through Paulding County schools and through donations. In 2010, Paulding Christmas provided toys to over 1,500 kids.
Hope for Christmas is sponsored by A Fresh Hope, a non-profit organization helping Northwest Georgia children and their families. Hope for Christmas, started in 2008, provided toys and Secret Santa gifts for over 4,300 kids and Christmas food bags for over 1,500 families in 2010.
This partnership between Paulding Christmas, Inc. and Hope for Christmas has come about to improve the distribution process, which, in turn, will hopefully increase benefits to local families.
This year, there are an expected 2,000 families to come to 2011 Hope for Christmas. In order to assist these families, it will take approximately 32,000 canned and boxed food items, 2,000 turkeys, 18,000 toys and 6,000 gifts for the Secret Santa Shop. Food items can be donated or you can sponsor a food bag for a family for a donation of $20.00. The gifts needed for the Secret Santa Shop will include items for children to shop for parents and grandparents; both men and women. The toys they’ll provide will be for girls and boys, age birth to 18 years. All gifts donated should be unwrapped.
If your family or business would like to help in meeting this tremendous need, please visit the website and click on “How Can I Help?” at the top. There you will see a complete list of the non-perishable food items, Secret Santa gift items, and toys needed. There is a link to make monetary donations through PayPal, or checks can be made payable to A Fresh Hope and mailed to: A Fresh Hope, 1720 Mars Hill Rd, Suite 8-296, Acworth, GA 30101. All donations are tax deductible. Also, if you would like to become a partner or sign your business up as a collection point for toys or food, then please contact them directly.
Registration to receive toys and food for Christmas started November 1st. To register, please visit www.HopeforChristmas.com. If you don’t have access to a computer please visit either Academy Creek Community Center, 563 Paulding Lane, on Mondays & Thursdays 10am to 2pm or 5pm to 9pm, or West Ridge Church, 3522 Hiram-Acworth Hwy, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10am to 2pm or 5pm to 9pm. You can also visit West Ridge on Sundays between 10:15am to 11:15am.
Food, toy, and Secret Santa donations can be dropped off on Sundays between 9:00am to 12:30pm at any of these four locations: Bethany Christian Church, West Ridge Church at the Cartersville, East Paulding and West Paulding Campuses. Also, drops can be made at Bethany, Cartersville, or the East Paulding sites Monday - Thursday between 9am and 5pm.
Toys and food for both groups will be distributed at Hope for Christmas on Saturday December 10th, starting at 11:00am. If you would like more information or would like to donate your time, food, new toys, or money, please visit www.HopeforChristmas.com or www.PauldingChristmas.org.