Valley’s ‘Miracle Trees’ Provides Christmas For Families In Need
November 17, 2020 at 4:30 a.m.
Valley’s ‘Miracle Trees’ Provides Christmas For Families In Need
By Jackie [email protected]
Tippecanoe Valley Miracle Trees started Monday.
Darren Parker, controller for Splendor Boats LLC, said during the Tippecanoe Valley Miracle Trees event, letters are sent out to families with an elementary student in Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation to see if they need help this Christmas. The event usually receives between 120 and 130 responses. This year, a total of 121 families, and a final count of 340 students, will be helped this year by the Miracle Trees event.
When a response is received from the family, the family is asked to list out any children in the family and provide wish lists, said Parker.
The family’s name is then printed out and put on tree decorations at Bell Memorial Public Library in Mentone and Akron Carnegie Public Library, Parker said. Groups or businesses can then take a name of a family and go to the library’s circulation desk and get the wish lists.
Parker said the event is targeted to elementary school students, but if there are older or young siblings, the event will help out those siblings as well.
During the event, Parker said the Tippecanoe Valley High School student government takes a lot of the names off the trees and buys from the wish lists for those families.
If people don’t want to buy gifts, they can donate money to the event so the student government can buy gifts for the students they have, Parker said. Names are usually gone by early December. However, if there are still names left with a week to go, he said those names will be collected and something will be figured out for them.
Wish lists usually contain a lot of things like clothes and shoes, but does also typically include things like dolls, stuffed toys and more. With older children, items can even include items like makeup, Parker said.
The presents can be dropped off by Dec. 18 at Splendor Boats, 9526 S. Ind. 15, Silver Lake, Parker said.
A drive-through event will be held at Splendor Boats from 3 to 5 p.m. Dec. 20. Parker said they are thinking about putting together a gift basket of necessities for those who get gifts as an added bonus this year. This is due to the fact that the normal in-person event had to be changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The purpose of the event is that those who are being helped get a nice surprise at Christmas, Parker said.
He said that while he is generally in charge of organizing the event, other people are a big part of it. School counselors play a “huge roll” in collecting names and reaching out to people that will be receiving gifts during the event. Also, the TVSC student government helps; in the fact, they do a lot of shopping for families, as well.
“Ultimately, it’s the community that makes it work,” he said.
Tippecanoe Valley Miracle Trees started Monday.
Darren Parker, controller for Splendor Boats LLC, said during the Tippecanoe Valley Miracle Trees event, letters are sent out to families with an elementary student in Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation to see if they need help this Christmas. The event usually receives between 120 and 130 responses. This year, a total of 121 families, and a final count of 340 students, will be helped this year by the Miracle Trees event.
When a response is received from the family, the family is asked to list out any children in the family and provide wish lists, said Parker.
The family’s name is then printed out and put on tree decorations at Bell Memorial Public Library in Mentone and Akron Carnegie Public Library, Parker said. Groups or businesses can then take a name of a family and go to the library’s circulation desk and get the wish lists.
Parker said the event is targeted to elementary school students, but if there are older or young siblings, the event will help out those siblings as well.
During the event, Parker said the Tippecanoe Valley High School student government takes a lot of the names off the trees and buys from the wish lists for those families.
If people don’t want to buy gifts, they can donate money to the event so the student government can buy gifts for the students they have, Parker said. Names are usually gone by early December. However, if there are still names left with a week to go, he said those names will be collected and something will be figured out for them.
Wish lists usually contain a lot of things like clothes and shoes, but does also typically include things like dolls, stuffed toys and more. With older children, items can even include items like makeup, Parker said.
The presents can be dropped off by Dec. 18 at Splendor Boats, 9526 S. Ind. 15, Silver Lake, Parker said.
A drive-through event will be held at Splendor Boats from 3 to 5 p.m. Dec. 20. Parker said they are thinking about putting together a gift basket of necessities for those who get gifts as an added bonus this year. This is due to the fact that the normal in-person event had to be changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The purpose of the event is that those who are being helped get a nice surprise at Christmas, Parker said.
He said that while he is generally in charge of organizing the event, other people are a big part of it. School counselors play a “huge roll” in collecting names and reaching out to people that will be receiving gifts during the event. Also, the TVSC student government helps; in the fact, they do a lot of shopping for families, as well.
“Ultimately, it’s the community that makes it work,” he said.
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