Santa's Headquarters under way already

IRONWOOD - Volunteers are gearing up for the ninth annual Santa's Headquarters.

Since 2006, a committee of local residents volunteers to help provide gifts for area children during Christmas.

This year's event takes place Dec. 10, with a gift distribution from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Ironwood Memorial Building.

According to event volunteer Jim Mildren, the committee "gets better at it every year," when it comes to helping hundreds of kids in the community.

Last year, Santa's Headquarters provided gifts and other items for nearly 400 children, and each family that participated also received a $40 gift card for groceries.

Every participating child receives an age-appropriate gift, stocking stuffers, books, toiletries, food, hats, mittens and blankets.

The goal of the event is to help with some of the burden for needy families at Christmas, and families can apply to participate in the event by Dec. 1.

Applications are located at St. Vincent de Paul locations in Gogebic County, the Michigan State University-Extension office in Bessemer, the Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency office in Bessemer and city offices in Ironwood, Bessemer and Wakefield and town offices in Watersmeet.

"We have worked out a nice system, so if families need help at Christmas, they can come to our event," Mildren said.

To have gifts for families each year, the committee relies on community support, through gift and monetary donations. Local businesses throughout the community have "Christmas Tag Trees," featuring a tag for a child with a specific age. Each toy can be between $10 to $20 and should be unwrapped.

In Ironwood, participating locations are Aspirus Grand View Hospital, city offices, Maurice's, Our Lady of Peace Church, Trinity Lutheran Church, River Valley Bank, Fitness Xpress, Gogebic County Transit, Coleman Engineering, Westgate Living Center and Walgreens.

Participating locations in Bessemer are Gogebic County Senior Center and nutrition program, Gogebic County Federal Credit Union, Dairy Queen and the Gogebic County Courthouse.

In Wakefield, locations include the Wakefield News/Bessemer Pick and Axe, Community Mental Health and Gogebic Medical Care Facility.

Other participating locations include the Marenisco Township Hall and Nordines in Watersmeet.

In addition to receiving gifts, some stores also donate larger items. According to Mildren, those items are not given to one child. Instead, each participating family receives a number and the bigger items are raffled off.

Local organizations also donate money or other items to the event.

"We like to make sure we have a nice selection of items for kids of all ages," Mildren said.

Any gift donations must be returned by Dec. 5 to the participating location, or to a committee member.

Once all of the gifts are collected, the committee and a group of volunteers, including students in the JROTC program at Luther L. Wright High School in Ironwood, or the Key Club at A.D. Johnston High School in Bessemer, will help load presents to be organized by ages.

After the distribution, any left-over items are donated to the Salvation Army and local St. Vincent de Paul locations to help new families in the community.

For Mildren, having the community support for the event is "just awesome." He said Santa's Headquarters often puts committee members and volunteers into the holiday spirit.

"Once we have three or four meetings to work out the nuts and bolts of when and where everything is going to take place, the rest is joyful," Mildren said. "It's all about giving and thinking of those children receiving presents, smiling and laughing on Christmas morning. That's the great part of it.

"We are blessed to live in this community, and we are mindful of what all of the volunteers and everyone who donates does for us. We not only appreciate it, but we view it as we have to do this correctly. We want to make sure it's done right for these families.

"In this community, all of us have been helped by someone. Every person on our committee has been helped by someone, and we are just repaying that favor. We are all lucky and honored to be able to pay it forward."

For more information, or to drop off toys or gifts, call Erin Ross at 906-663-4045, ext. 624, Jim Mildren at 906-932-2523, Pat Niksich at 906-667-0283, ext. 18, and Marie Kinnunen at 906-281-2839. Any monetary donations can be set to St. Vincent de Paul, Attn: Santa's Headquarters, 108 S. Marquette St., Ironwood, MI 49938.