Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JAN TUCKER
Ontonagon — “Share the Joy” is the theme of this year’s St. Nicholas Project in Ontonagon County.
The project is a coalition of organizations, formed in 1987, to make sure that every family in Ontonagon County has food and every child has a gift for Christmas.
Although it seems Christmas is far off, the deadline for signing up to be helped by the project is near. Those who want help from the project for the holidays must complete an application by Oct. 18. Application forms are in nearly every business, bank, and senior center in the county, according to organizers. Green forms are for families with children and blue forms for adult households. Monetary donations support the food voucher program and gifts for adults in foster care.
Northend coordinators for the project are Peggy Norris and Kathy Bauer, and in South Ontonagon County Valerie Talsma and Jenny Peters are heading things up.
Bauer said Wednesday that forms are coming in slow and stressed the need to have those who want some help to fill them out.
Toy trees, which enable residents to select a child’s wish, will go up in county businesses the first week in November. Those wanting to buy a gift for a child can take the tag off the tree, purchase the gift and return it to the tree. The suggested gift amount is $30. Bauer said that at the site of each tree will be a box. Those who wish can place new socks or underwear in the box to be distributed to those in need.
“Right now we want to stress the need for people to get those referral forms in. Some people think since it is a Christmas project they should wait until then, but it will be too late. We must have time to evaluate and shop for the gifts,” Bauer emphasized.