Hannah Miller, the founder of Christmas for Kids, which began in Lafayette and Grant
Counties, continues to help an increasing number of families each year. What started out helping around 54 local children has grown into helping around 400 children in Grant County, Lafayette County, Crawford County, and Iowa County. Not only has the number of families increased, but each year, they become more organized with better quality materials and overall improvement, especially as the budget grows with the help of people who learn about the organization.
The idea of helping families for Christmas did not come out of nowhere. In the fall of 2021, while the founder, Hannah Miller, was pregnant with her third child, their family faced financial difficulties as they prepared for the new baby's arrival. They did not have much ready for their coming newborn. They turned to local free pages on Facebook, asking other moms if they had any unused diapers and wipes that their kids no longer needed.
After waiting weeks for responses, Hannah finally had a mom reach out. The woman asked for an address and said she was going to drop off some supplies. Hannah agreed and shared her information, assuming the woman would be dropping off some of her unused leftovers. Instead, Hannah came home to find a complete Target order of the biggest packs of diapers and wipes. Hannah felt the need to give back after this, and since it was close to Christmas, her favorite holiday, she decided that would be the perfect time to give back.
While the inspiration to give back came from the help of another community member, the thought process had another inspiration. When Hannah and her first son lived in Illinois, there was a similar organization to the one she would found. The organization provided gifts for kids around Christmas time in that area. With her memory of this other organization, Hannah reached out to different pages on Facebook, trying to figure out if there was an organization like that one in our area. Hannah learned about the Grant County Holiday Project, but when she reached out to volunteer, she never heard anything back. During the time she was waiting, another friend reached out and told her of a stockpile of gifts she had been buying and saving up to donate to a local organization.
The two women started to bounce ideas off each other. They came up with the idea of starting their own organization. Hannah already knew how to start an organization, and her friend had the stockpile of gifts; they had a foundation to start a new organization.
While the ideas of starting a club, organization, or charity seem simple as far as having what you need, there's a big process that goes into it. First of all, they had to come up with ways to raise funds for the organization and get volunteers and donations, because one person cannot do all that on their own. Next, they had to find an attorney who was interested in their cause to back them up with all the legal aspects of creating a non-profit charity organization. The attorney was also needed to submit information for the organization, as they could not submit the paperwork themselves in order to be incorporated, have bylaws, and fulfill requirements with the state.
Once they completed all the legal aspects with the attorney, they had to raise more funds to hire a CPA, an accountant. They had to find one to start the process of their 501C3 filing with the IRS. Between the attorney and accountant, they spent around $950 just for everything to be submitted, with no guarantee that they would get approved. One of the biggest challenges for Hannah and other members of the organization was developing a board of directors, which was needed to keep their status as a 501C3.
Another big struggle that they have continued to face since the start is having enough people who volunteer and donate to the cause. They only put on two big events each year: the regular Christmas picking, wrapping, and giving, and the Christmas in July event. Still, they fail to have as many volunteers as they would like in order to keep things running smoothly. With so few volunteers who are able to make it to both of the two big events, and other meetings along the way, they face the worry of the volunteers burning themselves out from taking on too much. Each year they try to help more kids as they gain volunteers, but even with growing numbers of volunteers, the number of families to help still outruns their ability. While they don’t struggle to meet all the needs of families they are helping, they still worry for the volunteers who put many hours into the events. A smaller challenge is picking for each kid based on their interests.
Throughout the years of growing the charity, Hannah had a much-needed support system to keep her motivated and help with anything along the way. She had both her mom and aunt backing and supporting her throughout the start-up. Support also came from Julia Schaller, a volunteer who had been helping from the start. Her biggest support came from within her home; her husband, Clint, helped with anything she needed.
“Clint was more than willing to help…I mean, he was my yes man. I told him I was going to Madison with Amanda Lynn, and he was just like, ‘Okay, I’ll stay home with the kids.’”
When the charity first started, it was small and not as organized due to less funding and being so new that not many people knew about it. The first year, they collected everything, picked and wrapped gifts, and planned the events within the president, Hannah’s, own home. They sorted items into black garbage bags the first year. In the second year, they moved to a storage unit, while still storing some materials at Hannah's home. Having everything in the storage unit close to Christmas made picking and working in the cold difficult. In later years, the secretary, Katy Larson, talked with her church in Lancaster, and the pastor offered a room and space to both store and organize materials. Within the past year, the organization hasoutgrown the church’s space. As a solution, they reached out to a second and then a third church in Platteville, which both agreed to give them storage space. The charity upgraded from black garbage bags to nice storage tote bags that have a pocket for labeling to stay organized. At present, they have three locations for storing gifts and organizing for gift giving.
As the organization grows in both families to help and volunteers, they can spread out and help families at a greater distance. Improvements continue to be made as donations, volunteers, and families that need the assistance grow. The biggest goal that the organization currently has is to be able to expand to Richland County. They have received applications from this location, but have yet to be approved for helping that area. The organization also has limited resources in Richland County as far as volunteers to collect and deliver in the area or who are willing to make the trip. It is not easy to be able to reach more distant counties, but the goal is to be able to help Richland County within the next 5-10 years.
The organization is run mainly by the officers, and decisions are made by the board members. While they listen to the voices of all volunteers, there is a select group that takes these ideas and makes sure they are heard, represented, and talked about. The board is made of up several members. Hannah Miller is still the president of the charity as one of the founders. Jaqueline Varholik is vice president and head of fundraising, meaning she helps Hannah with anything she needs or takes on the responsibility of president when Hannah is unable to attend an event or meeting. As head of fundraising, she also plans what the organization will do to raise funds for the charity. Katy Larsen is secretary and treasurer, meaning she records plans and ideas discussed at the meetings and events, and also tracks money for the organization. Julie Dabrowski is head of marketing, meaning her responsibilities include building awareness, strengthening relationships with community members and businesses, and being in charge of any media that goes out about the organization. Additional board members include Amandalyn Jerrett, Karen Essex, Karla Stelpflug, and Shirly Straka. An additional board member, Melody Brunette, will be added next year.
There are no set requirements for being involved with Christmas for Kids in Southwest Wisconsin, but they do have expectations. They ask that volunteers demonstrate professionalism, respect the organization, be kind and courteous, be willing to help as much as possible, and actually attend events. If someone needs help, be willing to help them if you are able. Hannah speaks more about what they expect from volunteers: “When it comes to fundraising events, you are directly in the public's eye, so no vulgar language. Dressing appropriately, and having appropriate body language [is important].”
The biggest confusion surrounding the Southwest Wisconsin Christmas for Kids organization is that people often mistake it for the Grant County sponsored Holiday Project, but they are not the same. The event that the Holiday Project holds each year in Rockville, WI shares the same name as this organization. This event is something the bar does itself to raise funds for the Holiday Project, meaning the charity group often has to explain the difference. The word has spread further and to more people, but some community members are still confused about the differences.
Christmas for Kids Charity is an all-year process, while the Rockville event takes place on the first Saturday of December. The Holiday Project only is in action for Christmas, while Christmas for Kids has a Christmas in July event and has volunteer events all year round. Another difference is that the Holiday Project has certain requirements about who they will help get gifts for, such as low-income families. Christmas for Kids does not have requirements for you to submit an application; the board goes through all applications and chooses families to help. You could have had a recent death, had a reason for a stressful life lately, low income, or any other reason that might bring the family difficulty around the holidays.
Melody Brunette, one of the volunteers who has been involved since the first year, originally heard of the organization through a post that Hannah put out on Facebook asking for more help buying gifts for kids. She has been helping ever since, and will be joining the board this year.
“We are just a very unique and great organization that I think some people don’t know about, you know, as far as we don’t have any financial requirements like a lot of organizations do. You don’t have to make a very minimal amount of money in order to have a need. Maybe you have had a lot of medical bills or your car broke down or maybe just have had other unfortunate things happen. We have all been there and I just feel like we can help a lot more people who need assistance because I think some people, if they're not super poor, think that there's no help for you. I also think that right now with the cost of everything even if you make decent money you may not be able to afford it.”
Jaqueline Varholik, vice president and activities organizer, touched on some changes made over the years to fundraising, as well as to some of the volunteer aspects. In her board position, Jaqueline plans events while doing outreach and public speaking responsibilities. She also helps with financial responsibilities and graphic design for the group. Jaqueline helps come up with fundraisers for their events, as well as plan their major events like Christmas in July and Breakfast with Santa.
“Volunteering can sometimes seem really scary because people don’t know what to expect and we are an organization where the volunteers often find that they have a lot of fun with what they do, whether they run our carnival booths, select gifts for children, or deliver gifts to families.”
To help get the word out about Christmas for Kids, the charity participates in the parade in Lancaster. They wear shirts with the organization's name, decorate their float, and have a mascot out talking to all the kids to make their day. The mascot is the Grinch, played by Hannah's husband. He found it another great way to make the kids year and put smiles on people’s faces. He always falls behind the float because he doesn’t want any kid to miss out on saying hi to the Grinch. The Grinch was not brought into the charity until the third year when they saw the costume and thought the kids would enjoy it.
“I thought it would be good for the charity, but the kids would love it. I did it mostly for the kids,” Hannah says.
The organization members are very welcoming and accepting. They want the word spread about who they are, what they do, and how others can join in helping these local families or get the message out to those who may need the help, but didn’t know there were more options available. A lot of families believe they are limited if they make too much or their kids are not young enough, but with this organization, there are no set requirements. They have a rough number of families they can help each year from different locations, and they go through the specific needs of each family at a board meeting to decide. The organization is always looking for more volunteers and help.