We wanted to let all our “Wish Tree” sponsors know that the Board of Directors of the Salem Christmas Fund Inc. has decided to make a change to one portion of our annual campaign. Unfortunately, in recent years, no matter what limit we set for gifts, we found that the actual cost for the items requested far exceeded it. The result was that “tags” were either not taken or as was the case many times, items at a lower cost were substituted. Part of the problem is that children, even younger ones, were looking for expensive electronic items. It became difficult to manage even for our seasoned volunteers. We tried to find the correct items from our other donation sources, but many times we couldn’t, and it became an administrative challenge for our all-volunteer organization.

This year, we decided to handle requests differently. On the application form, families will be asked to select gift cards for each child to Target, Walmart, K-Mart, the Mall at Rockingham Park, or Amazon. While we have not told applicants what the dollar amount of the cards will be, we are asking those taking name tags from the trees to try and keep the gift card value between $25 - $50 dependent upon what they can afford. The Christmas Fund has come up with a total amount, based upon age per child and will be supplementing your Wish Tree cards to make up the difference. This will help each family have enough to purchase a large gift (or several smaller ones if they wish) for each child.

We recognize that some may not wish to participate in this fashion and we respect that, and appreciate all you have done for us in the past. Please be assured that the Christmas Fund does its very best to screen individuals to make sure only those who qualify will be able to be recipients of cards.

Over the years, we have made changes to the program and all seem to have worked out well. While we still do about 50 Food Baskets per year thanks to the Rotary Club, all other families receive vouchers to Market Basket from our Fund based on size. We review each register slip billed through the program via our internal tracking system and thankfully, we rarely find an item purchased that was not eligible.

When Target no longer accepted vouchers. we changed to Kohl's gift cards which we were able to purchase at a discounted rate. As a result, we believe more clothing was being purchased which is the intent of those cards. By the way, we will continue with the Coats for Kids program thanks to the K of C.

In addition to the gift cards for toys, our plan is for children to receive other items such as free certificates for membership in the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Salem and movie tickets to AMC Theatres. We are working on several other community-based relationships that will benefit those in need.

We thank those groups who have already embraced the change and are willing to give it a try. Hopefully yours will also.

Thank you,
Alan J. Phair, Chairman Salem Christmas Fund, Inc.