TheCook County Salvation Army “Merry Christmas for All” project had one simple goal: to multiply the “merry” for many in the Christmas season. Christmas is a season of delight and wonder and joy, but it can also be a season of multiplied stress, frustration, and disappointment. At the beginning of the holiday season, the Cook County Salvation Army Service Unit committed itself to being a factor for multiplied joy for as many Cook County families as possible.
The Merry Christmas for All project, with the help of local businesses, churches, and social service agencies, collected toys, cash, and other gifts and distributed them where need was present from one end of Cook County to the other.
Project Director Reverend Dale McIntire said, “Thanks to the gracious generosity of our entire community, 70 families were served this year from Grand Portage to the West End. Seventy families equal 201 people, including 90 adults and 111 children. Single adults, senior adults, married adults, and children from infancy to teens are among those who benefited from the kindness shared with and through Merry Christmas for All this year.”
Participants helped make Christmas merry by taking name cards off Christmas trees at the Lutsen and Grand Marais branches of the North Shore Federal Credit Union and shopping for toys and other gifts for children.
More than a dozen local businesses donated gift cards in addition to the ones purchased by the Salvation Army to multiply the merry for our local families. The Arrowhead Electric Cooperative in Lutsen also raised a tree for the project, collecting enough mittens, gloves, scarves, hats and socks for more than 60 people.
Some neighbors participated in the “Holiday Helper” program at the Credit Union, supplying a cash donation in lieu of purchasing a specific item. The Credit Union matched those donations up to a total of $500. The total donated was $950, which will be used to provide food for families in crisis.
Reverend McIntire, pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Grand Marais and member of the Salvation Army Service Unit Board of Directors, marveled at the willingness of Cook County residents to stand by one another so wonderfully. “The Salvation Army, nationally, like many other charitable organizations, is noting an increase in requests and a decline in giving. Here in Cook County we did have an increase in requests but we had enough support from the community to more than adequately meet the need.”
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