Readers made another Miracle, but Christmas Cheer Board needs more help

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This article was published 13/01/2024 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There really was a Miracle on Mountain this year — and it’s all thanks to you.

This year’s edition of the annual Free Press fundraising campaign to help the Christmas Cheer Board was budgeted to raise $100,000.

The organization’s ecstatic CEO confirmed this week that the campaign went beyond that goal.

“It’s fantastic,” Shawna Bell said. “We were shooting for $100,000 and we exceeded that by getting to $108,273. That’s amazing and we thank everyone who helped.”

Free Press editor Paul Samyn said the credit goes to the newspaper’s readers.

“Our headlines warned of the big challenges facing the Cheer Board and, sure enough, a front-page story just before Christmas revealed how that long-standing charity came up short this year,” Samyn said. “Fortunately, Free Press readers never come up short and thanks to their generosity, our Miracle on Mountain campaign raised $108,000 — exceeding what the Cheer Board hoped to receive via our newspaper.”

It has been a bittersweet year for the Christmas Cheer Board, which has been helping Winnipeggers since 1919.

Given the current economic conditions affecting so many in the community, the board realized the organization’s help would be in greater demand this time, and decided to open its phone lines earlier in the season than it had before to take hamper requests.

More than 1,000 applications were processed in just two days. There were, at points, three inbound phone calls received every second.

A few weeks later — for the first time in its long history — the organization reluctantly hoisted the white flag, shutting down its phone lines a few days earlier than expected because demand was continuing to explode beyond capacity.

Bell said while they were able to help a record-breaking 20,250 people who signed up for this year’s program — far higher than its previous record of 18,313 set last year — there was little to celebrate.

“The negative is we had to shut the phone lines off,” she said. “It means there were people out there we couldn’t help.

“The positive is we did help a lot of people. We should be proud of what we did to meet the need.”

But, even with increased donations via Miracle on Mountain, the Cheer Board finds itself trying to climb out of a financial hole. It needs another $40,000 to get into the black.

So, for a final time, please consider donating. Think of it as either a late Christmas present or as one of your first donations of the year to get a tax receipt.

On behalf of the Free Press, thanks very much. Have a great year, and we hope you will help us conjure up another miracle next fall.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca