For the City times
PORTAGE COUNT – The Portage County Holiday Basket Project is accepting applications from Portage County families and individuals who need help providing a Christmas meal and gifts for their children.

Applications are available online at the Portage County and Health and Human Services website. Click on Health and Human Services and look for “Holiday Basket” in the left column. Applications are also available at Operation Bootstrap, Portage County Health and Human Services, Emergency Services, Salvation Army, Cap Services and Schools.

The program has its roots in efforts more than four decades ago when various groups and individuals, delivering food and gifts to residents in need, found that some other group had already been to the home with a holiday basket. That led to the formation of the Holiday Basket Project to act as an umbrella to coordinate efforts and dispense information to people who are willing to donate a basket. The program matches applicants with a sponsor.

Major sponsors are Operation Bootstrap, the Salvation Army, the Knights of Columbus, St. Paul United Methodist Church, Elks Lodge, St. Bronislava Parish and Plover-Whiting Lions Club, the WSPT “Christmas is for Children Campaign”.

The project is also soliciting additional sponsors. Last year those sponsors were clubs, schools, churches, businesses, employees and individual families. Notices are being sent to all Portage County churches to place the information in their church bulletins, reaching out to the community to become a part of the program to serve families in need during the Christmas season.

Donors may also include a gift or gift certificate for the children in the family and should spend approximately $30 per child. If you are interested in sponsoring a basket, contact the Holiday Basket office at 715-344-9950 or email [email protected] for a Sponsorship Packet.
Sponsors need to notify the family they are sponsoring as soon as they receive a copy of their application so the family knows it has a sponsor. Sponsors should again contact the basket recipient by mail or phone between Dec. 10 and 17 to arrange basket delivery by Dec. 23.

Many families are participating in the project because of the children. For many, poverty may only be a temporary situation. Basket sponsors have an opportunity to help someone who may have recently lost a job, has medical bills that have wiped out savings, is a single parent supporting two or three children, or one of the “working poor” whose monthly living expenses leave nothing for Christmas gifts for the children or the large Christmas meal.

For more information call the Holiday Basket Office at 715-344-9950 or email [email protected].