BE A SANTA EXTRAVGANZA!

An exciting new holiday program took place just before Christmas with the Cass County Community Foundation's “Be A Santa Extravaganza”! According to
Deanna Crispen, President & CEO of the foundation, the program was the
direct result of the CCCF Board of Directors work and a desire to alleviate some
of the financial burden our nonprofits are feeling this year. Crispen shared,
“The Be a Santa Extravaganza” was designed
with several different components to help get needed funding to people and organizations
that are struggling due to the pandemic.
As part of
Lilly Endowment Phase VII, the local board was eligible for a special grant if specific
criteria regarding board engagement were met. The CCCF Board was successful and
received the funding earlier this month and decided to dedicate a portion of
those funds immediately to help our local nonprofits who may be struggling due
to cancellation of fundraising activities this year.Each member of the board
was asked to submit the name of a Cass County nonprofit to receive a $2,000
grant. A total of $30,000 is being awarded to eleven different organizations
selected by the board members. Board members and staff will be presenting those
surprise checks over the next few days.
A second
component of the “Be A Santa Extravaganza” is the revival of the “win it to
give it” food giveaway with the Iron Horse Broadcasting in Logansport. During
the next few days, the local radio stations will be offering over 200 -$50 gift
cards to Martins Supermarket or D & R Fruit Market to callers. There will
be multiple giveaways with each call-in to win. Callers are asked to think
about their friends and neighbors who might be struggling and to “Be a Santa”
and give the gift cards to help someone else. In all over $10,200 will be award
through the giveaway.
The Emmaus
Food Pantry is also receiving direct support through the “Be A Santa” program. Two
thousand dollars in Country Mark/Ceres Solutions gas gift cards will be given
to the food pantry for distribution. Many clients using the food pantry
struggle just to get to the site. Jason Mitchell, Executive Director at Emmaus explained,
“Sometimes transportation is a real problem for our clients and the $10 gift
cards just helps so much!”