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!”