Santa's Pantry

My husband and I started an organization, www.santaspantry.org <http://www.santaspantry.org>  in January 2008. Originally our plan was to offer "free" pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus for food donations for our local food pantry for November and December 2008. We contacted businesses and ask them to allow us to draw coloring pages for a coloring book that Santa will give the first 1000 children. The pages would be specific to their business and we would do it for free so they would receive some free advertising to promote their business. When they ask how to repay us, we ask if they will help run copies of the page for us to include it in the book. We now have over 20 businesses doing this. We contacted other businesses that have been slow and struggling and told them what we were planning for the end of the year. We told them how Santa will have a bag that the child gets to pull a "coupon" from for a gift. Several businesses have donated coupons for buy one get o ne items to help Santa give things to the children and also help bring business to themselves. Other businesses have donated large "gifts" such as an airplane ride with Santa and a trip for a family of four to go to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. By doing this, they hope to help us bring in more people with food donations to help the needy in the community.

While planning the big event for November and December 2008, we found that several people and businesses are struggling right now with the slow economy and they needed help now. We started really pushing the idea of "Pay it Forward" within the community. On June 1st we will have ten children, all under 7 years, planting "Santa's Garden" A portion of the vegetables from this garden will go to a food pantry. We have also found four other gardens in Elkhart, Indiana doing the same thing.

We also have two 4 year old girls that are working on sponsorship letters to raise enough money to purchase 2500 boxes of crayons to supply all the first and second graders in the Elkhart school system with crayons for the new school year. We have several suggestions on our web site for ways that people can help Pay It Forward and also have several stories how local people have already Paid It Forward. Our goal is to get the entire community working together and Paying It Forward in some sort of way. With the slow economy, people have to help one another.

Thank you,

Debbie Micola
"Pay It Forward"
Santa's Pantry
http://www.santaspantry.org