Fort Worth area mom barely getting by on disability income turns to Goodfellows

Nikki’s challenges in life began early, starting with undergoing open-heart surgery when she was a baby. But, being a fighter, she does all she can to make a good life for herself and her two children, the youngest of whom is her 11-year-old daughter.

Nikki is barely getting by on a meager disability income.

The Goodfellow Fund is here to help folks like Nikki, just as they have for well over a century. This year, the Star-Telegram charity is providing $100 gift cards for Old Navy stores to help children in Tarrant County have a joyful holiday season.

While her 19-year-old son doesn’t qualify for the card, her daughter does. Quite simply, thanks to the Goodfellow Fund, she can have something to smile about and look forward to, like other children. Some nice new clothes, perhaps a much-needed winter coat can now be hers.

“It means a lot to me to help out with the problem,” Nikki said. “It is something she can have that she couldn’t before. I am thankful for the Goodfellows.”

About the Goodfellow fund

The story on the Goodfellow website describes its beginning as an offshoot of the first newspaper charity drive in the United States, started by the Chicago Tribune on Dec. 10, 1909. A Chicago city attorney wrote a letter challenging his friends to donate the money they would have spent on holiday partying to charity.

A couple of years later, the Advertising Club of Fort Worth staged the first local Goodfellow campaign. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1912, Publisher Amon G. Carter brought the tradition to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

To donate online and find out more, visit goodfellowfundfw.com/donate. To donate with a check, send checks made out to the Goodfellow Fund to P.O. Box 149, Fort Worth, TX, 76101.