Goodfellows help is ‘great’ for woman taking care of 4 grandkids, great-niece

Nelda needs the Goodfellow Fund to help the five children in her home have a happy holiday season — five children who aren’t her own.

Nelda takes care of her four grandchildren. She also has her great-niece living with her.

She makes it work, but it’s not easy, especially when it comes to the holiday season. Like all youngsters, they simply want to experience the joy of presents during this time of year.

Nelda’s hardship started when she contracted the COVID 19 virus in 2021. Just as it impacted so many others beyond having the illness, it was devastating financially.

“I got behind on my bills and I just can’t seem to catch up,” she said. “I have a job, but my clients are steadily going, and I just need help.”

That’s what the Goodfellow Fund specializes in, providing help at a time of year that can be otherwise sad without the ability to provide gifts for young ones who often don’t understand hardships. The Star-Telegram charity is once again providing $100 gift cards from Old Navy to children from financially challenged families.

“Thank you for the help, Goodfellow Fund,” Nelda said. “The help is great. God bless all of you.”

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.