Goodfellows helps with warm clothes for family struggling during holidays

Marisol loves her two children dearly. It breaks her heart to think of them doing without.

“This time of the year is when it’s most difficult,” she said.

The holidays can indeed be hard for some parents as they look into the faces of their children with the heartbreaking task of telling them there’s no money for presents.

The Goodfellow Fund understands and is there to help. The Star-Telegram charity has been assisting families in need during the holiday season for more than 100 years, and is once again giving away $100 Old Navy gift cards to children from families in need.

Families such as Marisol’s, who simply cannot consistently make ends meet.

Her husband works, but he has an outdoor job, and it is often dependent on the weather. As the winter approaches the work can also become less.

She is willing to work also, but employment has simply been hard to come by.

There’s also the challenge of appropriate winter clothing every child needs. Marisol is using the funds to help keep her children warm as the temperature starts to drop in the coming weeks.

“I was delighted with the help, especially since this is where I can find the most durable clothing,” she said. “This is my favorite store.”

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.