Goodfellows helps 10,000 Tarrant schoolchildren. ‘Support has been humbling.’
The Goodfellow Fund served 10,000 needy Tarrant County schoolchildren this season by providing a $50 gift certificate for new clothing from Old Navy.
The goal was to serve 15,000 children, but the pace of families applying for assistance slowed near the end of the campaign.
The fund plans to create volunteer task groups next year to contact each school district in Tarrant County to ask for their help in letting families know about the 100-year-old Christmas charity, said Goodfellows executive director Richard Greene.
“Star-Telegram Charities and the Goodfellow Fund have an unrivaled legacy in our community in providing assistance during the holiday season,” he said. “No one is disappointed. Again, the support of the community has been humbling.”
This year’s Goodfellow Fund campaign might land a little short of the $775,000 goal with donations to date totaling $740,000.
“This could not have been achieved without the very, very generous gift from the Exchange Club of Fort Worth,” Greene said. “Their members donating a near record of $431,250.00. My thanks to George Young, John Goff and his guest Carl Rove for the wonderful program and fundraising luncheon.
“And thanks to the many, many legacy donors, individuals, civic clubs, churches and neighborhood associations that contribute each year. I wish each one could experience what our volunteers and I see on a daily basis.”
Greene said the smiles and sincere and usually quiet thank-you from the parents validate the work the Goodfellow Fund contributes to the community.
“Many times there are a few tears, both from the mother and on the face of our volunteers,” he said. “I’d only hope that each donor could personally experience the sincerity and appreciation of each these families.”
The Goodfellow Fund accepts donations throughout the year.
About the Goodfellows Fund
The story on the Goodfellows 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 years later, the Advertising Club of Fort Worth staged the first local Goodfellows campaign. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1912, Publisher Amon G. Carter brought the tradition to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
To find out more, visit goodfellowfundfw.com. The new post office box for donations and correspondence is P.O. Box 149, Fort Worth, TX. 76101.