Widow struggling with health problems hopes Goodfellows can help her sons this Christmas

Wendy and her children experienced the worst a family can imagine when they came home to a shocking discovery.

”My kids’ lives changed forever March 17 when they found their dad face down unresponsive,” she recalled. “We had to say goodbye a few hours later.

”Since then things have not been financially good for me and my boys, making life even harder to deal with without their father.”

Compounding their grief and sad situation, the stress from it all has caused Wendy to have health problems and has made it hard for her to get a job.

”I would be so blessed to receive the help this year from others,” she said.

That’s where Goodfellows comes in. Families such as Wendy’s have been able to count on them for more than a century.

Once again this year, the Star-Telegram charity has set a goal of helping 12,000 children in need in Tarrant County feel some cheer this Christmas. They are providing a $50 tax-free gift certificate for each child for new trendy clothing from Old Navy Stores.

”I want to make the holidays as cheerful as possible, hopefully get to see them smile for a moment,” Wendy said. “Thank you and God bless.”

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.