Campaign raises record amount
Coordinator Karen Tweardy can’t say why, but the Herald-Standard’s 2004 Give-A-Christmas campaign raised a record total of $64,126.35 for the Salvation Army, the largest amount ever collected since the inception of the program in 1986. “I’m really not sure why it happened. There were a number of factors working together,’ said Tweardy. “There seemed to be a special sensitivity this year. I noticed it in the cards and notes people sent with their donations.’
The campaign, which far exceeded its goal of $35,000, attracted a large number of participants, who ranged from individual donors to groups to churches to businesses to schools.
Individual donors gave larger amounts this year, and there were a significant number of contributors who gave great amounts, many of them up from donations in years past.
The latter included the students, teachers, parents and friends of the Albert Gallatin School District, who consistently have been the biggest contributors to the campaign. They donated about $12,300 this year.
Other schools that put in extraordinary efforts included the Laurel Highlands and Uniontown Area school districts.
“Laurel Highlands doesn’t have a unified system, but individual schools did projects that were bigger and better,’ said Tweardy. “In Uniontown, Robert Caldwell’s world cultures classes coordinated an effort that included several schools, and several individual schools participated. It was that kind of thing. Mr. Caldwell’s world cultures classes always do something. This year, it was huge.’
In addition, Atlas America gave $5,000, while Wal-Mart once again donated $1,000 to help start the campaign.
Sepic Orthodontics contributed $3,000 through a unique Halloween candy buy-back program in which the Sepics paid children $2 a pound for donating their candy to U.S. troops serving abroad to distribute to children living in those countries. The amount raised was matched by Sepic Orthodontics and donated to Give-A-Christmas.
And a significant influence on this year’s campaign can be traced to Tweardy’s husband, the Rev. James Tweardy of Uniontown, who died on Thanksgiving Day, the official kickoff of Give-A-Christmas. Rev. Tweardy, 53, the pastor of Third Presbyterian Church, died after a two-year battle with leukemia. His family asked that memorial donations be made to Give-A-Christmas.
Donations in Rev. Tweardy’s memory came in almost daily, making an important impact.
“A lot of those people usually give to the campaign anyway, but, obviously, it was personally very touching,’ said Tweardy. “And there’s just the countless individuals who give gifts as memorials and in honor of people. That’s always heartwarming.’
As always, churches, organizations and groups contributed.
“There’s a foundation of people who give every single year,’ said Tweardy.
And the Herald-Standard Sparkle Buckets, which were placed in 250 stores in the Herald-Standard readership area, collected about $1,900 this year.
“We haven’t seen that much money from them in years,’ said Tweardy. “They are always significant. But this was a banner year for them, as well.’
The Herald-Standard acknowledges people who make donations during the campaign, but some contributions were made after the Dec. 23 deadline.
Tweardy said, “We’d like to make a special thanks to the ones we weren’t able to mention after the campaign closed.’
Since the campaign began in 1986, Give-A-Christmas has raised $609,985.69 for the Salvation Army, which was selected to be the recipient of these funds because of its wide reach. The Salvation Army uses the funds for Christmas toys for children, gifts for elderly in nursing homes, food and for providing help with daily operations.
“The money is always well used,’ said Tweardy, “especially at Christmas.’
This year’s record total is particularly gratifying since Give-A-Christmas failed to reach its goal the past two years.
“You never know from year to year what will happen, and that’s part of the excitement of the campaign for me,’ said Tweardy.
Most of the money comes in during the final days of the campaign.
“The last few days are happily hectic,’ said Tweardy.
“I think (readers) have some ownership in this. They don’t see it as a Herald-Standard campaign. They see it as something they are doing for their communities. For a lot of them, it’s a special part of their own holiday. They make it a point to be a part of this.’