2011
Santa Pal Project is underway!
Since
1936, the Asheville Optimist Club has continued the yearly tradition of raising money, buying quality toys, and making sure that all children in the community have presents for Christmas. The location of the Santa Pal project has moved all over Buncombe County, but the mission and goal has remained the same. Over the years, leaders of Santa Pal have used their unique mission to visit retail conventions to buy quality toys in bulk at the cheapest possible price. Local business owners, as well as other charities, have also been very generous with their donations and gifts to the organization. Three main goals have never changed in Santa Pal’s seventy-three year existence:
-
All deserving children will be
served
-
The children will get top quality toys instead of used or low quality
ones
-
100% of donations are used for buying toys while the Club pays all administrative expenses.
Asheville Optimist Club members over many generations have dug deep into their pockets to make sure these guiding principles have been met. Asheville area businesses and organizations have donated rental space, utilities, and volunteer time.
The number of Asheville area children who receive gifts each year range from 1600 to
2200. Over the years, Santa Pal leaders estimated that over 150,000 children in the Asheville area have received some assistance from the project. Many childhood recipients return to help organize, sort, and pack the toys for the next generation of deserving kids. 
A few years ago, the Optimist Club Board voted to join efforts with the Eblen Charities as a strategic partner. Eblen and its St. Nicholas Project and volunteers now join with the Optimist Club of Asheville to meet the needs of local families during the holidays, specifically the Santa Pal /St. Nicholas Project with a communal effort.
Today, the Asheville Optimist Club Santa Pal/St Nicholas project needs your help.
Due to the influence of national programs fashioned after Santa Pal/St Nicholas Project, as well as tough economic
times, the program is in danger of dissolving
due to inadequate funding. As the oldest civic project in North Carolina, current Santa Pal Optimist members, along with the Eblen Charities, are fighting to continue the tradition which has benefited so many local families for so long during the Christmas seasons.
Please
consider contributing gift or donate time or money. Anything you do will help give local families and children a Christmas they deserve.
This website will also have information about this year’s location, registration, distribution times along with fundraisers and other events for the program.
With Sincere Appreciation,
Optimist Club of Asheville / Eblen Charities
Applications
will be taken for children, beginning November
16, through
December
9, 2011
.
Office hours will be from:
We
are serving ages 0-12 and 13-18 if they have a
younger sibling participating in the 0-12
program.
Santa
Pal Application Office
Headquarters
-- Westgate, behind Earth Fare in the old Bon Marche unit. - Asheville, NC 28805
Santa
Pal Phone number (Monday Nov 29th)
828-258-3230
Saturday,
December 3rd
The
31st Annual Smokey Mountain Toy Run:
Come on out and show your support for the great kids of WNC. A $10 toy or ten dollars cash and your in! this is one of the largest toy runs in North Carolina or the surrounding area, a big reason being that all proceeds stay right here and benefit the families of WNC. Let's see if we can beat the record of 3,122 bikes!
http://www.smokymountainhog.com/index.html
Tuesday, December
6 at 5:30 PM: Media Day; local media/public will come for an open house
(FUN DAY, everyone is invited to attend)
Monday, December 12-Friday, December 23rd 10am-9pm: Toy Distribution
(Volunteers need for shifts all day, please RSVP to Brian Boatright if you can help, volunteers will be instructed on what to do upon arrival)
Monday, December 19 & Tuesday, December 20th:
Agency Days
