The Ionia Kids has 3 Holiday Traditions!
First, about 5 years ago they started collecting donations to fill Holiday Hope Chests. This project was designed by low income youth to support other low income youth! Due to funding cuts a major local organization was forced to give up a Christmas Tradition of presents from Santa at a Christmas party. Our youth attending Kids Club figured out a way to collect stocking stuffers and place them in care packages that would be delivered to those youth. 5 Years later, Kids Club Members are still carrying on this tradition! Each year a new partner organization is selected who provides a list of children who could use a little extra Christmas Cheer. Local churches, businesses, and individuals donate stocking stuffers to fill the care packages. Kids Club members put in over 200 volunteer hours preparing the care packages and getting them out to the community. We typically do about 200 care packages per year, but this year the size of our group and our donations being collected will probably limit us to preparing about 120 care packages.
The second Kids Club tradition is making handmade beaded Christmas Ornaments that are distributed to senior citizens in nursing homes or assisted living homes. This project has taken place for nearly 10 years and continues to be completely supported by donations of supplies to make the ornaments.
The third Kids Club tradition is the Annual Cookie Exchange. This is by far one of the favorites of the kids and is open to the whole community. Everyone is welcome to attend! Each attendee brings 2 dozen cookies that are made at home. All these cookies are lined up on a table and each attendee walks through picking up 1 or 2 cookies from each plate up to the 2 dozen total cookies. Local businesses support this project by donating the serving trays and cling wrap to package up the cookies and by donating hot cocoa or other beverages for the volunteers attending the event. Extra cookies are then packaged up and delivered to supporting businesses as a Thank You for supporting the Kids Club.
