Article by Nadine Battaglia
For the sixth year running, the Ben Osborn Memorial Fund will deliver “a little Christmas lift” to area families and children in need by bringing gifts and goodies so these children “may realize the joys of Christmas wonder and have something to look forward to under the tree.”
The Memorial Fund’s Christmas initiative began in 2010 by adopting children, families and organizations and has evolved from that first year’s donation of $1000 in gifts, to $12,600 by Christmas 2014. I asked Bill Osborn about the gifts, and he replied that they are mainly “toys, board games and gifts that pop up yearly, along with a lot of winter clothing and footwear . . . another thing we do is provide books for Christmas giving.” Bill also commented with a smile that some of the gifts are “trendy” – I asked him if it was the toys or the clothing items that were trendy and he said it could be either!
Ben’s Fund assists 32 member schools with Christmas giving as one of six programs available to the schools in eleven school districts and the BOCES program in parts of Warren, Washington and Saratoga Counties. The Christmas gifts are individually purchased and wrapped by volunteers for every child for which a school or organization requested help.
The following 18 organizations are on the Memorial Fund’s Christmas initiative gift list:
Prospect School; Greenwich Central School; Wait House; Double H Ranch; Muscular Dystrophy Association; Greater Glens Falls Area Youth Center; Moreau Community Center; North Country Ministry; Salvation Army; Women In Need; Warm the Children Fund; Warren-Hamilton County Agency; Warren/Washington Child Care Center; Washington County Head Start; Warren County Preventative Services; Family Services Association of Glens Falls; Operation Santa Claus For Kids; Glens Falls YMCA’s joint collaborative literary effort.
I wondered if the children “adopted” by the Memorial Fund might not have a present to open on Christmas morning if not for those provided by the Fund, and Bill commented, “That is a very real possibility . . . and in the spirit of Ben’s memory, we simply wish to help those least able to help themselves.”
For more information about our Christmas Initiative, please contact Bill Osborn at:
The Ben Osborn Memorial Fund, Inc.
PO Box 4040
Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 792-4514
Or by email: [email protected]
