I'll introduce this year's Christmas Lights Tour fundraising campaign for Second Harvest Food Bank with a letter I received, along with a generous contribution, in mid-December last year.
"Year after year," the letter explained, "your Christmas Lights Tour campaign, benefiting hunger programs, has brought out the best in us during the holiday season, and this year should be no different, Except it is. This Christmas will be our first without our son. Harv McGarry Jr. died 10 months ago. He was dearly loved and is greatly missed, and it is in his memory that we make this extra contribution to Second Harvest, a wonderful organization that we've supported for a long time.
"Harv loved Christmastime, and he loved seeing the lights dazzling the darkness. For those of us dealing with loss this time of year, that symbolism becomes even more meaningful.
"Thank you for your gift of words all year long and best holiday wishes."
Laura and Harv McGarry
The holidays can be a painful time for some families. They evoke so many memories of treasured connections that have been severed by death or estrangement. I loved the way the McGarrys responded with an act of generosity in their son's name.
They weren't alone in being generous. Last year's campaign raised $18,629 for Second Harvest Food Bank, pushing our seven-year total to more than $82,000 parceled out to food banks and pantries throughout the Lehigh Valley. "It has a tremendous impact on the services we can provide," Second Harvest Director Ann McManus told me.
Nine groups of readers were rewarded last year with guided tours of the area's best displays, not to mention their own batches of gourmet cookies prepared by the official baker of the Christmas Lights Tour, Louise Melcher. I'll tell you in a moment how you can win your own trip and cookies this year.
There shouldn't be much doubt about the need for hunger relief in this economy.
Last year, McManus reported, the food bank distributed a record 6.38 million pounds of food, which is a 12 percent increase over the previous year. She said, "The numbers have been crawling ever higher over the past couple of years. All of our pantries are seeing increased demand."
I admire Second Harvest's efficiency in leveraging the impact of your contributions to help people throughout the area. Check my blog today at themorningcall.com for more information about what the agency accomplished this year.
One of the best results of this linkage between Christmas Lights and hunger relief has been the way many big decorators began collecting for Second Harvest, local food pantries and other charities. When I put my Christmas Lights Tour routes together, I try to let readers know which displays are collecting so they can bring along food, cash, toys or whatever else the decorator is gathering. If you're nominating a home and you know they're collecting, please include that information.
So how do you win a tour? Two ways.
First, you can make a sizable contribution or pledge to Second Harvest through me. The biggest donors will be guaranteed trips if they want them. Some of my largest donors go on a trip with me every year, a tradition I thoroughly enjoy.
Second, you can send me a check for at least $25, made out to Second Harvest Food Bank. Additional winners will be chosen from among all those givers of $25 or more.
Send your checks to my attention at The Morning Call, P.O. Box 1260, Allentown 18105. If you want a trip, the checks must be received before Dec. 14, when I'll begin notifying winners. Please include a phone number.
We're also experimenting this year with online contributions at the Second Harvest website. Just click on Donate, put in the amount and be sure to put Bill White Christmas Lights in the dedication line so you're in the drawing and your contribution is included in our final total.
Many of our trips take place in my family's van, which can hold six passengers, but if you prefer another vehicle, that's fine. In past years, Air Products has contributed a trip in its educational hydrogen-powered shuttle bus. Alas, this vehicle is gone, but Air Products will give us a trip instead on one of its regular buses, complete with my favorite driver, Christmas Lights veteran Sal Nicrone. This one holds more people than the hydrogen bus, so I'll be able to get more donors out on trips.
I also take a group of young people or families on their own trip, courtesy of generous donors who would prefer to see someone else go in their place. In recent years, we've ridden in luxury with a driver and vehicle donated by J&J Luxury Transportation, which always does a great job and has offered another trip this year.
So let's summarize. A large donation gives you an excellent chance of winning a trip, although the bar seems to go up every year. Any contribution of $25 or more puts you in the running. All the winners get to feast on cookies, gawk at spectacular displays and marvel at my rapier-like wit.
Best of all, there are no losers. If you don't get a trip this year, you'll still be spreading holiday spirit by feeding your hungry neighbors. How awesome is that?
bill.white@mcall.com 610-820-6105
Bill White's commentary appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
