Saturday, December 29, 2012

Million Reasons To Believe!

Every year, Macy's hosts the "Million Reasons To Believe" campaign. For each stamped letter written to Santa, Macy's donates $1 (up to $1,000,000) to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It based on the story of a girl named Virginia:
"In 1897, a girl named Virginia wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun asking if Santa truly existed. The editor, in response, published a letter that assured her that Santa exists as surely as beauty and joy exist. One must simply have the courage to shun cynicism and have faith in things that can't always be seen. And for those spirited ones, Santa will always exist."
Last year, right after I was crowned Miss Staten Island, I began to work on this campaign as my first big project. I was shocked when I came out with 1,431 letters and couldn't have been more proud of everyone involved. This year, I decided to visit more schools and collect "Dear Santa" letters, once again. Especially with everything that has happened in the world and on Staten Island in the past few months, I thought the children needed something magical to believe in.

As I expected, it was a little more difficult to get schools to participate this year, due to to the Hurricane Relief efforts and having to "catch up" on lost time. However, I was grateful to Public School 6, Intermediate School 24, & Public School 39 for agreeing to work on the campaign with me. Each visit was unique. I enjoyed meeting and working with the students.

At Public School 6, I worked with Ms. Loughran, who created the schools first Student Council and Student Government. I was very impressed by the students of the council when I met them. It made me happy to see how excited they all were to take this project and spread it through their school. I was equally as impressed with Ms. Loughran. She has a true love for her job and students and it shows in everything that she does. I have to also thank Ms. Difolco, the principal, for providing stamps for the letters.
Intermediate School 24 was an interesting appearance because I attended the school from 2002 to 2005. I hadn't walked those halls in a very long time. I spoke during the lunch periods, which were divided by grade, with the help of Assistant Principal Gilberto. It was great to see past teachers and be able to talk to each grade individually. I could tell I had an effect on the students. My Instagram followers count jumped to 367 when I left!
My final visit was to Public School 39, where my mother is a teacher. I had visited the school previously for my "Wish For Change" fundraiser. This time, instead of raising money themselves, I explained that Macy's would be donating and all they had to do was write their letters to Santa. We spoke about the holidays, Make-A-Wish, and the gifts that they were going to ask for. One kindergartner told me, "I want a pony that poops ice cream!" -- You gotta love kids... ( :
I have to specially mention one of the children I met at PS 39. This young girl is absolutely a future Miss Staten Island. Her name is Lori, and every day she reads the morning announcements to the school. As a Kindergartner, that is an enormous deal! She was awestruck by the crown and sash, but I told her that one day it would be hers.
After all of the visits and collecting letters, we wound up with a total of 841 letters. Though I did not reach my count from last year, I am very proud of everyone involved. I'm glad that even with everything that went on this year, students, teachers, and parents still found it in their hearts to believe in the power of a wish -- and believe in the power of Christmas!
I delivered all of the letters to Macy's right before Christmas Eve. It wasn't easy stuffing them all into the little mailbox...
In total, Macy's donated $1 million to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. At an average cost of $7,500 for one wish, around 133 wishes can be granted across the country with this money.
Thank you, Macy's, for your annual support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and thank you to all of the schools involved for your letters! You really did help make a child's wish come true. Always believe because "nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world." Merry Christmas : ]

No comments:

Post a Comment