Gift donations pour in for Calhoun County families

The number of families who applied for Christmas gift assistance with New Opportunities held steady this year, Calhoun County Coordinator Heidi Billmeier said.
But the number of people who donated increased somewhat, she added. Groups, such as Rockwell City Rotary and the Masons, churches, including St. Francis Catholic Church and St. Paul’s Lutheran and Presbyterian Church, both in Rockwell City, and businesses, such as the Northern Iowa Acupuncture Clinic, contributed gifts this year, Billmeier said. The number of families who contacted her to adopt other families also increased, and Billmeier was able to make sure about one-third of the families were adopted in time to get donations in for last week’s distribution. The remaining 64 families had their wishes fulfilled through other donations, including those from the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. Other donor groups included the Farm Service Agency office and the North Central Correctional Facility.
In all, 243 children from across the county will receive gifts from the New Opportunities drive.
Donors this year were “pretty generous,” Billmeier said. “St. Paul (church members) came back for more names. Rotary came back.”
Billmeier and a handful of volunteers spent Wednesday morning sorting the gifts by family, with distribution set for Thursday.