Silver Christmas Ornaments

Good Samaritan Holds Christmas in July Fundraiser

It’s the middle of summer, the first week of July. It’s a time when most people are celebrating America’s birthday, ice cream, water parks and carefree fun in the summer sun.

But, at Good Samaritan Ministries it’s Christmas time–sort of.

“We’re holding a month-long drive to raise money for the Christmas boxes we give away in December,” said Misty Bowers, Public Relations Director for GSM. “We know the holidays can be stressful and there are many worthy organizations all vying for your attention during the last months of the year so we wanted to give individuals and businesses a chance to give when things may not be stretched quite so thin.”

All money raised during the month-long drive will go directly into a Christmas fund and only used for the purpose of purchasing food for the Christmas boxes given in the month of December and filled with most of the ingredients needed to make a traditional Christmas dinner.

Donation jars are available at American State Bank, Early branch; Citizens National Bank; General Power and Light; Good Samaritan Ministries; Mid Tex Federal Credit Union; Texas Bank, all five locations; and Trans Texas Tire.

As an added bonus for making a donation at the Good Samaritan Ministry office at 305 Clark Street, all donors’ names will be entered into a drawing each week for a Christmas-themed basket.

“We have four color-themed Christmas ornament baskets and will give away one a week on Fridays during July,” Bowers said. “The first to be given away Friday, July 8 has a black and silver-theme with gorgeous large silver glass ball ornaments, medium sized silver and black studded ornaments, black glass balls and intricate silver glitter ornaments.”

Pictures of each week’s basket can be found online at www.goodsambwd.org.

Bowers added that anyone making a donation at the GSM office can enter their name into the drawing a second time by taking a tour while on location.

“We’re always looking for ways to get people to come in and see exactly what we do,” Bowers said. “People are usually surprised when they see the full scope and heart of Good Samaritan Ministries.”

Bowers said the idea for a Christmas in July drive came simply by seeing the increasing need of the people coming to the food pantry portion of the ministry for help. So far this year, the ministry has seen a 17 percent increase in the amount of people who are coming to the food pantry for grocery staples. Last December 1,262 families came to GSM during December. At the 17 percent increase, that would be an extra 215 families and at $35 a box that would be a total of $51,695 for Christmas boxes in addition to regular grocery staples.

sage green and silver glitter christmas ornament ball

One of the great things about my craft room overhaul has been rediscovering lots of ribbon and fabric that I’d stowed away (to make room for more, of course) and then forgotten all about. As long as I ignore the fact that the amount of ribbon I own is actually really, REALLY, embarrassing, I’m having a grand time going through it all. I was really excited to find this gorgeous, long lost ribbon from an ornament that I had originally made in 2007…it is a sheer sage green ribbon with a delicate silver glitter leaf pattern throughout. I accented it with silver ribbon, and then added some glittery silver branches within the loops of the ribbon bow and hanger. The bad news? I only had enough ribbon leftover to make two more. Booo! Well, anyway, I’ve just listed the first Sage Leaf ornament in my etsy store, so please check it out!

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