Thousands of dollars in Christmas presents, for needy Winona families, are wrapped and ready to be delivered by Winona State University employees, Thursday, Dec. 16, at 9 a.m., from WSU's Somsen Hall, Room 205. This year, 65 WSU staff members, faculty and students pledged between $10-$50 each, raising almost $1,500 to buy presents for the Gifts for Winona program.
The WSU community started taking part in the Gifts for Winona program about eight years ago, when two WSU staff members got an idea. Sandy Schmitt, WSU purchasing director, and Deb Benz, WSU travel director, along with a few other business office personnel, had been buying a gift for the program for several years when someone mentioned they wanted to take part in the program, but that the suggested cost for each individual's gift was a little more than what they could afford.
"That prompted the idea to pool together the funds which people could afford to pledge," said Schmitt, "and buy gifts for as many people as possible."
This November, Schmitt sent out an email to several different WSU offices asking a few employees if they'd like to participate. Within one hour, about $400 was pledged and by the end of the week almost $1,500 was collected.
Benz said they couldn't do what they do for the community without the support of WSU employees and students.
"Everyone at Winona State should be very proud," said Benz. "The number of people who pledge money to the program expands every year."
With the amount of money raised by the university, Schmitt and Benz were able to get the Christmas lists of 49 people, most of them families. They spend hours looking over the needs of the people to create a shopping list, which this year is six pages typed.
"Deb and I both enjoy shopping," said Schmitt, "and we both have the frugal gene. We really like to find the best buys we can."
Once the shopping list is created, Deb and Sandy meet for breakfast and go through sale ads so they can plan what stores they need to stop at to get the items they're looking for at the best price.
"We can't afford to pay full price," said Benz. "We have to watch the sales and use coupons or else we couldn't make it."
This year, the women went out on five separate shopping trips and bought at least two gifts for each person on their list for a total cost of $30 per individual. With the gifts purchased, all of the people who pledged money held a wrapping party to wrap the dozens of gifts for the needy families. The presents will be delivered to the Tandeski Center, in Winona, Thursday, Dec. 16, so the Gifts for Winona program can distribute them to the families.
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