MAKE A SMILE FOUNDATION INC

Make A Smile Foundation, Inc. hosts an Annual Children's Holiday Party and Shopping Spree for children in need.  The main purpose of these events is to create fun and memorable holiday events for these children.  These events take place at a local Target store.

The children participating (ages 4-8) are identified through school nurses, who identify these children as being on the free lunch or subsidized lunch programs.  Come the day of each Shopping Spree, volunteers are paired up with children.  Both the volunteers and the children to whom they are assigned are provided with color coded name badges.  Each parent receives a "pink sheet” that they must use to retrieve their child/children after the event.  The volunteers maintain close supervision of the children during the Shopping Spree.

 

After the toys have been selected and paid for, the children and volunteers will gather together to sing carols.  At this time, they will receive gifts from Santa Claus (or somebody other than Santa Claus to avoid possible discomfort), which are either purchased with the funds from our sponsors or are from toys donated by the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots program and Target.  A photographer is also provided by Make A Smile during the Holiday Party so that each child, as appropriate, will receive a photograph with Santa Claus.

 

The volunteers are a core component to the success of Make A Smile’s Annual Holiday Parties and Shopping Sprees.  In Milltown, New Jersey, we have found a core of approximately 50 volunteers who come out every year so that the ratio of volunteers to children is nearly one to one.  Additionally, the volunteer base is split so that there is a separate set of volunteers dedicated to identifying gifts for specific children, therefore ensuring that children who have gone to multiple Shopping Sprees do not receive duplicate gifts.  These volunteers individually wrap the gifts as well.  Another set of volunteer leaders focuses on planning each Shopping Spree.  This provides for an effective segregation of duties by the volunteer groups.

 

Another of the key core values of Make A Smile is that we avoid publicity of the Shopping Sprees.  We do not want pictures of the children in newspapers.  We do not want the children to feel embarrassed that they are identified as "in need".  Information about the program and pictures are used exclusively to solicit sponsors to help these children.  These sponsors' names are never given out.
In the future we are looking to expand the annual Shopping Sprees so that we ultimately reach over one hundred Shopping Sprees per year. To expand the reach of Make A Smile Foundation, we hope to continue partnerships with sponsors like M&T Bank and Target Corporation as well as local Target stores and U.S. Marines Toys for Tots. We are also looking for new partners to provide insurance (i.e., insurance companies and/or agencies), to provide background checks on our volunteers (i.e., Police Benevolent Associations), and to assist in funding the Shopping Sprees each year.