VILLAGE OF MINOA – Tillie’s Touch looks to once again make the festive season a touch brighter by checking off the holiday wish lists of local youth.
For the 10th consecutive year, the Syracuse-based charitable organization is hosting its Holiday Wish event, an effort to connect children in the Central New York area with sponsors willing to secure desired gifts for their young sponsees.
“We’re making dreams reality,” said Matt Johnson, the vice president of Tillie’s Touch. “That’s really important because a lot of times there are kids that go to school and overhear how their classmates received everything they wanted during the holidays, so we try to be a bridge in the community to make sure no kid feels left out.”
The kickoff for this year’s gift drive was held at Trapper’s II in Minoa from 5 to 8 p.m. the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Community members in attendance were given the chance to “adopt” individual children, whole families or multiple children from different families by picking up and signing out corresponding tags noting genders, ages, clothing sizes and toy requests.
These sponsors are then expected to purchase the items they assigned themselves prior to the Dec. 12 deadline, at which point the gifts are dropped off at a specified location in East Syracuse’s “Fremont Meadows” neighborhood outside the home of one of the nonprofit’s board members.
Later on in the month, Tillie’s Touch will hold another event specifically intended for the giving and occasional opening of presents, but its volunteers have also been known to go door to door delivering to the right families.
Last year, the organization supported more than 300 local children through its Holiday Wish event.
At the Nov. 24 event kickoff, the attendees procured about 100 tags—a well-appreciated number in Johnson’s view but still slightly under the mark the organization wishes to hit.
Additional community members are encouraged to help out and sign up as donors before Dec. 12 to allow for on-time gift delivery.
“We are beyond thankful to the CNY community for their consistent support throughout the years, and are once again hoping we can count on the community to fulfill the holiday wishes of local children,” Johnson said.
Tillie’s Touch regularly partners with local schools and food pantries for the event, and oftentimes they make a point of helping out kids whose families have struggled financially to purchase gifts.
Nevertheless, Johnson said the event typically deals with items costing between $25 and $100, adding that it would be rare to receive “too outlandish” a request.
“Our gifts tend to be something very doable, where a sponsor could come in and it’s not entirely financially overwhelming,” he said.
Barbie dolls, matchbox car sets and replica Lionel Messi soccer jerseys are among the gifts that have been given over the past decade courtesy of Tillie’s Touch.
Throughout the year, the local organization is usually focused on providing sporting equipment to children while fostering an appreciation for their academic studies.
