It's "Christmas in July"

Hillside Special Santas and WARM 101.3 are teaming up to bring Christmas to Rochester a little early this year. Tune in to WARM 101.3 on the 25th to hear all of your holiday favorites–July 25th that is!

As part of its Christmas in July promotion, WARM 101.3 will start playing Christmas music at 5:00 p.m. and will not stop until $5,000 dollars has been raised for Hillside Special Santas, the Hillside Family of Agencies’ holiday giving program that offers the community an opportunity to help youth and families during the holiday season.

Not in the holiday mood just yet? Donations will be taken online prior to the promotion at https://www.hillside.com/Donate/Christmas.asp. If $5,000 is raised before the July 25, officials at WARM 101.3 say they won't bring the "fa, la, la, la ,la," but Hillside Special Santas will be able to get a jump start on its goal by providing gifts to 101 of the 7,500 children they will be helping this holiday season.

Now entering its 27th year, Hillside Special Santas began with distribution of donated gifts stored in a Hillside leader’s office and has grown into a holiday giving program serving children and families in 24 counties throughout New York State. This year, Hillside Special Santas has expanded to provide holiday cheer to more than 7,500 youth—1,900 more than in previous years.

For more information on Hillside Special Santas, please log on to Hillside.com. Follow the reindeer, and join the merriment of Christmas in July.

What happens to the gifts when they leave headquarters?

For those of you that are wondering what happens once gifts are dropped off at Hillside Special Santa headquarters, here is an inside look at how volunteers fill the orders and then how they are distributed to the various programs/services. From there the gifts are given to the children and families.

Volunteers use the wish lists of each youth to fill orders.

Then those gifts are labeled with tags that correspond to the programs/services the youth is in/receiving.

And finally, Hillside staff members from the programs/services come to pick up the bagged gifts for transport to the youth and their families.

Local high schools’ efforts pay off in pennies for Hillside Special Santas

Several of the students that were integral in Batavia High School's winning effort in 98 PXY’s 2007 High School Challenge made the trip up to Hillside Special Santas headquarters Monday, December 17 to help 98 PXY's Kasper present the check for the $27,975.71 (just over 2.7 million pennies!) the contest raised to Hillside Special Santas in a special ceremony.

Three Rochester TV stations came out (See coverage from News 8 Now here and here).

One of the Batavia students, senior Annie Palermo (pictured here) told the story of how they raised a portion of their more than $8,600 donation by putting two teachers up on a roof and taking pledges to keep them up there.

"We had two of our teachers stand on the roof for 24 hours, or however long we could pay to keep them up there," said Annie.

The students estimated that to meet their fundraising goal for the event and to keep the teachers up on the roof the entire time, they needed to receive $120 in pledges an hour.

"We kept them up there for 24 hours, so we made, I think, over $3,000 on that," surmised Annie.

Also on hand were Family First Federal Credit Union's CEO Christine Peters (pictured here to Sally's left) and Director of Branch Operation Karin Allen (pictured here to Sally's right).

After the students from the participating high schools dropped off the pennies, Family First FCU counted them all. Thanks!

Sally also took an opportunity to thank all of the local high school students that participated in the contest. As she says in the video clip below, their efforts will really make this holiday season a very special one for the 5,600 youth and their families Hillside Special Santas is providing gifts to.

Hillside Special Santas a part of Time Warner Cable's 2007 Holiday Day of Giving

Hillside Special Santas and nine Rochester-area not-for-profit organizations were honored at a reception Monday, December 17 as part of Time Warner Cable’s Holiday Day of Giving.

The company divided a $25,000 donation equally among the 10 organizations, which support wide-spread initiatives throughout the community.

“The holidays are a period of giving, caring and helping those in need,” says Terence Rafferty Time Warner Cable Division president (pictured with Sally), adding “We have so many wonderful agencies and organizations in our community that help make a difference in people’s lives all year long, and Time Warner Cable is pleased to help support these agencies for the meaningful services they provide.”

The reception included a formal check presentation of $2,500 to a representative from each agency.

“Time Warner Cable’s efforts are reflective of that special quality that is shown when there are others in need,” says Sally Bohne, Hillside Special Santas manager.

Organizations honored along with Hillside Family of Agencies included: City of Rochester Education Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs of Rochester, Inc., The Salvation Army, Visiting Nurse Service/Meals on Wheels, Volunteers of America, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Rochester, ARC of Monroe, Mary Cariola Children’s Center, and the Pirate Toy Fund.

Culinary innovators give to Hillside Special Santas

Wegmans Culinary Innovation Center employees (left to right) Ken Schlageter, Christine Remington, and Cindi Gaesser presented a check for $500 from everyone at the Culinary Innovation Center to Sally and Hillside Special Santas on Monday, December 17.

We thank the Culinary Innovation Center so much for believing this holiday season!

Gamma Phi pitches in!

Members from the Rochester Alumni Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta sorority took some time to give back last week--volunteering at Hillside Special Santas headquarters.

How one elementary school is sharing the spirit of the season

Students in Gates-Chili’s Neil Armstrong Elementary School service club this year are orchestrating a school-wide toy collection drive to benefit Hillside Special Santas this year.

According to Danielle Hoch, fifth grade teacher and service club advisor, the students will be collecting toys until Thursday, December 13. The service club project supports The 40 Developmental Assets of student involvement in the community and the Gates Chili school district.

The students in the service club were in charge of making the posters to promote the toy drive, as well as collect the toys, and deliver them to Hillside Special Santas.

“The kids are super excited and are anticipating the drive’s turn out,” says Hoch, noting that as a community over 12 boxes of toys have been collected thus far with two more days to go.

The Neil Armstrong faculty also wanted to contribute, and as a result, Hoch says they have collected over three boxes of items from the Hillside Special Santas Top 10 list.

The students plan on delivering the gifts to Hillside Special Santas headquarters at 1183 Monroe Avenue in Rochester on Friday, December 14.

This year, Hillside Special Santas has expanded to help more than 5,600 children and their families served by Hillside Family of Agencies in Western and Central New York, so the donations could not have come at a better time.

“For the students to put forth such an effort is truly reflective of that special human quality that is shown when there are others in need,” says Sally Bohne, Hillside Special Santas manager.

For more information on becoming a Hillside Special Santa like the members of the Neil Armstrong Elementary School’s service club, call (585) 256-7630, email santa@hillside.com, or follow the reindeer at www.hillside.com.