Milwaukee North Sunrise hosts ‘Christmas with Dignity’ program in partnership with Blanket of Love
Photo by Yvonne Kemp
Milwaukee North Sunrise Rotary Club (MNSRC) partnered with the Blanket of Love project to spread joy during the Christmas holiday season for the “Christmas with Dignity Program” for disadvantaged families. Rotary members’ hearts are filled with joy while shopping to put smiles on the faces of children.
“Christmas with Dignity” is a social enterprise program that seeks to enhance the traditional charitable giving opportunity at Christmas. Over the last four years the club has chosen to give parents the “dignity” of selecting, buying and wrapping the gifts for their children for pennies on the dollar, thus giving parents a hand-up instead of a hand-out. In addition, parents select a charity to benefit from the funds they used to “purchase” the gifts to further enhance the joy of giving.
The recipients donate funds to help charities such as Polio Plus and Blanket of Love. The recipients are the families from the Blanket of Love Program. Sunrise Rotary Club chooses 12 families from several names given and each family has an average of 3-7 children 0-18 years old. At least 60 children received new clothing, toys and age-appropriate gifts. The Blanket of Love program is housed in the Ebenezer Church and the church allows free use of the facility for distribution and pick-up of the gifts by the parents. Pictured at the event are (from left) Milwaukee North Sunrise Rotary members Diane Beckley-Milner; Gregory Williams; MNSRC President Ruby Dent; family participant Yavonne Jung, Angela Stinson, and Blanket of Love Founder Julia Means.
