Chapter 40 Held a Book Fair Fundraiser Recently
Rebecca Baker, an SEA member at the Department of Safety, browses the offerings at a recent book fair held to raise money for Operation Santa Claus.
As many of you know, Operation Santa Claus isn’t just a holiday season thing: It’s a year-round project that takes lots of organization and fund-raising.
Workers at the Department of Safety recently held a book fair to raise money for Operation Santa Claus, according to SEA member Janice-Ann Sinclair. She said the money raised, $251.25 to be exact, will help Chapter 40 sponsor more children this year.
While $250 might not seem like a huge amount of money, it’s significant considering it was raised selling books for 50 cents or a dollar (a special mention should go out, though, to the woman who took home an entire box of VHS tapes for a $60 donation). Sinclair said they’ve held book fair fund-raisers in the past at Safety, so it wasn’t a hard sell.
“I happened to mention putting together a book sale to raise money to put toward Operation Santa Claus so we can take on extra kids,” Sinclair said.
Chapter 40 tries to raise money year-round, she added.
“We try to have different fundraisers so we can have more to put towards buying stuff for the kids,” she said.
With plenty of experience shopping for Operation Santa Claus, Chapter 40 members are great at stretching dollars.
“If you figure around $100 a kid, the money raised may not seem like much, but you’d be surprised how far it can go if you get good deals,” she said.
In addition to the children sponsored by Chapter 40, Sinclair said she and many others there take on children themselves. “For me, it started with one, and then I went to two,” she said. “I usually try to take a girl and a boy.”
Sinclair said it’s easy to see why members are so into helping out with Operation Santa Claus.
“We’re raising money to help disadvantaged kids have Christmases like other kids,” she said. “Some of these children are born into bad situations. We see this as a chance to fulfill their wish list.”
Sinclair said she wanted to thank the Operation Santa Claus volunteers who came out to help set up the book fair. She also mentioned that she was starting to plan a large-scale yard sale to raise more money for OSC. We’ll be sure to keep you updated about that.
If you’d like to do your own fund-raiser for OSC, you can email the Operation Santa Claus Committee at mailto:seaosc@seiu1984.org. To learn more about Operation Santa Claus, visit https://www.seiu1984.org/operationsantaclaus/.