As co-chairs of the Empty Stocking Fund, probably the county’s largest Christmas charity, we fully agree with Melissa. It is a complete subversion of our program to have gifts, lovingly purchased, wrapped and delivered to make a Merry Christmas for the poorest of our neighbors and their children, callously exchanged for cash or other merchandise. Our experience is that this is a relatively rare occurrence by a very few of our recipients, but even one is too many.
I am pleased to report that with the cooperation of Brady Rowland, Wal-Mart’s manager, we have jointly agreed to implement safeguards which, we believe, will go a long way to stopping the wholesale return of sponsors’ gifts as described by Ms. Reaves, while not affecting the legitimate exchange of a few items.
These safeguards will be implemented in the 2005 Empty Stocking Fund program.
We encourage any other charities who believe they may also be affected, to contact us for information on our planned safeguards. And we thank Ms. Reaves for calling this to our attention.
Dick and Pauli Curl
Co-Chairs, Empty Stocking Fund
Pinehurst
