The Goodrich Chapter of the National Honor Society is making sure at least one area family has a merry Christmas.
Goodrich seniors and NHS officers, Rachel Kern and Diana Svinarich, put their heads together and came up with a way to focus on helping members of their community who need it the most during the holiday season.
The fundraiser, called ‘Adopt-a-Family,? will target two needy families in the Goodrich and Atlas Township areas and will give them supplies to get them through the season. In order to provide enough to a few families, the girls had to come up with a way to raise some cash, the final decision being to host a spaghetti dinner at the Goodrich United Methodist church that anyone that wished to give back could attend.
After all was said and done, the girls, and many of the committee’s helpers, raised nearly $1,000, all of it to go to the families.
‘We made $834 on admission from the spaghetti dinner alone, and when added to the donations we received from businesses and individuals, the total came close to $1,000,? said Kern.
The hard part was finding a family anonymously through a credible source. The source turned out to be the head food coordinator at Goodrich high school, Jean Kish.
‘She had heard about the committee and she asked us if we had found a family yet. We hadn’t, so we decided to adopt the two families that she nominated,? said Kern.
On Dec. 12, the committee will go shopping as a group, using the money they gathered to buy toys, clothes, and other neccessites, including gift cards for gasoline and food.
‘The families, which reside in a single house in the Goodrich area, consist of six kids and four adults, so we want to use all the money we collected and get them everything they need for the holiday season,? said Kern. Having anonymous families keeps the process unbiased and fair. ‘The delivery will happen right around Christmas, so these families will be having a good holiday,? added Svinarich.
Svinarich and Kern thanks Papa Bella’s Pizza and John’s Steakhouse for providing the breadsticks for the spaghetti dinner fundraiser, Italia Gardens for the spaghetti sauce, Cook’s Farm Dariy and the Kroger in Grand Blanc.
‘We are so glad something like this could happen, and we look forward to the underclassmen keeping this tradition alive after we leave,? said Kern.