Family sponsors sought for Miracle Tree program

Anyone looking to give back this Christmas season can sponsor a family in need in the Rochester School Corporation or Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation through the Miracle Tree program.

Miracle Tree has been a holiday tradition in Fulton County for years, thanks to the generous donors and businesses that have supported the program.

The Rochester tree is located at Shepherd’s Chevrolet at the corner of SR 25 and 14, Rochester IN. Tippecanoe Valley trees are set up at Bell Memorial Public Library in Mentone and Akron Carnegie Public Library in Akron.

Families interested in receiving help this year were assigned a number. Those numbers were then placed on ornaments and hung on the trees.
If a person, business or organization is interested in sponsoring a family, they simply take an ornament from the tree and give it to the front desk at the dealership or library. The sponsor then receives a wish list for that family, including ages, genders, clothing sizes, and items the children might need or want for Christmas.

Sponsors wrap the gifts they purchase and then return them back to a community location specified on each wish list. To avoid confusion, each wish list includes specific instructions on how to mark the gift after it's wrapped so organizers know which gift belongs to which family and child.

There is no limit to the amount of money a sponsor can spend on a family. Gifts will be distributed along with food boxes to the families with a drive-thru pickup in December.