Every year since 1988 the Spirit of Christmas of Chippewa County has been distributing Christmas gifts to families in need.
On Saturday, December 13, several Stanley Lions Club members drove to Chippewa Falls to pick up gifts for distribution to families in Stanley and Boyd. With the aid of the Stanley-Boyd School District’s trailer and pickup truck, Lions members loaded the trailer with gifts and brought them back to the Community Center. There they were met by more Lions members and the many bags and boxes of gifts were unloaded and brought in to the Community Center and sorted for distribution. Beginning at 10:00 a.m. the first of 65 families began to arrive to pick up their packages. Lions members who assisted with the project were Carl Edwardson, Larry Ciokiewicz, Norm Christianson, Dave Jankoski, John Pozdell, Dave Winkler, and Gary Krueger. Also helping were Tim Troyer and Loren Ciokiewicz.
The Spirit of Christmas of Chippewa County is a non-profit organization. The all-volunteer organization only uses donations to accomplish its mission of distributing Christmas gifts to families in need. One-hundred percent of donations are used for acquiring and distributing the gifts to families of Chippewa County. In all, over 550 families and approximately 1,500 children from Cadott, Chippewa Falls, Cornell, Stanley, Boyd, and the north side of Eau Claire, all of which are in Chippewa County, received presents.
This year, Courtesy Ford in Stanley was one of the major sponsors for Spirit of Christmas.