Students from S.A.D.D., (Students Against Destructive Decisions) collected a total of 1,435 letters from the fundraiser called Letters to Santa in the large and small cafeterias. Each letter submitted earned a donation of $2 and raised a total of $2,870 for Make-A-Wish-Foundation. 

On December 5, the students collected the letters. The S.A.D.D. adviser, Ms. Martucci, and two students, Julianna Martucci and Reilly Groff, went to the Middletown Macy’s store to drop off the letters on December 6.

This campaign encourages other volunteers to participate and join this club. They had a goal of 1,500-2,000 letters for this year and received 1,435 letters.

“Last year we had a little over 2,500 letters, even though we didn’t exceed that goal this year we still were very close to our goal of at least 1,500 letters,” said Ms. Martucci. Some kids even try to write more than one letter.

Sydney, a girl from Make-A-Wish, wished to go to Disney last December with the money raised from fundraisers like Letters to Santa.

“It is important to remember that it is the kids’ wish not the parents,” said Ms. Martucci.

Sydney and her family come from Cornwall and said they would want to come in and talk to the students about the importance of wishes, and how they provide hope for the families. Next year they may have the wish family come to speak to the club about the importance of what they are doing in the Make-A-Wish-Foundation. 

Ms. Martucci started doing fundraisers for Make-a-Wish because she had a student in her class who had received a wish one year. The student wanted to do some work in the high school so they started to help by doing walks for wishes in the fall. After, one of the things they thought they could get involved in also is the Macy’s Believe campaign. 

The Macy’s Believe campaign organizes Letters to Santa. The school decided instead of collecting money from students they would coordinate with Macy’s and help raise money to help donate for Make-A-Wish-Foundation.