4 area families have 'Best Christmas Ever'

Volunteers with the charity, Best Christmas Ever Hearts of Gold, take their job seriously — to bring joy and happiness to deserving area families. This year, the nonprofit raised just over $32,000 and was able to bless four families who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own, according to Jaclyn Pessell, captain of the local chapter. "The goodness of people is just overwhelming," she said. In the four years the Findlay community has had the program, the organization has raised over $125,000. "Every year we just have different businesses and people that want to jump on. And the families we bless, they want to continue on," she said. Several have already contacted Pessell about helping next year. "We really do want to spread generosity," she said. "We want to keep it going. And that's kind of how we've grown over the last couple of years is to have past families and so forth and people that know them say, 'hey, this is really cool what you're doing. We want to join this.'" The program dates back to 2011 when Don Limatainen of Minnesota was blessed by the generosity of relatives during a Christmas-time crisis. He decided to "pay it forward" by creating the Best Christmas Ever. Pessell's best friend was a recipient of the program in Cleveland. Afterwards, Pessell submitted her application to be a captain and brought it to Hancock County. The organization is a 501c3 registered nonprofit. Fundraisers are held throughout the year, including a 5K race in the fall and Breakfast with Santa. Pessell said everything is done in secret. The families are nominated in secret so someone close to the family has to recommend them. A committee goes through the submissions and decides — based on the amount of money they have the number of nominations they receive — which families they can help. Pessell said many of the families are battling serious health issues. Each family this year received $7,000 for a "life-altering" gift along with other presents and gift cards, she said. The first family they surprised lives in Findlay and has a 9-year-old daughter. The couple struggled for years with infertility issues and finally got pregnant, only to go into labor at 29 weeks. "So not only did they have all the struggles and a preemie, he was at a hospital in Toledo for a long time and has a pretty long road ahead of him," said Pessell. Their life-altering gift was a new backyard fence to replace an old one. The charity was able to make arrangements with the fencing company. If they ground doesn't freeze over the next several weeks, the fence will be installed soon, Pessell said. Both the mother and father in the second family had health problems in 2023, Pessell said. The dad started the year out with back surgery. Then the mom, who is an avid runner, had a heart attack. She has had continued health issues since then, said Pessell, including while the family was on a trip to Nashville. "The kids had to stay at the Airbnb for like four days while mom and dad were in the hospital, and the trip was completely ruined," she said. BCE will provide the Van Buren family with a vacation to Destin, Florida, she said. The third family was a private drop, she said, something they haven't done before. It recognized a Liberty-Benton family who lost their son last year. Pessell said they were given a check to use however they want. The fourth family is also from Van Buren, and their daughter has a chronic medical condition with her kidneys. "There is no cure for it," said Pessell, adding that she's allergic to the treatment she was receiving, while other treatments they can try are experimental and aren't covered by insurance. The organization was able to pay off some medical bills and send the family on a weekend getaway to Frankenmuth, Michigan, Pessell said. "It was very cool to be able to bring these families some joy and some smiles," she said. At one point, she said the dad in one of the families tried to give everything back. "He looked at me and said, 'there have to be people that are worse off than us.' And you know, I looked at him and said, 'you're right, there are. But we know you've had a really hard year and there have been some struggles and we wanted to bring some joy and some happiness to your family,'" she said. The nonprofit received about 14 nominations this year, she said, including one family that was nominated three times. The community, organizations and businesses also donate gifts and gift cards to the cause — many doing it anonymously. The chapter's business partner is Hitchings Insurance Agency, Inc., said Pessell, and Kirk Corp. took the charity on as its special project this holiday season. Pessell said volunteers' children also get involved. A couple of team members have four children combined who decided to make Ohio State buckeye necklaces, then sell them while they were tailgating in Columbus. They raised over $300, she said. "So all these people go up to them and ask them, what are you raising money for? These kids, they're 7, 8, 9 years old, and they get to explain what Best Christmas Ever is and tell people what we do," she said. "People were handing them $20 bills and 'Thanks for the necklace,' or 'Here's $20 and keep the necklace.' It's just cool how these kids respond to it as well." For more information on the local chapter, visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BCEFindlay or send an email to bceheartsofgold@gmail.com