Best Christmas Ever will surprise 2 families

FINDLAY — Two area families will receive a huge Christmas surprise this weekend. The families – who have both fallen on hard times through no fault of their own - will receive gifts and money from the charity, Best Christmas Ever Hearts of Gold. This year, the nonprofit raised just shy of $15,000, said Jaclyn Pessell, who has been captain of the local chapter since its start in 2020. "I just can't seem to give it up yet," she said. "There's too much good in the world. There's just so many great people around us and people truly love, love supporting this organization." But this year, Pessell has been busy like everyone else with work and her two children. "We kind of scaled back a little bit on our activities," she explained. "We didn't do a whole lot of fundraising. So really to have $15,000 is just remarkable to me." The organization is a 501c3 registered nonprofit. A 5K race, which has been one of the traditional fundraisers, was changed to a team wellness challenge, Pessell said, noting that they partnered with the Wellness Studio. "It was hard; it was really hard. I'm sure afterwards the people didn't like me who decided to sign up for it. A couple of them said, can you just bring the 5K back?" she laughed. The organization also gave up this year's breakfast with Santa event. However, volunteer's children got involved. For second time, a couple of the youth made Ohio State buckeye necklaces and then sold them while they were tailgating in Columbus. They raised a couple hundred dollars and helped spread awareness, said Pessell. "The cool thing about that is they're educating people on what Best Christmas Ever is," she said. Most donations came from individuals, she said. A candle sale was held. Pessell said a friend started a candle business in Columbus so Best Christmas Ever runs a sale every spring, fall and Christmas. "And I bet we've raised just shy of $4,000 in candles. We sold 208 candles for Christmas and we make about $10 per candle," she said. Pessell said an anonymous donation of $1,000 was also made recently, and another person showed up at the wrapping party with a Great Wolf Lodge gift card and an iPad. "The goodness of people is just so awesome," she said. Each of the families this year will receive about $7,000, she said. The wrapping party was held at St. Marks United Methodist Church. Pessell said St. Marks has partnered with Best Christmas Ever since the beginning. Anyone at the church who donated a gift was invited to attend and help with the wrapping. Pessell also has a private group of individuals who purchase gifts for the families as well. About 50 people showed up for the party and the huge piles of gifts were finished in less than an hour. In the five years the Findlay community has had the program, the organization has raised $140,000, said Pessell. The chapter's business partner is Hitchings Insurance Agency, Inc. 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. Everything is done in secret, she said. 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 and the number of nominations they receive – which families they can help. Pessell said it can sometimes be hard for a family to accept these gifts. At one point last year, the dad in one of the families tried to give back about $2,000 in gift cards. "He opened them all up and he took one look at me and he said I can't take these. And I said you don't have a choice. You have to take them. And he said, but I am not hurting as bad as some people are out there. You have to take these back," Pessell recalled. "I said listen, if you want to give them away to people, go for it. But they were bought specifically for your family and this is what our organization does and this is what we want to do," she said. A group of 30-40 people will go along with her to present the gifts this weekend. People can still donate through the end of the year, she said. Any money they receive after the drop will still go to the families, she said. For more information on the local chapter, visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BCEFindlay.