Christmas Belles celebrate 24 years of helping families in need

This year marks the 24th year that the Christmas Belles have been helping families in need in Vilas County, and even in Michigan.

The Christmas Belles began as a Christmas cookie exchange with six women who exchanged cookies from 1998 to 2000, until they decided that they wanted to do something more meaningful during the holidays.

In 2001, the six women were assigned a family in need from Vilas County. They purchased Christmas gifts for the children in that family and delivered the gifts to the social service office in Eagle River.

With little effort, the program grew by word of mouth and this past year included 158 women making Christmas merry for seven children whose families are registered with Headwaters Food Pantry in Land O’ Lakes. Also working with the Department of Health and Human Services in Bessemer, Mich., all foster children (plus others in need) in Gogebic County are serviced, alongside 39 children in Vilas County.                                                 

Some women donate money to the program. These are women who donate to the program, but do not shop as “Jingle Belles. Their donations are used to supplement wish lists and provide grocery cards to families most in need.

Christmas Belles make up the bulk of their program. These women are matched one-on-one with a child’s wish list and each participant pays $50 to $100 out-of-pocket to fulfill that list. Jingle Belles’ money can be used to supplement when the children’s needs justify more than the $100 limit.                                                                                                                                 

Christmas Belles work in teams. Some teams shop and wrap gifts together, while other teams work independently to shop and wrap their gifts. Every year, they kick off the program in mid-November with an organizational meeting at Ely Church. They begin with a buffet dinner where everyone brings a dish or bottle of wine to share before a brief meeting, after which assignments are given out to team captains. The group divides into their teams to discuss how the team is going to proceed.

All gifts need to be gathered for delivery to Social Services in the first week of December.

This gives them time to get gifts from the Christmas Belles to the foster families. Vilas County children’s gifts are delivered to Eagle River Social Services at the courthouse on Thursday, Dec. 5.

Gogebic County gifts are delivered to Bessemer Health and Human Services by a caravan of Christmas Belles.

In 2023, Christmas Belles established the Christmas Belles Education Award (CBEA) to further assist the foster children who, at 18 years of age, are aged out of the program. The CBEA helps them to transition from children to adults and to attain their career goals.

This amazing group of people has risen from six to 158 women. Their committee includes Corrine Duerkop, Barb Benson, Mary Bongratz, Mary Dahms and Valerie Hogan. The Christmas Belles, now in their 24th year, will purchase and deliver gifts for 136 foster children in Vilas and Gogebic Counties.

This year Jingle Belles also included Ely Memorial Church who made a financial donation from their annual rummage sale and the use of their church for the kick-off meeting; Wes Geib donated $1,000 in honor of his wife, Cindy, who donated time and talent for years to the local children; a friend of Corinne Duerkop from California donated $1,500; Land O’ Lakes Library donated many books; Cindy Pesek, a local children book author, donated several of her books; and an anonymous donor provided a multitude of handcrafted scarves, which she has done for many years.

This year Dr. Alex Flores at Ideal Dentistry in Woodruff donated “Smile Bags” to each child.  These bags are child age-appropriate including items for good dental hygiene. 

The Christmas Belles welcome more Christmas Belles and Jingle Belles to join them.

More information is available by contacting Corinna Duerkop at 906-544-2425 or Barb Benson at 715-477–0144.