ABOVE: Project Success of Vermilion County’s Kimberly David and Jamie Nightlinger pose with some wrapped gifts that are part of Project Success’ 26th year of their Christmas Wish List.
It’s a busy time of year, and few places have been as busy as Project Success of Vermilion County. It’s been year number 26 of their Christmas Wish List; serving 205 youngsters, after only having only about a dozen when it began a quarter-century ago. As executive director Kimberly David reminds us, this wish list does not just help some special students, but entire special families.
AUDIO: These are all kids in our after school programs, and then we’ll serve all of the kids in the family. So if they have a little brother, or sister, we get them gifts as well. The donations come from the community. So we publish a list with the number of the children. And then people just call; and they’ll say “I want number 52,” and they’ll buy the items for them. We have a lot of businesses helping, and a lot of individuals in the community.
Distribution of the Project Success Wish List items will begin the week of Monday the 15th.
And speaking of Monday, December 15th; that will be the night of a Candlelight Vigil and the decorating of a Memorial Tree in honor of those who have been lost to gun violence. David says this will be at 5:30 PM, in the Douglas Discovery Garden at 215 South Kansas Street.
AUDIO: We’ve recently put together a Youth Council. Jamie Nightlinger, our family outreach and violence prevention coordinator, has been working with youth, 16 to 22 approximately.
Jamie Nightlinger says the family of Aniyah Davis, a victim of gun violence in Winter Park earlier this year, will be involved.
AUDIO: So we have been planning with Aniyah Davis’ parents; they have been sitting in on our Youth Council meetings. And the Youth Council is just looking for different ways to honor the families and the victims that we have lost to the gun violence in this city. So we want to decorate a tree and have a ceremony; and there will be a few people speaking at the event.
Nightlinger says the plan is to keep the tree going through mid-January. If you have a picture of someone you’d like to have honored on that tree; you can send it, by December 10th, to the Project Success Youth Council Facebook Page, e-mail it to jnightlinger@vcprojectsuccess.org , or text it to 312-869-2718.
