Anyone looking for a way to give back this Christmas season can sponsor a family in need within the Rochester School Corporation or Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation through the Miracle Tree program.

Miracle Tree has been a holiday tradition in Fulton County for years thanks to the generous donors and businesses that have supported the program.

The Rochester tree is located at Shepherd’s Chevrolet at the corner of SR 25 and 14, Rochester IN. Tippy Valley trees are set up at Bell Memorial Public Library in Mentone and Akron Carnegie Public Library in Akron. Families who have expressed an interest in receiving help this year were assigned a number. Those numbers were then placed on ornaments and hung on the trees.

A potential sponsor will know how many children are in the family and their ages. Each family has a wish list for the sponsors to use when shopping, filled with clothing sizes and toys requested.

If a person, business or organization is interested in sponsoring a family, they simply take an ornament from the tree and give it to the front desk at the dealership or library. The sponsor is then provided a wish list for that family with items the children might want for Christmas.

Sponsors wrap the gifts they purchase and then return them back to a community location specified on each wish list. To avoid any confusion, there are specific instructions on each wish list on how to mark the gift after it has been wrapped so organizers know which gift belongs to which family and child.

There is no limit to the amount of money a sponsor can spend on a family. Gifts will be distributed to the families with a drive-thru pick up in December.

The Miracle Tree assisted over 260 families and provided Christmas gifts for more than 750 childrenin 2021.