Santa's Closet stocked, ready to make kids merry

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Santa's Closet opens wide again today, spilling out gifts for Brown County youngsters up to 14 years of age who may otherwise find little or nothing under their families' Christmas trees this year.

Some 450 children will take home gifts to put under their own trees, courtesy of the Sertoma Club of New Ulm whose members have been providing this service at Christmas for the past 18 years.

Children who are the recipients of these gifts are identified by Brown County Family Services, and those who live in the west end of the county from Sleepy Eye on will get their gifts between 9 a.m. and noon. Those who live in the east end (including New Ulm and Hanska) receive theirs from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., Wayne Plagge, Sertoma's Closet inventory manager, said.

"We'll be giving out two gifts averaging $40 per child. The kids also will receive hats and mittens which are provided by the New Ulm Kiwanis Club," Plagge explained.

This year the Sertomans raised nearly $18,000 to buy 900 toys for girls and boys.

"It's getting easier to raise that kind of money to fund the project because we're getting more and more help from the community. Kraft, AMPI and 3M employees organize their own donation drives, and for the last few years, students from New Ulm public schools have been raising money for the Closet. This year, they raised $1,900, and right now, the kids who raised it are out there buying gifts with the money," Plagge said, smiling.

"We (also) have individuals who donate gifts each year so we're buying about 75-85 percent of the toys where we used to buy nearly all of them. That's really helped us in our fund-raising," Plagge added.

Brown County Family Services' support services coordinator, Bob Apitz, also is pleased with what the Sertoma Club is doing.

"Santa's Closet started in our department some 28 years ago so we ran it about 10 years before the Sertomans took over. As it grew, it got to be too much for the department. The Sertoma Club does a terrific job in organizing and carrying out the project each year," Apitz said.