News Photo by Reagan Voetberg On Tuesday, United Way of Northeast Michigan Executive Director Joe Gentry is seen standing by the piles of gifts given by donors through the Christmas Wish List program. The gifts are currently being held in the conference room at the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District office building.

ALPENA — This Christmas, 395 children in Northeast Michigan will receive necessities through the generosity of donors to the Christmas Wish List program.

Christmas Wish List is run by United Way of Northeast Michigan. Executive Director Joe Gentry said that the program has been around for 45 years.

The program was originally run through the Volunteer Center at Alpena Community College, Gentry said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the space used for the volunteer center was converted into an interactive classroom. The director of the center at that time, Cathy Abraham, retired and United Way picked up the program.

“I knew from working with school success workers what an important program it was,” Gentry said.

School success workers are employed by the Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency (NEMSCA) and work in schools throughout Northeast Michigan. They assist children in grades K-12 that are at risk for academic failure due to circumstances including family issues, attendance issues, and unmet health needs.

Gentry said that school success workers have helped him identify children in need that would benefit from the Christmas Wish List program.

Each year, donors are matched with a child and are given their first name and a list of essentials to buy for them and their family. Essentials could include items like bedding, clothing, food, gas cards, or winter gear. One family in the area will be receiving bottled water this year because their well dried up and they can’t afford to fix it, Gentry said.

Once all the gifts are collected and organized by school district, school buses will come and pick up the gifts to deliver to places like Hillman. In some of the outlying areas like Atlanta or Lewiston, United Way will make the delivery. Families that live nearby pick up their gifts themselves.

“The first year I did it, it was emotionally overwhelming, because many of the people who came to pick up gifts were in tears,” Gentry said. “You know, this is all their kids are going to get but they got all these gifts for their kids.”

The generosity of people in the community is overwhelming, Gentry said. Donations to Christmas Wish List as well as the Salvation Army and the Vietnam Veterans means Northeast Michigan kids are getting both their needs and their wants met this Christmas.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.