Alamogordo business throws annual 'giving' Christmas party

When Amanda Gallagher decided to throw a Christmas party four years ago, she didn’t want to just get together her loved ones for a good time.

Gallagher divided her 35 guests into two teams and tasked them with the mission to "bless," as she said, a family in need-- to “bring Christmas” to Alamogordo families who are unable to bring it to themselves.

Gallagher said she was inspired by United Way of Otero County’s annual Big Give event, in which teams of volunteers go out and complete community service projects that benefit residents and non-profits in Otero County.

Word got out about her invite-only Christmas party, she said. There was so much interest in her event that the following year she decided to move it to the Desert Sun Toyota Show Room, where she works, to accommodate the increase in attendees.

“I thought maybe 75 (people would volunteer) and we actually had about 150 people attend,” Gallagher said. “It grew really fast.”

Since then Gallagher has gone public with what she calls “Big Givers – The Christmas Edition.”

“Last year we actually opened it up to the community and we had almost 250 people attend,” she said. “We had 26 families that we were able to bless last year and it was just, really, kind of cool.”

Gallagher recruits her volunteers/party-goers via Facebook and email blasts, targeting the Desert Sun email data base and her contacts from past Big Giver events. Attendees pay $15 each, which includes a T-shirt, and organize themselves into teams of any size. The teams pick a family to bring Christmas gifts to and are also given a few other fun, do-good challenges.

Gallagher’s event is not affiliated with United Way of Otero County, and her process is in fact quite different from theirs. Rather than accepting applications from any family or individual as United Way does for their annual Big Give event, those who can apply to be Big Giver recipients are hand-picked by Gallagher’s friend, Kathy Crispin.

Worship Center Outreach and Care Director Crispin said she is familiar with many families in need through her work in the church's ministries. She said she also contacts other organizations in town, such as CHINS and Love INC, to get suggestions for families who might like to apply.

Limited in how many families they can serve by how many volunteers they have, Gallagher said her event aims only to serve the “authentically needy.”

“We all know that there’s people who are trying to work the system and that’s not who we’re trying to bless,” Crispin said.

She said applicants must make the case, via the application form they fill out, for why their family deserves to be blessed by Gallagher’s Big Givers. They must also be available, at home, at the time that the volunteers will come by, this year it will be the evening of Dec. 8, and must allow photos of their children receiving the presents to be taken and shown at the Big Giver Christmas dinner that the volunteers have together at the Desert Sun Toyota Show Room, 3333 N. White Sands Blvd., after they leave the families’ houses.

Families can write in any specific needs they have so that Givers can better help them out. For example, Crispin said, she once bought an art kit for a child who was artistically inclined. Apart from these requests from families, the teams of Givers aren’t bound by any rules for how to bless a family. They buy the presents that they take the families out of their own pockets, Crispin said.

“We don’t put what you have to do,” Gallagher said. “We give people the ability to be creative in how they’re going to go and bless that family.”

Even if it costs them a little money, Gallagher holds that the event is a good time for her attendees.

“It’s fun. When 250 of you are out giving all over town, it just causes electricity in the air of giving which is awesome,” she said. “It’s really fun. If you have time on the eighth of December, it will be a big event.”

To be a Big Giver volunteer go online to Desert Sun's website at http://desertsun.com The cost is $10 for children and $15 for adults.