Millis/Medway December 2016

Page 20 Local Town Pages www.millismedwaynews.com December 2016
The Santa Foundation, Inc. Turns 30
Charitable Group Helped 861 Families Last Year with
Gifts, Emergency Needs
By J.D. O’Gara
Thirty years of giving.
This year, the Franklin-based
Santa Foundation turns 30 years
old. What began with Bob Sullivan
and his wife hoping to give
a good Christmas to two children
30 years ago has turned into a
foundation that supports needy
families in the region year round,
not just during the holidays. Sullivan
and his partner, Richard
Timmons, along with a handful
of volunteers (15 part-time), do
their best to give hope to about
900 families a year. In total, they
put in 2,500 hours of volunteer
time a year, with Sullivan & Associates
incurring all costs (about
$12,000 a year), so that 100% of
donations will benefit those who
need it.
“I think the need grows every
year,” says Sullivan, who says he
doesn’t see things getting much
better, after three decades. In particular,
he says, “The homeless
are a lost group. There are millions
of homeless children living
in the U.S. right now. No one talks
about that. That’s a big problem,
and there’s no shelter space anywhere.”
In 2015, the foundation distributed
a total of over $50K to
needy local families, with $9,450
toward rent/mortgage alone and
another $9,720 in family support
and $10,586 toward other family
needs, which range from utility
bills to packed school backpacks.
In fact, in looking at the numbers
for the past 30 years, Sullivan says
he was surprised to find the Santa
Foundation paid almost a half a
million dollars ($487,774) in electric
bills. In 30 years, the foundation
supported 1,300 people
with oil or rent, and it provided
482,427 gifts to 73,095 people in
need during the holiday season.
Last year alone, the Santa Foundation
supported 861 families,
including 5,683 individuals with
52,852 gifts estimated (at about
$20 per gift) to total $1,057,704.
And those families aren’t just
Franklin families. Immediately
local to Franklin, in which the
Santa Foundation helps 161 families,
the foundation supports:
• 71 families in Norfolk
• 69 families in Medway
• 51 families in Plainville
• 50 families in Bellingham
• 48 families in Milford
• 47 families in Blackstone
• 39 families in Wrentham
• 29 families in Millis
• 21 families in Attleboro,
among others.
“People are under-employed
more than they’re unemployed,”
says Sullivan, who says the foundation
helps lot of single mothers.
He recalls seeing a local post office
job opening with a salary of
$32,000 a year. “If you’re a oneincome
family,” he says, “How
can you live on that?
It’s scary when you think that
people are one lost paycheck
away from being on the street,
and that happens a lot,” he says.
“We’re the greatest country in the
world. It doesn’t make sense we
should have so many homeless
people.”
Sullivan says he doesn’t buy
putting any stigma on being poor
“If they’re poor, they’re poor.
Help them,” says the father and
grandfather, who sees it as his
God-given mission to help.
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“The only thing I want from
these people is – let us help them.
If I help them and it gives the
parents a little hope, it can change
the outlook of the family.”
Sullivan says he wants struggling
families to maintain their
dignity.
“If they don’t have dignity,
they have no confidence. If they
don’t have confidence, they aren’t
going to get a job,” he says. He
remembers one abused woman
who’d fled her husband and came
to the Santa Foundation, ashamed
to ask for help. “She was homeless
… her head’s down, she’s embarrassed,”
says Sullivan. The same
woman came in two weeks later
with a thank-you note, thrilled to
have a job at McDonald’s. Later,
she came back again, reporting
on having a better job.
“Who can change the economic
future of that family? The
kids? No. The parents. Give the
parents hope,” says Sullivan, who
this month will take his foundation
a step further and realize a
dream he’s had for 20 years, that
of opening a halfway house for a
homeless family.
“It’s called Debbie’s’ Place,
after my daughter, who died of
cancer,” he says. “We’re working
on finding a place, and we’ll move
in one family and have an idea of
what they need from being homeless
to being self-sufficient a year
later. We’ll monitor the family
along the way, with goals for the
month, and a year later, someone
else will come in,” he says. Sullivan
explains, “If I don’t do this,
I’ll feel like I’m a failure. This is
important to me, something I believe
God tasked me with. Any of
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The Santa Foundation, in its 30 years, has supported 73,095 people in
need with Christmas gifts, but has also helped with oil, rent, electricity
bills and other emergency needs. All donations to the foundation go
toward aiding needy families. This holiday, individuals and businesses
can help by putting up or fulfilling a wish request from an “Angel Tree,”
such as this one located at The Postal Center in Millis.
this stuff we do, it’s like our job.
That’s all.”
Sullivan says the Santa Foundation’s
volunteers don’t want
accolades for what they’re doing,
either. “The other day, I’m trying
to impress on them how great
they are, and they just kept working.
They don’t care about that.
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You just do your job.”
Due to space limitations, the
Santa Foundation cannot accept
more volunteers, but Sullivan
suggests that if local businesses or
groups want to help, they might
consider putting up an Angel
Tree, which are decorated with
tags that note Christmas wish list
items for needy people. “We give
them the tags, they put up the
tree in the store, and we come
and pick up the gifts. Individuals
could sponsor a family,” he says.
As of publication, Santa Foundation
trees were located at Dean
College, The Postal Center in
Franklin and Millis, Twin Shears
Salon, King Street Deli, British
Beer Company, Norfolk Credit
Union, Middlesex Bank, BJ’s,
Thermo-Fischer Scientific, Team
Fitness, Isabella’s in Millis, Dry
Cleaning Pros., Franklin Health
& Rehab, James Roadside Café
and Whole Foods Market.
In fact, Sullivan says the foundation
gets a good amount of sup-