Youth takes a central role in SAC's success

The shift in leadership for Holmes County Share-A-Christmas has come at several different key levels.

One of the biggest changes comes at the Baker Building, which for years has been led by Steph Ditmars and Ruth Waltman.

This year they passed the reins of guiding all the activities in the Baker Building to Maddie DeWitt and Emily Anderson. These young women have accepted the many responsibilities that accompany everything from toy and food collections to organizing gifts and helping prepare for the adventures of distribution day.

Their leadership helped SAC carve out yet another successful Christmas campaign this holiday season that saw SAC provide toys, presents, gift cards, vouchers, food and more to 235 families and 111 senior citizens.

“This year was a real learning curve for both of us,” DeWitt said. “I don’t think anyone realizes how much goes on in the Baker Building until you experience it firsthand. Things kind of come at you from every angle, and there is a lot of responsibility and activity that centers around this building.”

Together the biggest responsibility for them comes with the task of ensuring all the items brought in specifically for each child and family find the proper home in the Baker Building, an undertaking that isn’t easy considering the mountain of goods that is brought in for this event.

That chore includes more than 12,000 pounds of food that needs to be properly distributed for each family, according to the family’s size.

“It wouldn’t be good if one family received 17 syrups,” DeWitt said.

DeWitt said Ditmars spent the better part of three decades heading up this endeavor, and she was diligent in passing along her knowledge of the process to DeWitt.

Along with Ditmars’ input, DeWitt said receiving support from area sports teams, other organizations and local churches plays a key role in their ability to keep things rolling smoothly.

“Everyone works together to make it happen,” DeWitt said.

DeWitt has volunteered to work under Ditmars for two years prior to this year, so she was able to glean from the best when it comes to organizing the Baker Building for SAC.

“Early on I was like a fly on the wall,” Dewitt said. “Last year I took on a little bigger role, and Steph was really diligent in sitting down with me and explaining what was going to happen. This year I went to her house, and she handed over the master file key, and I asked her about 70 million questions. It’s comforting knowing that she’s still just a phone call away when I do have questions.”

She said the one thing that helps her keep her sanity with all the chaos going on around her during the SAC days leading up to Christmas is knowing so many people have the same objective of doing something for the greater good of Holmes County.

“It’s work, but it’s not stressful because we all know what it’s for,” DeWitt said.

Anderson’s contributions center not only around helping Dewitt keep things in order, but also she uses her Rea & Associates talents to do much of the financially focused work.

“I’ve learned so much this year,” Anderson said. “I didn’t realize how much goes into this operation.”

She said attending the committee meetings and seeing each department leader is very capable at delivering on their respective roles helped put them at ease in knowing everything was going to be fine.

She said Mike Taylor, one of the original four families who created Holmes County Share-A-Christmas, has been instrumental in helping her learn the ropes.

Those efforts include work in developing the matching Gold Fund and the WKLM Radio-thon fundraiser.

One major addition brought on board this year was Anderson implementing Zefi into the radio’s fundraising effort. Since its inception people have had to pay in person or send in donations by mail, but the app Zefi allowed people to make donations online this year.

“It’s something that I know Melissa Patrick at WKLM has wanted to do for years, so I was glad to be able to get that implemented into the process,” Anderson said.

Both women grew up in Holmes County, so they knew about SAC and what it did. What they didn’t realize is how big the operation is.

“When you’re a kid, you see it and think it’s cool, but then it comes and goes and you forget about it,” DeWitt said.

“Then you grow up and you recognize the needs in the community, and it becomes very real, and that makes you want to give back,” Anderson said.

Together they teamed up to keep the Baker Building humming, just as Ditmars and Waltman have done for so many years before them.