St. Vincent de Paul | Louisville

Dec. 14, 2011

By Sarah Cunningham
The Courier-Journal

As stressed as they may be, most holiday shoppers don’t have more than 1,000 names on their Christmas lists like the merry helper elves who are part of Louisville’s St. Nick Fund.

The fund, started six years ago by David and Whitney Bohn, is a home-grown partnership of various churches and agencies including St. Vincent De Paul, Jeffersontown and Fern Creek-Highview ministries, St. Edward Catholic Church and several other local parishes.

“Our goals are pretty simple,” David Bohn said. “We want to help families and children who might not be getting much of a Christmas without us, and we want to give volunteers a chance to feel good about something they’re doing. It’s a really tough time right now, and we all need those chances.”

The group worked with local businesses and organizations to raise more than $75,000 this year, enough to fulfill the Christmas wishes of more than 1,300 people, most of them children, David Bohn said.

Last year, the group helped 660 people with $52,000 in funds.

The fund has raised more than $400,000 since it first started in 2005, Bohn said. Every penny donated goes toward gifts, he said, as the group holds separate fundraisers that help pay for the costs associated with organizing the effort.

Bohn said 336 of the children’s names on the list this year were provided by Fort Campbell; some military families have trouble paying for all that comes with the holiday season, he said.

“As more people hear about what we’re doing, we’re hearing about a lot more people that need a little help,” he said.

Bohn is quick to point out that not only has his group grown in terms of fundraising and the number of people helped, it’s also grown in the number of volunteers.

There were three or four people who helped during the first year of the project, he said. This year, close to 1,400 people volunteered their time.

“It’s not just growing; it’s blowing up,” Bohn said, laughing.

One of the fund’s largest shopping days was Dec. 4, and hundreds of volunteers steered red carts through the aisles and sections at the Jeffersontown Target, off Taylorsville Road.

Lisa and Jerry Zehnder and their three sons were among the volunteer shoppers.

Like the other elves, the Zehnders were given a sheet of paper about a family with four children that listed gender, age, sizes and otherinformation. For each child, there was $75 to $85 budgeted.

“This is a neat experience for our family to do together,” Lisa Zehnder said. “We had a really tough year last year, actually, and this just feels good to do something nice for someone else. I know a little about how they feel.”

While Ryan Zehnder, 14, said he didn’t think he and his brothers would have normally signed up to shop for things like “princess books,” he enjoyed the evening.

“I don’t like the whole shopping thing and most of these kids are girls,” Ryan said, “but I really think helping other people with things they can’t afford is a nice thing to do. I like it.”

• COVER PHOTO: St. Edward Church’s Father Joe Graffis helps St. Edward Church School first-grader Emma Assanisi, 6, get a blanket on the check-out line conveyor belt at the Target at Hurstbourne Pkwy. and Taylorsville Road.