Former Globe employee talks about new group taking over Christmas Cheer Fund

MASON CITY — One of the board members of the Christmas Cheer Fund says their group has been pleased to rescue the program. Ozzie Ohl says he was notified last year by fellow former Globe Gazette employee Jane Reynolds that the newspaper was no longer going to be running the Christmas charity.

Ohl, Reynolds and others then started the process of taking over the operations of the Cheer Fund.  Ohl says,  “It’s been a slow process. Finally in mid-October, Lee Enterprises through the Globe Gazette decided to transfer the Christmas Cheer Fund to our local board, so we’ve been pulling together. It’s been one of those things you don’t know what you don’t know, but you’ve got to be willing to learn and we’ve been willing learners and we’ve learned so much.”

The application process wrapped up at the end of last week, and Ohl says the process of going through those applications has been a humbling experience.   “We went through and approved almost 2000 applications, and they are throughout north Iowa. If the application came from outside our seven counties of Cerro Gordo, Floyd, Franklin, Hancock, Mitchell, Winnebago and Worth counties, we rejected it.  The people that give to the Christmas Cheer Fund want and expect that to be done right here in north Iowa. That’s where most of them live, they’ve grown up, they have a business, they’ve raised a family. They are so close to it, and they understand that they are helping their neighbors, even though they may never know who those are.”

If you want to make a donation to the Christmas Cheer Fund, you can mail it to: Christmas Cheer Fund, Post Office Box 28, Mason City Iowa, 50402. You can also go to the top of the front page at northiowanow.com and find a link to where you can make a donation online.