About Us
Hello! Welcome to One Special Christmas!
Mission:
One Special Christmas [OSC] is a volunteer organization that helps provide a special Christmas for up to three families in need of Christmas cheer each year in our area. Our aim is to share Christ’s love in a big, tangible way. We want to help our families put aside their struggles for a while and create lasting memories of being surrounded by family, love, fun and laughter during one very special Christmas.
How Does it Work? [New in 2016!]:
Each year, our very own group of real-live Santas’ elves handcraft and donate amazing pieces of furniture, art and crafts for our end-of-year auction. All auction proceeds go toward the wishlists of families that are nominated by community members/organizations and selected by OSC board members. Our volunteers then get busy, making sure our families have a Christmas they’ll never forget!
The Auction
This is where Friends of OSC gather annually to break bread, reminisce and remind ourselves of our roots and our mission, and ooh-and-ahh over the many one-of-a-kind items donated to our auctions. Many guests generously give a financial gift while others bid on furniture, arts and/or crafts in our silent and live auctions.
The Magic: One Special Christmas
With the support of our community and folks like [YOU], we will help create warm, lasting memories for families who desperately need them. Before the auction, our families and their needs will be introduced. With the funds we raise through the auction and by individual contributions, we will work together to do [everything we can] to fulfill specific, immediate Christmas wishes for our families. This could include helping facilitate getaways/vacations, life goals, and material wishes.
A Brief History of OSC:
The project began in 1973. Don Chapman, then a student at the Memphis College of Art, could not make it home for Christmas and decided to make some wooden toys for an orphanage next door to the school.
When he came back to Mooresville, Don continued making the toys, each year adding friends to help. He was an instructor at Central Piedmont Community College, so the college let him to use the woodworking shop.
In 1989, it was decided to switch to furniture-making. The plan was to hold an auction, sell hand-made furniture and other hand-made craft items, and use the money to buy toys for children. In that way, many more children could have One Special Christmas.
The project continued in this way until 2014. In those years, the auction raised more than $800,000 to help children experience the feeling of being special.
Where the Money Goes:
One Special Christmas is completely volunteer, no one gets paid anything. Hours to plan, update website, design materials, prepare mailings, build items for auction, and time fulfilling Christmas wishes is 100% donated. Even gas and lodging for volunteers going on delivery trips is donated by the volunteers. The only items that we have to pay for is postage, bank fees, web hosting, t-shirts, food, and the expense of using the event venue. The food and venue are a major expenditure for us, but our board has found it necessary (at least for now. We readdress this yearly). Our goal is to have these expenses underwritten by generous donors. We mail letters, usually in September asking for donations. IF these expenses are covered by underwriters, then every dime raised at auction can be used to further our mission, but if not, we have to take this from the money raised at the auction.
We Need You:
Whatever you have been blessed with – talents, abilities, money – it’s exactly what we need. Everyone has their own special part to play.
We Need Help With:
Fulfilling Christmas wishes, coordinating & media contacting, donations of art, hand-made furniture, nicely done crafts, money, materials, lumber, printing, & anything else that you can do to help.
