This December, for the 38th year in a row, WESH 2 partnered with Second Harvest to rally the Central Florida community to help support our neighbors facing hunger during the Share Your Christmas campaign.
Every year, Share Your Christmas kicks off with an annual Giving Tuesday telethon. WESH 2 lends its air-time to Second Harvest for the entire day, calling upon the community to make generous gifts to help feed more kids, families and seniors during the holiday season.
Thanks to incredibly generous matching gifts from Mullinax Ford and Wells Fargo, so many supportive community members who called in during the telethon or donated online, over $344,000 was raised in a single day – WOW!
The generosity didn’t stop there. The following week, WESH 2 broadcasted live all day on Friday, December 8th, to encourage viewers to swing by six different locations in Brevard, Lake, Marion, Osceola, Orange, and Volusia Counties and drop off nonperishable food donations or funds to help those in our community who are facing hunger. We were thrilled to see hundreds of giving members of the community join us at all locations and share their Christmas!
We are still excited that a special surprise guest joined us that day at the WESH 2 station – Disney’s very own Mickey Mouse! He joined the voluntEARS, helped greet donors and pack family boxes, and then his friends at Disney presented Second Harvest with an over-the-top surprise gift of $100,000. What a way to finish the day!
With all this generosity, the Central Florida community donated an additional $200,000 and over 54,000 pounds of food throughout the day of Share Your Christmas! Overall, you raised over 2.2 million meals to help children, families, and seniors in Central Florida this holiday season. Thank YOU for making this happen.
On behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and your neighbors facing hunger, we’d like to give a very special thank you to Mullinax Ford and Wells Fargo for their incredible Giving Tuesday matches, and The Walt Disney World Company, DeLuca Toyota, Starling Chevrolet Buick GMC, and Roofing Pros, USA, for their very generous gifts on the day of Share Your Christmas.
We’d also like to thank Daytona International Speedway, Brevard Zoo, Starling Chevrolet Buick GMC, DeLuca Toyota and Lake County Sheriff’s Office South Lake District Office for serving as food donation drop-off sites.
Please join us in thanking the team at WESH 2 for their tireless efforts to educate our community on the issue of hunger here in Central Florida. You can watch the incredible stories of the impact they shared during the campaign online.
Finally, thank you to everyone who volunteered, tuned in, gave us a call, visited a donation site, and donated to the cause! It takes an entire community to help our neighbors facing hunger, and we feel fortunate to be a part of Central Florida – home of the most selfless people we know!
Thank you for sharing your Christmas!
There’s still time to be part of Share Your Christmas.
Every $10 = 40 meals (and hope).
