IRON MOUNTAIN - After four years of helping local children through a community Christmas party, Denise Formolo of the Office of Community Corrections will be getting some help, care of USA Weekend magazine.
Formolo was recently named one of 10 honorees in the magazine's annual Make a Difference Day contest. All honorees will receive a $10,000 donation from Newman's Own and a feature story in the April 18 edition of USA Weekend, which is part of The Daily News Weekend Edition.
Each year, the Office of Community Corrections organizes a Christmas party for Dickinson County children. Volunteer workers are made up of people sentenced to community service through the district and circuit court.
Work begins in October on Make a Difference Day and continues throughout the Christmas season. Workers make Christmas stockings, hold toy drives at local stores, and make gifts such as doll houses, cradles, desktop easels, rocking horses, and wooden trucks.
In addition to helping children, the Office of Community Corrections is involved with the L. Cpl. Eric Palmisano Care Package Project for soldiers and giving gifts to elderly patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Make a Difference Day is a national day of volunteering that is held annually on the fourth Saturday of October. Last year, about three million people across the country participated in 3,000 different projects to better the lives of others.
Pam Brown, senior editor at USA Weekend, said that the magazine awards special recognition to 10 projects each year that show creativity and community impact.
"The project doesn't necessarily have to have huge numbers," she explained. "One person can help one person and make an impact."
Brown cited Formolo's long-term commitment to Make a Difference Day and the unconventional use of community service workers as reasons why her project stood out in the crowd.
"The workers are people who discovered community service because they had to," she added. "After that, they continued to volunteer."
Formolo agreed that the community service workers make the project unique.
"We're not just changing the lives of the recipients," she said. "Community service workers are shown that their actions don't have to be negative and that they're worthwhile."
Approximately 200 community service workers participated in the project last year.
Formolo said that the Christmas party project had its beginnings years ago when the Office of Community Corrections only handled community service work placements. Officials discovered that several workers were unable to perform the work or get to the work site.
Instead of sending these workers out, the office "tapped into their talents" for making toys, pillows, and blankets, said Formolo.
"We used to just give the toys to local agencies like St. Vincent de Paul and Share Your Christmas," Formolo said. "Then Judge (Michael) Kusz suggested we should have our own party."
Approximately 70 children attended the first Christmas party in 2005. In 2009, 200 children attended and received personalized gifts.
Formolo noted that being affiliated with Make a Difference Day has helped the project by generating publicity.
Donation funds from USA Weekend and Newman's Own will provide a "nice cushion" for the project, according to Formolo.
"It's tougher to fund-raise in this economy," she said. "We operate only by donations."
The money will be split between an escrow account for the Christmas party and a donation to the Palmisano Care Package Project. Last year, workers were able to fill and ship 400 American-themed stockings to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Formolo would like to thank everyone who works to make the Christmas party a success, including community service workers, WalMart, Shopko, Family Video, Dollar Tree, and the community.
"Although this was awarded to me, I'm just the coordinator," she said. "It should be awarded to the whole community."
Nikki Younk's e-mail address is nyounk@ironmountaindailynews.com.
