While most of us recognize the upcoming holiday season as “the most wonderful time of the year,” elementary school students throughout the Hoboken Public School District know it as “the most wonderful time of the year to give back.” This year, the District has joined forces with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Macy’s to contribute to the 11th annual Believe Campaign.
For every ‘wish letter’ written to Santa during the Believe Letter-Writing Campaign, Macy’s will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help children find the strength they need to fight critical illnesses. Since 2003, Macy’s has donated more than $112 million to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, including more than $17 million through the Believe Campaign, which has helped grant over 13,000 wishes over the years.
The Believe Campaign comes to the Hoboken Public School District by way of Ms. Jordanna Spaulding, a Connors Elementary School teacher, and someone with personal experience with both the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Believe Campaign. Ms. Spaulding’s cousin AJ, who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis, had his own wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2012, and has since dedicated himself to helping others. Last year, he collected more than 78,000 wish letters for the Believe Campaign, and this year, the Hoboken Public School District is determined to help him collect even more.
Over the last month, elementary school students throughout the District have been busy crafting their own letters to Santa in support of this great cause. This initiative has not only helped students in the classroom by reinforcing vocabulary, letter-writing, and short story crafting skills, but has gone even further to help develop the whole child, by instilling the importance of charity at such a critical time.
You can help contribute at home too! Visit
macys.com/social/believe to write your very own Wish Letter to Santa. Macy’s will donate $1 for every letter written, up to $1 million.
Update 12-11-18:
The Hoboken Public School District students helped contribute over $4000 to the Believe Campaign this year by writing letters to Santa.