By Alexis Galarza Posted December 17, 2021
As a community, Winnemucca takes great pride in its annual “Project Santa.” Project Santa is a project Mrs. Laura Mercado and Mrs. Cherese Fifield take on, along with the help of many others. Within the aspects of Project Santa, profiles of children in need are placed on a tree in the office and online.
On the Facebook page, Mrs. Fifield posts a child with “a read” they would like, “a want,” and “a need.” From there, the community can comment “sponsored,” and the child is taken off the tree. On December third, sponsors take their unwrapped gifts to Les Schwab, where the FCAA ensures they are safe and so forth. After the inspection, the FCAA takes the contributions to the event center, where the junior class officers and fellow volunteers wrap the gifts for the children.
The FCAA ensures that “They double-check it again against their spreadsheet so that not too many children got something huge or too much,” said Fifield.
Fifield, Mercado, and the community of Winnemucca do this project to achieve the common goal of helping the children who need it the most.
“It’s a huge need in our community,” said Fifield.
Mercado added that just last year, “This project served over 500 children in the community.”
“Children are picked through every single Humboldt County schools counseling offices,” said Mercado.
The selection of children is usually based on parents’ income and free and reduced lunch.
However, “There are extenuating circumstances beyond that,” said Fifield.
