Donate now for Detroit News Cheer for Charity

In this round, the finalists are challenged to raise the most money and the winner receives the $20,000 grand prize. They also keep the money they raise in the contest.

Be sure to show your support for your favorite on social media and tag us in your posts. 

For more information on how to participate, visit Detroitnews.com/holidaycheer20.

This year’s finalists are:

Judges Emily Stanczak, left, 9, of Auburn Hills and Amaria Clark, 10, of Redford carefully consider their choices from an array of fancifully dressed dolls during the annual judging of the Goodfellows doll-dressing competition at Comerica Bank in downtown Detroit on Monday, Nov. 19, 2018. Hundreds of volunteers dress the thousands of dolls that will be distributed to little girls from poor families in Detroit and nearby cities. (Photo: John T. Greilick, Detroit News)

“The mission that we have been committed to for the past 106 years is ‘No kiddie without a Christmas,'” said Sari Klok-Schneider, the nonprofit’s executive director.

This year, the Goodfellows estimates it will distribute about 30,000 Christmas packages to needy children. The boxes contain clothes, dental kits, books and toys.

James J. Brady, who was director of the Internal Revenue Service in Detroit, started the charity in 1914 after seeing a cartoon of a forlorn child in The Detroit News.

Its largest fundraiser is the Detroit Goodfellows Sales Day, when its volunteers take to Metro Detroit’s streets the Monday after Thanksgiving to sell special editions of The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.

Klok-Schneider said if the group wins the Cheer for Charity contest, it will use the prize to buy items for next year’s Christmas gift bundles for children.

“We would make them bigger and better,” she said. “Every year, we try to improve them in terms of what we give the kids.” 

A coyote at the Howell Nature Center in Howell, Michigan. (Photo: Detroit News file)

The Howell Nature Center is the place police and people turn to when they come across wounded wild animals.

But it also offers outdoor education and recreation programs, children’s summer camps, a wildlife rehabilitation clinic and a teaching zoo on its 230 acres of woods and wetlands located around Pleasant Lake in Livingston County.

“Our mission is to teach people how to be faithful caretakers of each other and the world around them,” Elizabeth Schultz, the center’s manager of community engagement and programs. “That’s at the nucleus of all of our programs.”

Schultz said the number of patients at its wildlife rehabilitation clinic rises every year. Most cases are animals injured in interactions with humans, such as an attack by a pet or being hit by a car. 

“We’ve had a record-breaking year every year,” she said. “So far this year, (we’ve) already treated 4,200 and it’s not even over yet.”

Schultz said the center plans to use the money raised through the Holiday Cheer for Charity contest to helping fund its wildlife clinic’s operations. 

“Not only do we have our patients, but we have more than 70 permanent resident animals in our park and it will help us take care of them, too.”

Kids-TALK Children’s Advocacy Center 

Melanie Richards, director of the Kids-TALK Children’s Advocacy Center,  said the group’s mission is essentially to “give children who have suffered abuse back their childhoods” in Michigan’s most populous county. 

“We’re the only children’s advocacy center in Wayne County, but a lot of people don’t know what we do,” she said. “We help families get on a path to healing and hope. We’re just trying to support them.”

Based in Detroit, the center serves children in Wayne County and up to 17 years old who are suspected victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect or other forms of psychological trauma.

As part of The Guidance Center, a nonprofit that works to strengthen families and change lives, Kids-Talk Children’s Advocacy Center operates out of two locations, one in Detroit and another in Southgate.

Last year, the Kids-TALK Children’s Advocacy Center provided service to nearly 2,200 children. 

If it wins the grand prize, the center will use the money to continue its efforts, Richards said. Most of the center’s funding comes from grants and private donors.

“The number of children who need services from us is growing every year,” she said. “We want to serve as many children as we can and support them so they can heal.” 

Maybury Farm 

Old MacDonald has turned his farm into a classroom at Maybury Farm in Northville.

The more than 100-year-old working farm has 85 acres of farmland and forest with more than 100 animals, gardens, a playground and general store that are all geared toward teaching children about the sources of their food through educational tours, summer camps and classes.

“We’re all about education children in the greater Detroit area about farm animals, and letting them know where people’s food comes from,” said Diana Wallace, the nonprofit’s executive director.

If Maybury Farm wins the competition, then the nonprofit could use the prize to improve the farm or offer more scholarships for next year’s summer camp, Wallace said. 

“We’d like to purchase some additional animals,” she said. “We’d also like to use some of the money to give more camp scholarships to kids who can’t afford it. Basically, we would use it to further our educational programs.”