This weekend's Alternative Christmas Market may have been located at Tallahassee's John Wesley United Methodist Church. But Dr. Barbara Williams said donations made to the church's international charitable arm reach around the world.
"And because they have churches everywhere, they send the supplies - no administrative costs - straight to the churches (in places like) Jamaica, Haiti, where some of the recent hurricanes hit, and set up shop in the church immediately."
Williams said that's more critical than ever since so much of America's government foreign aid efforts have been halted. The Alternative Christmas Market lets people make donations to local, regional and worldwide worthy causes on behalf of folks on their gift lists. Among the purely local non-profits was St. Francis Wildlife. Board Member Kelly Kraft said her organization is desperately in need of food for their rescued wild creatures.
"We used to get all of our vegetables, which is a huge amount, from Costco. And recently we've not been able to get so many from Costco. So we take in fruit, vegetables, chicken necks and things like that from the public and they drop it off at two veterinarian offices, Northwood and Allied."
Kraft said other needs are listed on the organization's web site.
