Christmas Magic 2009
“Christmas Magic” Written for Inside Lacrosse Magazine By Dave Kotowski A few years ago I was asked by my good friend Charlie Russo to help out with one of his charities called Christmas Magic. My first experience was bringing my daughter Katie to help wrap all of the presents for the homeless children whom Charlie helps every year. How many presents? This year alone we presented close to 50,000 gifts. After the wrapping parties (and there are a bunch of them to wrap that many gifts) Charlie invited Katie and I to make a delivery with him. We held a party for a number of homeless shelters where we fed them and presented the children with all of their gifts that they requested from Santa. Charlie played Santa and the night was a huge success. On my way home, my daughter Katie was very quiet and I asked her if she was OK. She quietly told me that she now knew who the real Santa was and that is was Mr. Russo. I agree 100% with Katie, Charlie is the real deal and because of him over 5,000 children on Long Island who are homeless will have a little something this year for Christmas. This year I called up Charlie and told him that I wanted to help him in a bigger way by getting my travel lacrosse program, Team Elevate and all of our girls and families involved. Charlie suggested we actually adopt one of the larger shelters and be in charge of everything they needed. It all starts with letters from the kids to Santa. We received the letters after they were delivered to the North Pole via Charlie’s law office. The letters themselves are such a crucial part of Christmas Magic. You would be blown away by the heartfelt requests and the simple things some of these kids ask for. One 9 year old girl wrote the following: Dear Santa, My name is Claire and I am 9 years old. My mom usually provided me with everything I need, but this year unfortunately she can’t because we are in a homeless shelter. I am hoping you can make my wishes come true. I am a very good girl. Please make this happen I am really in need of your help. God bless. Sweet girl, Claire Reading all of the individual letters just rips your heart out. Unlike other charities I have been involved with, this is so much more personal and meaningful. Every dollar raised and every gift given goes directly to the kids. Charlie told me over the phone, “I don’t know how we are going to do it each year. We get more and more requests and this year the homeless population on Long Island has doubled. However, somehow, someway we get it done and that is why it is called Christmas Magic.” Charlie was right.
At our annual registration meetings I brought up the topic of having our three girls’ lacrosse teams getting directly involved in Christmas Magic this year and everyone was 100% on board. To get things started, I sent out a simple email request to every one of our players and I copied a lot of my family, friends and clients. For me, this is where the true spirit of Christmas really came to be. The generosity and willingness to help was more then I ever could have expected. Families stepped up and adopted individual kids and a few families adopted entire families. Even though these kids are living in homeless shelters, they still go to public schools and they still have the same wants and needs of our own kids. They would love an IPod, a Wii or a DSI. However they also ask for essentials like jackets, clothes, shoes and boots. One 17 year old boy asked for a lap top computer since both he and his mom were in school and a laptop would make doing there homework so much easier. Within 24 hours of my initial email the entire shelter’s kids were adopted. My only “problem” was that our team and our fiends and families were asking to adopt more kids. I called Charlie and he gave us another shelter to take on. Three hours later every kid in the second shelter was taken care of. Along with all the presents also came some generous donations and checks. My house and office served as drop off centers. One day at my office one of my hockey teammates showed up with a truckload of toys to drop off. People dropped off Wii’s, IPods and many other key items. On Thursday December 17th, Team Elevate gathered at my house to start wrapping. DiRaimo’s, a local Pizza Restaurant in Huntington, donated the pizza to feed the crew. Close to 60 people came to donate their time and wrapping skills. Girls and boys ranged in age from 4th grade to 10th grade. Within a couple of hours everything was wrapped and bagged. Yesterday, December 21st, Charlie sent a box truck to my house to pick up the gifts. We filled the entire truck. Every single kid was taken care of and we had a lot of extra presents and money for other shelters. This was a true community effort. My good friend Chris Dey who is the President of the New York Islanders not only made a personal donation but he also gave us 200 tickets to go see the Islanders play on Martin Luther King Day. A local shoe store gave us 60% off because of Christmas Magic. My sister forwarded my email to her soccer team and I was quite surprised to get a letter from one of her teammates who is a teacher in an elementary school who collected donations from her fellow teachers. This was totally unexpected. Last night my wife and three daughters along with 7 of our players and three other parents made the delivery to a shelter on Long Island. My personal highlight was being able to be Santa. While putting on the suit I had a moment to reflect on how much time and effort our kids put into Christmas Magic. For me it was an honor to represent them all. I came into a small cramped room to the kids singing – “Here Comes Santa Claus.” I was immediately attacked by hugs from numerous girls and boys. My Team Elevate Santa’s helpers helped organize all of the presents and the kids. Each kid was able to open up one present each and they could take the rest
back to their rooms. The room was a buzz with smiles and everyone cheered when each present was opened. Midway through one of the mom’s in the shelter broke down in tears. She said she was just overwhelmed at the generosity she was seeing. For me I think we made multiple impacts. I know how important it is to help all of these kids who find themselves in very tough situations. However, I also find that it is just as important to get our own kids involved so they understand what the true meaning of Christmas is all about – Giving to others. As I write this, we are getting ready to go to Charlie’s office to wrap more presents and make another delivery to the second shelter. We are also going to give Charlie close to $5,000 in checks. None of this would have happened without the dedication and vision of one man – Santa Charlie Russo. Christmas Magic is truly magical. The magic for me was to see a group of girls make magic happen. What is even more magical is that so many of the girls, their families and our friends have asked how can they do more next year. I will let you all know and hopefully we can get more teams and more players involved to make 2010 even more magical. Merry Christmas!
At our annual registration meetings I brought up the topic of having our three girls’ lacrosse teams getting directly involved in Christmas Magic this year and everyone was 100% on board. To get things started, I sent out a simple email request to every one of our players and I copied a lot of my family, friends and clients. For me, this is where the true spirit of Christmas really came to be. The generosity and willingness to help was more then I ever could have expected. Families stepped up and adopted individual kids and a few families adopted entire families. Even though these kids are living in homeless shelters, they still go to public schools and they still have the same wants and needs of our own kids. They would love an IPod, a Wii or a DSI. However they also ask for essentials like jackets, clothes, shoes and boots. One 17 year old boy asked for a lap top computer since both he and his mom were in school and a laptop would make doing there homework so much easier. Within 24 hours of my initial email the entire shelter’s kids were adopted. My only “problem” was that our team and our fiends and families were asking to adopt more kids. I called Charlie and he gave us another shelter to take on. Three hours later every kid in the second shelter was taken care of. Along with all the presents also came some generous donations and checks. My house and office served as drop off centers. One day at my office one of my hockey teammates showed up with a truckload of toys to drop off. People dropped off Wii’s, IPods and many other key items. On Thursday December 17th, Team Elevate gathered at my house to start wrapping. DiRaimo’s, a local Pizza Restaurant in Huntington, donated the pizza to feed the crew. Close to 60 people came to donate their time and wrapping skills. Girls and boys ranged in age from 4th grade to 10th grade. Within a couple of hours everything was wrapped and bagged. Yesterday, December 21st, Charlie sent a box truck to my house to pick up the gifts. We filled the entire truck. Every single kid was taken care of and we had a lot of extra presents and money for other shelters. This was a true community effort. My good friend Chris Dey who is the President of the New York Islanders not only made a personal donation but he also gave us 200 tickets to go see the Islanders play on Martin Luther King Day. A local shoe store gave us 60% off because of Christmas Magic. My sister forwarded my email to her soccer team and I was quite surprised to get a letter from one of her teammates who is a teacher in an elementary school who collected donations from her fellow teachers. This was totally unexpected. Last night my wife and three daughters along with 7 of our players and three other parents made the delivery to a shelter on Long Island. My personal highlight was being able to be Santa. While putting on the suit I had a moment to reflect on how much time and effort our kids put into Christmas Magic. For me it was an honor to represent them all. I came into a small cramped room to the kids singing – “Here Comes Santa Claus.” I was immediately attacked by hugs from numerous girls and boys. My Team Elevate Santa’s helpers helped organize all of the presents and the kids. Each kid was able to open up one present each and they could take the rest
back to their rooms. The room was a buzz with smiles and everyone cheered when each present was opened. Midway through one of the mom’s in the shelter broke down in tears. She said she was just overwhelmed at the generosity she was seeing. For me I think we made multiple impacts. I know how important it is to help all of these kids who find themselves in very tough situations. However, I also find that it is just as important to get our own kids involved so they understand what the true meaning of Christmas is all about – Giving to others. As I write this, we are getting ready to go to Charlie’s office to wrap more presents and make another delivery to the second shelter. We are also going to give Charlie close to $5,000 in checks. None of this would have happened without the dedication and vision of one man – Santa Charlie Russo. Christmas Magic is truly magical. The magic for me was to see a group of girls make magic happen. What is even more magical is that so many of the girls, their families and our friends have asked how can they do more next year. I will let you all know and hopefully we can get more teams and more players involved to make 2010 even more magical. Merry Christmas!
