Great North Pole Provides $1.5 Million in Goods to Families in Need

This is the second year the non-profit is giving the personal items away

FARGO, N.D. — During the season of giving, community members are spending an entire week packing boxes to go to F-M families in need.

KVRR’s Danielle Church tells us how the boxes could provide a special holiday for some families.

Toiletries, winter coats, canned goods and even a few games may not seem like extravagant gifts for the holidays. But to more than 600 families across the metro, it’s helping provide a little relief during one of the most hectic times of the year.

“They can pay rent, they can pay the heat bill. All of that also reduces the stress on these families and hopefully gives them a little bit better of a holiday to live with their family,” said Nick Killoran, co-founder of the Great North Pole.

More than 1,000 volunteers are packing boxes of these products totaling about one-and-a-half million dollars.

But that’s not even what it cost the non-profit, Great North Pole, to buy it all from national, retail stores.

“Four or six pack of socks is going to cost roughly $20 maybe a little more. We’re able to buy that pack of socks for like $1-2 because as a non-profit, they’re willing to go even lower than cost for what it is to make them,” Killoran said.

Because they’re going to families with children who attend Fargo, West Fargo and Moorhead Public Schools.

“We’re working with counselors and teachers who really understand these families needs. We’re asking them what products these families need because they’re seeing it, they’re living it every single day,” Killoran said.

Supplying not just parents with the basic items they need to feel less stressed during the holidays, but also helping kids to have the future they deserve.

“They’re going to have such a better time at school, be more confident in themselves and that’s just going to help them grow and be better people. Eventually they’re going to be the people giving back to their community,” said Tricia Huson, a volunteer.

The Great North Pole got the idea for their non-profit from Sioux Falls Cares, which has been helping out South Dakota families during the holidays since 1991.