Muncie Radio: WMDH Treats 372 "Secret Families"

Cumulus Media announces that WMDH NASH FM 102.5 FM Muncie joined forces with Toyota & Scion of Muncie to provide Christmas cheer on December 5 – “Secret Families Day”, to 247 area families in need through the annual “Secret Families” Christmas Charity.

“Secret Families” provides a complete Christmas (tree, stand, decorations, food, pet supplies, cleaning supplies and wrapped gifts for each family member) to families needing a hand up in Delaware County during the holidays. “Secret Families” also provided holiday deliveries to an additional 125 families the following week.

NASH FM 102.5 conducted on-air interviews, live broadcasts from related events, recorded promos, and website, social media, and e-mail marketing to drive awareness, contributions and volunteers for this annual station promotion benefiting families in East Central Indiana. Over 1,000 volunteers, nearly $200,000 in Christmas gifts and items for families, and countless volunteer hours make “Secret Families” one of the area's premiere charitable programs.

Each family served by “Secret Families” receives an average of $550 in Christmas essentials, including items from their respective lists, including at least one toy for every child in the family. In addition to private donations, a number of area businesses and organizations donate the trees, stands, decorations, household and pet supplies. Volunteers are divided into teams for shopping, wrapping, tree delivery, gift delivery, and general logistics for communicating with and delivering Christmas cheer to the families served.

2015 was a milestone year for “Secret Families”. Every year, school principals from all Delaware County Schools identify families in need and these are the families that “Secret Families” reaches out to for support during the holiday season. This year, the “Secret Families” program cared for every family identified as needing assistance.

“Secret Families” has grown every year, gaining national attention in 2012 when the Today Show attended the event, and will launch “Secret Families” programs in four additional communities in 2016. “Secret Families” will also launch a new fundraising campaign platform in 2016, that founder Al Holdren anticipates will fully fund the Delaware County event on its own before the donation campaign even begins. If this sounds ambitious, Al Holdren said just a few short years ago that he wanted this organization to eliminate families not having a Christmas within a decade. Based on identified families, the program has achieved this goal in half the time.