By Don Koveleski
On Oct. 5 and Oct. 6, The Exchange Club of Falcon hosted a successful craft fair at Falcon High School. We had over 90 vendors and more than 1,400 shoppers attend this year’s craft show between the two days.
We collected 274.5 pounds of nonperishable and dried foods and 87 coats, blankets and hoodies for the Eastern Plains Community Pantry. We also collected 90 pounds of nonperishable and dried foods and 28 coats and blankets for the Mt Carmel Veterans Service Center.
From the funds received from vendor booth fees, the Exchange Club craft table and donation cans, we were able to deliver several checks and items to the multiple partner agencies. Funds were presented to Eastern Plains Community Pantry in Calhan, the Mt Carmel Veterans Service Center, Rocky Mountain Inclusive Connections, Safe Passage, KidPower of Colorado and Calhan Schools (for instruments and woodworking tools).
The Exchange Club of Falcon enjoyed putting together the 15th Annual Craft Fair this year. We give back to our community in support of our programs: Child Abuse Prevention, Americanism, Community Support and Youth Programs.
The date for the 2025 Falcon Craft Fair is Oct. 4 and Oct. 5 at Falcon High School.
The Exchange Club recently completed its 2024 Angel Tree program, which supports foster children in El Paso County. This year, we added gift tags for Calhan schools to help the children in rural areas. Angel Trees were placed in the Falcon Walmart, the Antler Creek Golf Club, Farmers State Bank, The State Bank, the High Prairie Library (partnering with the Pikes Peak Library District), and the MITRE Corp. office and the American Insurance Exchange office on Circle Drive in Colorado Springs.
The campaign ended Dec. 19, and the final pickup and delivery of the gifts was made on Dec. 23. Our totals for toys and gift cards collected at these locations were down from last year. Our gift card totals this year was $7,285 (compared to $10,390 last year) and the toys received totaled 414 (compared to 729 last year). However, there are two pieces of good news from this campaign that we need to share with the readers.
One of our Angel Tree locations was the Antler Creek Golf Club. Because of the weather situation for golfing, we didn’t have the turnout that we had last year. So, the Rector Stuzynski Law Firm (both locations in Colorado Springs) generously emptied the Angel Tree TWICE of tags. With their generosity alone, we collected $2,050 in gift cards (almost a third of our entire gift tag total) and 51 toys. Their support for our Angel Tree program was tremendous and definitely needed this year.
Another big event in our campaign was a $5,000 grant from the Dammann Family Fund of the Pikes Peak Community Foundation. We were referred to the Dammann Family Fund by Jaromie of the American Insurance Exchange (one of our Angel Tree locations). We contacted Deborah M. of the Dammann Foundation, and she said she and her husband chose the 2024 Angel Tree Program as a recipient of a grant this year. With this generous grant, it more than made up the losses from our gift tags to get us to $12,285 (above last year’s amount). This was the first grant the Angel Tree Program has received.
The Exchange Club of Falcon is selling tickets to our first Murder Mystery Dinner FUN-draiser, which will be at the Still Waters Ranch on Falcon Highway on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. Tickets are $50 a person or $90 a couple. We are still asking for sponsors for the event; if interested in sponsoring or purchasing tickets, please contact Don Koveleski at 719-369-5158. So far, we have two sponsors for our event: Premier Auto and RV and Stratus IQ (Fiber Internet).
