ADOPTaLETTER.ORG : SANTA'S HELPERS

This Holiday season The Salvador Dali Society® helped make some children's Christmas dreams come true by adopting letters from children asking for their favorite toys, food and clothes for their families, or as one boy requested "Peace for the world." The staff at The Salvador Dali Society® were so moved by the letters and could not bear to see the kids go without presents, they decided to adopt as many letters as they could and Director Jianna Maarten also volunteered to help Kimberly Moore who headed up the project wrap many of the gifts looking over the list and "checking it twice."

What started out as a desire of two women to make some children's dreams come true this Christmas spread rapidly and before they knew it in just two weeks The Echelon Club's "Adopt-A-Letter" project was able to fulfill the Christmas wishes of almost 100 families in all!! Reebok loaded them up with hundreds of shoes, and "Rival Entertainment Group" donated an extra truck load of gifts on Christmas morning which provided a variety of gifts to almost 1000 other children in the community of South Central LA and surrounding areas! The event was covered by Fox News, ABC News, Channel 13, Univision, Forbes Magazine and several local radio stations.

Below is a news clip from Fox News who documented their Christmas voyage:

Santa Claus with a Cause!
12.23.07, 8:13 AM ET

Kimberly Moore, CEO of The Echelon Club, is that Santa. Ms. Moore, who has supported numerous global charities during her years in business, is now acting as Santa's helper. Ms. Moore and Echelon member Patrice Farameh are delivering gifts to children who still believe in Santa Claus and wrote letters to him. The gifts will be delivered to the homes of these deserving children in South Central LA on Christmas Day. Ms. Moore said, "When I take stock of a very successful year, I realized that our greatest accomplishment would be to personally buy and distribute the gifts on Christmas day."

Inspired by the true spirit of Christmas, Ms. Moore has partnered with writer/publisher Patrice Farameh to form the organization "Adopt-A-Letter," dedicated to fulfilling the wishes of children and families in need. The organization will be available to view soon at: adoptaletter.org. Ms. Moore has personally been collecting letters to Santa from the US Post Office. These letters were written by children in the impoverished areas of Los Angeles, expressing their Christmas wishes to Santa Claus. While some children wished for toys, others were asking Santa for food, blankets and warm socks for their mom. A six year boy writes: "Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is for you to bring peace to the world." "When I started reading these letters, I was heart broken," says Ms. Moore.

"Members of The Echelon Club are interesting and influential people from around the world who not only have expressed an interest in meeting like-minded professionals, but also have a desire and the means to make a difference in the world," says Ms. Moore. And so they will be with this endeavor!

Ms. Moore is asking members of the club, friends and anyone who can afford a gift or two this year to please adopt one or more letters to answer personally so that a child can know the true joy of Christmas.

If you would like to help, view the website where a list of letters will be posted http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pHTTpKkTx-wftJIHLKv-vaA and then go to info@theechelonclub.com with the letter number you would like to adopt. 100% of your donation will go toward the purchase of the gifts requested by the child in each letter.

So let's all help the Claus with a cause!

A letter of thanks from The Echelon Club's Kimberly Moore who headed up the Santa's Helpers Project:

Special thanks to my "Adopt-A-Letter" partner Patrice Farameh for her amazing heart, soul and all her hard work! Janice Carter and Angela Davis from The South Central U.S.Post Office for authorizing me to volunteer and read the letters. All my Echelon members, Patrice Farameh, Jianna Maarten and Adrian Stoin for their extra efforts and spending countless hours shopping and wrapping presents til dawn. The Salvador Dali Society, Jianna Maarten and Echelon member Michael Munayer for adopting dozens of letters. Lorna from Rival Entertainment Group for providing an extra truck load of gifts, The L.A.P.D. for their round the clock support, Reebok, U-haul, House of Toys, Fox 11 News for documenting our journey, Darren Darnborough, Eileen Lee and Amber Mazzamuto for helping me raise a ton of awareness on my project, Mathew Fuller,  Faith Boutin and Murray Rosen, Paulie Orchon, Alan, Brianne Huang, Erika Bokamper, Mike Schulte, Chef Jack Lee, Topaz, Lisa Fox, Michelle Geil, Eileen Lee, Hillary Atkin, Stephanie Sills, Jentana Dabbs, Paul Reitzen, Enya Flack, Bill and Nancy Bush, Dimitri Leonov, Varna Stoin, Jalanie, Joel Perkal and Rebecca Davis, Miguel and Carla Zeitlan, all the volunteers that showed up at my door on Christmas morning, my wonderful friends and all other supporters!