Long Beach Christmas Angel helping local families

Annual fundraiser benefits those in financial crisis and Hurricane Sandy victims

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The Long Beach Christmas Angel will hold its 15th annual holiday fundraiser on Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at Bridgeview Yacht Club in Island Park, where the nonprofit organization will raise money for families in the Long Beach School District who are struggling financially, and honor five local residents for their community service.

The Christmas Angel fundraiser is arguably one of the largest in town each year, and draws hundreds of supporters. “It started as a holiday party in our home, and we would donate toys,” recalled President Johanna Sofield. “It has gotten bigger, and people have been more educated about it.”

After Hurricane Sandy, the group saw an obvious need in the community and decided to extend its help to victims of the storm, said Sofield, the group’s co-founder. After the storm, it distributed more than $580,000 to hundreds of families to help with everything from construction costs to mortgage payments, and it continues to help Sandy victims where other aid sources have fallen short.

“We continue to help with a broad range of needs,” Sofield said, “but our main focus has still been Sandy relief.”

The LBCA was one of the nearly 400 grass-roots aid organizations in the tristate area through which the Robin Hood Foundation — the beneficiary of the hurricane relief concert at Madison Square Garden in December 2012 — has distributed more than $70.5 million in donations for Sandy victims. Sofield said that LBCA has received three grants from the foundation, and a fourth grant was recently approved, bringing its total to $270,000.

“We’re continuing to assist people affected by Sandy — and that means a lot,” she said. “To have Robin Hood support the smaller, local organizations shows that they’ve extended their philanthropic efforts to the tristate area — and we’re doing our part to help our neighbors.”

Each year, Christmas Angel receives help from volunteers to organize the event, including about 20 students — half of whom have been helping out since eighth grade — who coordinate raffle sales and help promote the event. They includes Sofield’s daughter, Hannah, a senior at Long Beach High School who has taken a lead role in organizing the fundraiser and works as volunteer director.

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