Southern Division APSO helps BigHouse bring joy to Alabama foster children at holidays
Helping foster-care families provide happier holidays is a major effort of the BigHouse Foundation, said Micah Melnick, founder. For about 13 years, the BigHouse has sponsored a Santa's Workshop to bolster foster families. This Christmas, with the help of members of the Southern Division Chapter of the Alabama Power Service Organization and other groups, the BigHouse Foundation served more than 500 families in the greater Auburn, Alabama, area. (Donna Cope / Alabama NewsCenter)
Everyone knows that Santa Claus has his own special workshop – but not everyone knows about a special, auxiliary location in Auburn, Alabama.
The Toy Shop sponsored by BigHouse Foundation. (Donna Cope / Alabama NewsCenter)
For more than 13 years, the BigHouse Foundation in Auburn has made magical holiday wishes come true for thousands of children, thanks to Santa’s Workshop.
Sponsored by the BigHouse Foundation, foster-care families in the surrounding area know that the Santa’s Workshop in Opelika is where a team of “elves” help make kids’ Christmas wishes come true. BigHouse Foundation founder and Executive Director Micah Melnick and her helpers spread lots of cheer, and not only at the holidays.
“One of the first years, we served 75 kids, which was amazing, and we were super happy with that,” Melnick said. “This year, we are serving more than 500 kids.”
For more than 10 years, members of the Southern Division Chapter of the Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO) have helped support the efforts of BigHouse, shopping for and donating toys for foster children and families.
This year, several employees of Southern Company’s Plant Franklin near Smiths, Alabama, raised about $2,000 to buy toys for Santa’s Workshop. Jessica Mitchell, staff accounting assistant at Alabama Power’s Auburn Business Office, has chaired numerous volunteer efforts for BigHouse. On Dec. 8, Mitchell joined several Southern APSO members in delivering toys and other items for donation by Santa’s Workshop.
“We’ve always had huge participation for the BigHouse Christmas project,” said Melinda Emfinger, customer service supervisor at Alabama Power’s Prattville Office and Southern Division APSO president.
Plant Franklin employees donated gifts to the BigHouse Foundation. (Photo courtesy of Jessica Mitchell)
Mitchell became friends with Melnick several years ago, when they attended Sunday School together at First Baptist Church of Opelika. Mitchell has chaired the Santa’s Workshop project for Southern Division APSO for eight years.
“I love seeing the look of joy on families’ faces,” said Mitchell, a former foster parent.
“This is a really special project,” added Mitchell, an APSO member for 15 years. “Micah is my hero because, as a young college student, she saw the need and stepped up to be part of the solution. Her heart and love for BigHouse families, especially the kids, is immeasurable. She looks for new ways to serve BigHouse families and meet their needs every day.”
Melnick was thrilled to receive the gifts from Southern Division APSO on behalf of BigHouse. She said that gifts from the community make Santa’s Workshop possible. Foster-care families sign up in advance for a designated time, then come through and select items for children in their home. Santa’s Workshop offers gifts ranging from “big-ticket” items such as scooters and bikes to stocking stuffers. This year, parents could select seven gifts, including stocking stuffers, for each child.
“Multiply 7 by 500 – that’s a lot of gifts,” Melnick said. The nonprofit also gave out about 200 gift cards to teenagers, allowing them to buy a gift of their choice.
Notasulga resident Rebecca Williams, who drove 30 minutes to attend Santa’s Workshop, said that it was her second year to shop.
“It’s amazing to me,” Williams said, “Micah knows me by name. It’s a very loving environment. We love and appreciate the BigHouse.”
“We take all types of donations from the community for this event,” said Melnick, who started the BigHouse Foundation when she was a 22-year-old student at the University of Alabama. Melnick had a front-row seat to the joys and challenges faced by foster-adoptive families, when her parents became foster parents in June 2007.
“Our organization serves children in foster care and those who have been adopted out of foster care by allowing their foster-adoptive families to ‘shop’ for free Christmas presents,” she said. “We saw that, sometimes, even though the children do get support at Christmas, it might come, and they have to open the gift two days before to take a picture for a donor, or it might be that the items weren’t really for the kids that were in their home … There were just some kinds of issues with the support they received.”
“We wanted to do an event where families could pick out exactly what they wanted for their kids,” said Melnick, who has three children of her own.
Hundreds of families take part in the free Santa’s Workshop, where they may shop for any child in their home. To continue assisting the community at the holidays and beyond, Melnick in 2022 plans to open a nearly 9,000-square-foot headquarters building on Grand National Parkway in Auburn. She hopes to provide an area in which counselors can offer assistance to families in need.
“We want to support not only the kids in foster care, but their birth children that are also helping to foster these children in providing a safe and loving home for them,” Melnick said.
“It’s just a really fun Christmas event,” she added. “It really gets us in the Christmas spirit. It’s great to see our families come through and see what they’re picking for their kids. Most of the time we know their kids, so we get excited about what’s going to be under the tree for them, as well.”
