JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
The 2nd Annual Santa Cause event was held at the Arts in the Burg arts center in downtown South Pittsburg this past Friday.
An event dedicated to the promotion and gathering of nonprofit organizations from across Marion County and beyond. Santa Cause is an event that promotes organizations that are willing to give back to the general public in a variety of ways. The event was the brainchild of Mandy Finotti, board member and former president of the Marion County Chamber of Commerce who felt that an event was needed for nonprofit organizations to engage with the public. That way residents of the region can learn about the various groups and what they do to provide via their own sets of services.
“I was like ‘we have people that can get engaged with different nonprofits if they know they exist, and if they found where they could connect with.’ So with so many people moving into the area, I [was] like, you know let’s just do a gallery of nonprofits where these nonprofits can tell a little bit about what they do,” explained Finotti. Several nonprofits from around the Sequatchie Valley and beyond attended the annual event, with most being their second time, having attended last year’s Santa Cause.
Nurture the Next is one of those organizations who, according to member Margaret Foster, is a group dedicated to child and family education and support for first time parents, having on staff home visitors to provide help for parents of their newborn children. “We are parent educators. We try and help the moms when they’re pregnant and before the baby is born and until the baby is three months. But we can stay with them until the baby is five if they want,” explained Foster.
Another group also attending was Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA), an organization dedicated to providing support and care for neglected, fostered and even abused children via state and local programs. Other attendees included Smiles Dentistry, Champion Recovery Community, the Rotary Club of South Pittsburg and even Tennessee River Gorge Trust, an environmental group dedicated to the protection and conservation of the Tennessee River Gorge.
The Santa Cause event also hosted charitable donations and even prizes for visitors from all around. Those visitors who signed in after arriving at the event had a chance to win prizes of various types such as gift cards and even Christmas themed decorations. The event also housed a Christmas tree that had numerous ornaments that were themed with sponsorship based donations of supplies and services for volunteer work for the community. Ultimately the Santa Cause had another successful year fitting of the holiday season’s theme of giving to others.
