Chestnut Level Christian Church has recently launched a GoFundMe to provide healthy Christmas baskets to 59 families within the community who are in need.

Organizer Tamara Geiser said that the goal is to fill and distribute 20-pound fruit baskets of apples, oranges, tangerines, mixed nuts, strawberry jam, and more.

“We’re hoping if we can reach additional funding, that we can add a $25 gift card to each basket,” she said. “We’re working hard. Our first phase of our fundraiser was reaching out for online contributions, and starting next week, we’ll be visiting different businesses in the area to see if we can get their support as well.”

Geiser added that the campaign’s goal was originally to receive $6,000 in donations and has already received $3,330 but not all have come through GoFundMe due to donations coming through PayPal, Venmo, cash, and checks. So the goal on the GoFundMe says $1,600 and says that $950 has been raised, which is the amount that has been raised through the website.

Once she was able to determine the amount of money the fundraiser would need, she determined an actual goal of $4,685.

“GoFundMe auto-applies the current goal stats and then raises to my posted goal. Originally, I posted $6,000, as I did not yet have a total number of families. That being said, we just had a donor gift us $1,500 Saturday. We have a deficit of $1,355 for a total fundraising effort of $4,685 which will fund a $25 gift card to the baskets.”

She added in hopes to be as transparent as possible with the fundraising she will provide consistent updates on the church’s Facebook page.

“Sometimes folks will get nervous because it’s under my name but that’s only because Chestnut Level just doesn’t have a GoFundMe account or anything,” Geiser said.

The campaign can be found by searching “Support 59 Families with Chestnut Level” on GoFundMe.

The baskets will be filled on Dec. 14 and will be delivered to Union Local Schools on Dec. 15.

Geiser said that the importance of providing everyone a Christmas gift is always important but especially in these times with the government shutdown that just ended.

“We have quite a few families in the area that rely on that assistance. And food insecurity is a problem in both Belmont County and Guernsey County, as well as the surrounding areas,” she said. “So this is a way to provide a healthy gift versus a box full of macaroni and cheese and things like that.”

She added that she also hopes this campaign is able to allow more residents to hear about Chestnut Level Christian Church.

“Many folks don’t know that we’re out here. They don’t know where Chestnut Level is and that we’re here because we’re on Chestnut Level Road and it’s rural,” Geiser said. “We want to be there to provide support to the community when they need us.”

She added that the church will be having more events at the church that residents will be able to attend.

“We want people to come and visit us to learn who we are and how we might be able to help them or their families and the community around them,” Geiser said.