MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Christmas Cash For Kids kicked off its 20th season Monday in Martinsburg.
The donation-driven effort helped 366 families last year, including 714 children across Berkeley, Morgan, and Jefferson Counties have a brighter Christmas.
Monday’s kickoff event featured long-time partners in Christmas Cash for Kids from Kisner Communications, ROCS Convenience Stores, City National Bank, Walmart, DHHR, and WVRC Media as well as the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle
The DHHR’s Kathy Bradley has been with the effort since its start. She tells The Panhandle News Network the goal is $75,000. “Because we anticipate the need to be greater this year. I normally don’t start getting inquiries until sometime in November and I started getting inquiries about three weeks ago. I’ve already had eighteen families contact me,” she said..
Becky Linton and Bradley started the program with some help from radio stations WEPM and WLTF in Martinsburg during a desperate Christmas season when they found out a lot of children were going to go without. She says she knows times are tough this year for many. “The whole idea of our campaign is everybody’s having a rough time, but if you go in a store and you see a canister, throw in a couple pennies, throw in a couple nickels, if you get a cup of coffee at ROCS (convenience stores), throw in a quarter, whatever you can do.”
“Just think,” Linton says. “Our community has grown in 20 years. What the population was 20 years ago versus what it is now, and then the need is greater than ever.”
Still, “We know that we will not disappoint any of those little children this year. In the 20 years, 19 years prior, we’ve never had it turned down anybody and we’ve actually taken care of kids up to Christmas Eve.”
“Our community is warm and generous and loving,” Linton says. “I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. And I know this is going to be the year that we’re going to top all all the records in the past and we’re going to make all these little children (happy.)”
“Just remember what it was like when you were five and you came down and you saw your first doll baby or your first little wagon,” Linton says. “You’ve always got to have those dreams no matter how old you are.”
“You can help make those dreams come true.”
Carrie Myers is Operations Manager at ROCS Convenience Stores, based out of Martinsburg. ROCS was an early supporter of the effort.
“We have beautiful decorated water jugs that we put out on the counters and we collect everyone’s change,” Myers says. “And we also make a competition with our employees of who raises the most money. We’ll do a little treat for them as well.”
“To see the community come together, it just brings tears to my eyes,” Myers says. “It’s amazing. It’s amazing to, again, to be a part of that.
There has been an effort in recent years to put the focus on families who are being served by DHHR and who are not receiving Christmas help from other community resources in the Eastern Panhandle.
2024 Christmas Cash for Kids Stats from Kathy Bradley, DHHR
Bradley explains it’s the parents and guardians who shop for the children. “And however they want to divide that up between their children — they can buy toys, they can buy clothing, they can buy stocking stuffers, they can buy wrapping paper. We know that they’re making good choices because every family that shops that day has has a case manager from the department that shops with them. And we make sure that everything they put in that cart that is going to be cash for kids is appropriate.”
Bradley says the program has expanded to all three counties and all the way into Paw Paw. “We have been a partner with Paw Paw Elementary in Morgan County for probably seven or eight years now,” Bradley says. “We donate $1,500 to them, plus I take extra things to them like coats or hats, gloves, toys, or whatever.”
“We served 27 children last year from Paw Paw,” Bradley says.
This year, she said the Knights of Columbus stepped up in a big way with 12 cases of new coats to distribute to the children.
Bradley provided numbers from Year 19. In 2024, Christmas Cash for Kids helped 460 children in Berkeley, 99 in Jefferson, ten in Morgan County in general and 27 children at Paw Paw Elementary School.
There are also some opportunities after the massive shopping events at two Eastern Panhandle Walmart stores. “And then we have what we call our post-shopping families,” Bradley explained. “After we finish doing our shopping at both of the Walmarts in Berkeley County and Jefferson County, you still have families that maybe have had a parent has lost their job all of a sudden or they just moved to the area, something. They’ve had some some life changing event.”
“Last year between the day we shopped up to Christmas Eve, in our post-shopping we served an additional 41 families. That was 118 kids.”
An information sheet from Bradley lays out the process:
A family completes an application, receives a home visit from one of Santa’s helpers, verifies their need and they become a certified family to be a Cash for Kids recipient.
Once identified as a Cash for Kids family we offer two options. They can either shop with a Santa helper at Wal-Mart on a designated day or visit Santa’s Workshop that includes donated toys and clothing. Santa
saw a growth in post-shopping in 2024 with 41 families. This was an increase of 59% over Christmas 2023 while the number of children served in 2024 was 118 children. This was an increase of 10% children
served from the previous year. Meeting the Christmas Eve deadline for Santa to provide Christmas has grown. For ‘post-shopping,’ families are given gift cards to Walmart or the option of getting items from “Santa’s Workshop.”
Walmart has been a partner since early on and hosts shopping events in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties. Store associates get involved in taking up collections, as well.
Nicole Griffin is the People Lead at Walmart locally. This marks her second helping with Christmas Cash for Kids. “This year, prior to shopping day we’ll have containers set out for our associates or our customers to donate toys as well as our door greeters will be collecting cash or change, whatever people want to donate.”
The United Way of the Eastern Panhandle provides fiscal services to the program. CEO Penny Porter says through their literacy initiative, they’ll be including books for the children who receive gifts.
“We’re so excited to be celebrating 20 years of this amazing program. United Way continues to provide fiscal services for the program and we’re so excited to be able to do that. And then we’ve added an element from United Way that we provide a book to every child that’s getting presents during the the holidays.” United Way of the Eastern Panhandle is partnering for the 20th Christmas Cash for Kids “really celebrating the vision that everyone that’s involved has about making sure kids get a present open on Christmas morning.”
The 2025 Christmas Cash For Kids campaign begins Monday, Nov. 3, 2025 with a goal of raising $75,000 by the middle of December to buy gifts for less fortunate children in the Eastern Panhandle.
With the theme of “A Little Change Makes a Big Difference,” the campaign goal is to educate the community about how everyone plays a part with just a small donation of coins.
During the kick off, City National Bank made a seed donation of $2000.00. City National Bank Eastern Panhandle Regional Manager Melissa Knott said the donation was doubled over last year to mark the 20th anniversary of the campaign.
Knott says regional branches do their own special fundraisers, from making and selling crafts to holding bake sales. City National Bank employees also donate volunteer hours to the effort.
Christmas Cash for Kids was founded in December 2006 when the local Information and Referral Center at DHHR received a number of phone calls several days before Christmas from families needing Christmas assistance for their children.
At the time, the radio stations on West King Street, including WEPM and WLTF held a radiothon and helped raise funds. Those same stations, now part of WVRC Media, have partnered to get the word out every year through live remotes and hundreds of hours of air time.
During Monday’s kickoff event, Becky Linton reflected on the last 20 years. “The first ‘person’ that was involved in Christmas Cash for Kids was the radio station, the radio station I listened to. I appealed to them and the manager at the time had this big broadcast. The radio station was a partner 20 years ago, So they were our first original. So we thank you all so much for that. And they’ve been partners for 20 years.”
“Kathy Bradley and I met as complete strangers 20 years ago in this big room and we had 150 kids and we had to get Christmas in three days. So we raised the money and we went to Walmart in the pouring down rain,” She says. “I remember the rain clearly. It was three days before Christmas. It was the most wonderful, loving experience of my life and that’s the truth and I’ll never forget it. It’s what’s motivated me for 20 years.”
In those early years, Linton remembers tracking down a young mother who had not put her phone number on her request and had given up hope of being able to give her children anything at Christmas. She gets teary eyed thinking of the number of times volunteers and community generosity came through for children during the holidays.
Those interested in participating can visit the United Way of Eastern Panhandle’s website (www.uwayep.org/ ) to make online donations, or stop by any of the area ROCS Local Market stores or any of the City National Bank branch locations.
The United Way of the Eastern Panhandle and the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) are teaming up again with City National Bank, WVRC Media and Kisner Communications to raise funds for the Christmas Cash for Kids program.
There are multiple special events scheduled throughout the next 30 days to help generate the funds for the goal. See dates and locations below:
–November 8 — Walmart Boot Drive
at Wal-Mart, Spring Mills, with City National staff 9AM-2PM
–November 12 — McDonald’s Spirit Night
at McDonalds, Berkeley Springs 5PM-7PM
–November 15 — Walmart Boot Drive
at Walmart, Martinsburg, with City National staff 11AM-3PM
–November 21 — Jingle Downtown
with Main Street Martinsburg 5PM – 8PM
• November 22 | Bake Sale
at City National Bank 1034 S George St Charles Town, WV from 9am-12pm
at Boxer Craft House 309 S Mildred St Ranson, WV from 10am-2pm
–November 28 — Boot Drive
at Potomac Marketplace Ranson by Dunkin Donuts, 8am-10am
–December 2 — ANGELO’s Holiday Spirit Day
at Angelo’s Brick Oven Pizza, Martinsburg 11AM-9PM
–December 12 — Pictures With Santa
with Blue Ridge Mountain Volunteer Fire Department Firetruck
at City National Bank 1034 S George St Charles Town from 4pm-6pm
• December 12 | Pictures With Santa
with local police & fire departments
at City National Bank 75 W Virginia Way, Ranson from 4pm-6pm
–December 14 — Coin Drive
at Airborne Church, Martinsburg 9:15AM & 11AM
In the past few years, Christmas Cash for Kids has served a large number of families affected by the area’s opioid crisis, which leaves many children to be cared for by grandparents or other family members who do not have the disposable income to provide Christmas.
Christmas Cash for Kids serves children from birth to students age 17 (if still in school), providing Christmas gifts for their guardians to give them on Christmas Day. On a designated day in December, guardians will be invited to “shop” with an assigned DHHR Case Manager at area Walmart stores to select age-appropriate gift items for each family. The Christmas Cash for Kids program serves Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan counties, but all monies raised in each county will stay within families residing there.
The primary objective of the Christmas Cash for Kids program is to provide Christmas gifts to children who might otherwise not receive anything for the Holiday. From now through mid-December, donations will be collected throughout Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan counties in various ways at local businesses, churches, and with individual donors. Together, our community is joining forces to save as much “change” as we can, in order to make as much “change” as we can by providing gifts to kids at Christmas.
Christmas Cash for Kids is initiative of City National Bank, WVRC Media and Kisner Communications in collaboration with the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle and the local Department of Health and Human Resources.
For More Information: Becky Linton 304-676-4993 or Mary Beth Blair, 304-283-4438
Go to Christmas Cash for Kids on Facebook for updates on events and giving goals.
