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Macy's Gives

How Macy’s and Make-A-Wish came together to help this seven year-old meet Santa

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Seven year-old Pastor knows that simple joys make life worthwhile. He loves visits from Santa. And he loves a good hamburger.

However, unlike most kids his age, Pastor is bravely battling leukemia. After a year of doctors’ visits and painful cancer treatments, Pastor and his family needed a break. That’s when Macy’s and Make-A-Wish® stepped in to help lighten up Pastor’s year.

Make-A-Wish is a nonprofit that helps fulfill the wishes of children with critical illnesses. While some children wish for celebrity meetups or trips abroad, Pastor’s wish was specific and sweet: he wanted to meet Santa for a hamburger near his home in Sacramento.

To make it happen, Pastor’s local Make-A-Wish chapter reached out to its longtime partner Macy’s to arrange Santa’s journey from the North Pole to California.

Pastor arrived at the store in a white stretch limousine and was welcomed by smiling elves surrounded by hundreds of red and white balloons. Inside, Santa greeted Pastor from a silver throne inside a winter wonderland packed with oversized candy canes, golden gift boxes, and evergreens decked out in Christmas lights. Together they picked out ornaments from the Macy’s holiday display, then left the store together to visit Santa’s reindeer. After their big day, the pair feasted on burgers and hot chocolate with family and friends.

“When we heard about Pastor’s sweet wish to meet Santa, we quickly thought of our partners at Macy’s and what a wonderful tie-in to the annual Macy’s Believe letter-writing campaign,” said Michele Sanders, Vice President of Strategic Communications for Make-A-Wish. “Pastor, his entire family, and all involved were in awe of the ‘winter wonderland’ created just for him and Santa.”

“When Pastor turned to us with amazement and said, ‘You made my wish come true!’, we knew the magic that was created by the combined efforts of Macy’s and Make-A-Wish was truly amazing,” said Lorie Hennessey, chapter Vice President of Mission Delivery, the division in charge of wish fulfillment.

Make-A-Wish couldn’t spread joy to children, families, and communities without the generous support of individuals and corporate partners like Macy’s. Giving can start with something as simple as a letter to Santa: If you write a letter online at Macy’s or drop one off at a big red letterbox in-store, Macy’s will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million in total.

Besides sending letters to Santa, there are even more ways to support Make-A-Wish at Macy’s during the season of giving. For every purchase of the $4 Believe Bracelet, Macy’s will donate $2 to Make-A-Wish from now through December 31. Customers can also donate online through the end of 2021 to help spread hope and happiness to children with life-changing illnesses.

Since 2003, Macy’s has donated over $137 million to Make-A-Wish. These donations have helped Make-A-Wish fulfill the dreams of more than 16,000 young people just like Pastor.

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Remote learning sets kids back an average of 2 months. Here’s what Macy’s and RIF are doing to help underserved students who are falling behind.

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When almost all of the nation's schoolchildren were forced to embark upon remote learning, everyone struggled to stay afloat: families, students, and teachers. Despite the heroic efforts of educators and families, remote learning presented significant challenges for students, particularly those of lower socioeconomic status.

It's not yet clear the significant learning challenges all students faced last year and the resulting impact as many students return to in person learning this Fall. Preliminary data suggests significant learning loss - particularly among children of color.

The ability to read and write is the foundation upon which an education is built, and research shows students of color and those in high-poverty communities fell even further behind during remote learning than their peers. For example, the sudden shift to remote schooling in Spring 2020 set White students back by 1-3 months in math, while students of color lost 3-5 months of learning.

This systemic inequity that has existed in the American education system for decades has disproportionately left students of color behind, and the COVID-19 school closures multiplied this challenge, impacting a generation of already at-risk youth. Disparities in access to computers, home internet connections, and direct instruction from teachers, all have played a role in this crisis since the start of the pandemic. Even prior to the pandemic, 65% of children in the U.S. were not reading at the proficient level, and 2/3 of U.S. children living in poverty don't have a children's book in their home.

Macy's is a longtime partner of Reading Is Fundamental, the nation's largest children's literacy nonprofit organization; this year, they're taking action to address this overwhelming problem via back-to-school shopping. Every time you shop at Macy's in August, round up your in-store purchase to the nearest dollar up to 99 cents or donate online to help support children's literacy. Every $4 donated purchases one book, and one hundred percent of donations go directly to literacy programs for local children.

Photo courtesy of Macy's

Over the past 18 years, Macy's partnership with Reading Is Fundamental has provided more than 14 million books and thousands of supplemental reading resources to kids across the country. Your support will have a direct impact on communities across the country by funding critical literacy needs in communities that have the greatest need.

"At Robert Head Start & Early Head Start, we ordered our books from [Reading Is Fundamental] last school year and were able to distribute them to the children during a time when children really needed extra support at home while school was often closed for weeks at a time due to COVID-19. It was really wonderful to watch the children select their own book from the rich variety.

"As staff, we enjoyed seeing the children's eyes light up as they would select the book they really wanted. It also helped us to learn about their likes and in some ways their dislikes. We were able to provide several opportunities throughout the school year in which the children were given the opportunity to select a book as we actually had enough for each child to receive three books. The grant supported by Macy's not only helped us during a time of need when the children were spending so few days in an actual classroom, it provided the children with the beginning of their own home library," said Brenda Laurent, the Center Manager at Regina Coeli Child Development Center in Robert, LA.

Supporting students who struggled with and fell behind due to the negative learning impacts of the pandemic will require all of us to pull together. Improved literacy not only benefits today's children, but future generations shaping the trajectory of our country.

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Back to school shopping? Round up your purchase at Macy’s and help boost literacy in underserved communities.

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This year, your back-to-school shopping can have a positive impact for local families, and all you have to do is round up at checkout. But first, let's talk about America's literacy problem. Did you know that two-thirds of children living in poverty do not own books?

For these children, schools and local libraries are often the only place where books are easily accessible. And what about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on these under-resourced communities as children were learning remotely? The experience of a child living in an impoverished community is vastly different from the experience of other children. There has been a 27-point gap in literacy proficiency between Black students and their White counterparts for almost thirty years. The pandemic will likely only worsen these numbers.

The ability to read and write is something many of us take for granted (you're reading this article right now!), but according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sixty-five percent of American 4th graders read below grade level. This sobering statistic translates to approximately 8,000 students dropping out of school every single day. Low literacy rates disproportionately affect poor, underserved areas — students drop out of school, get locked out of the job market due to a lack of education, and the cycle of poverty continues.

Simply put, inequitable access to literacy resources and support is a major part of what perpetuates a cycle of poverty that makes it difficult to succeed academically and ultimately in the workplace.

Literacy isn't only about classroom education — it plays a vital role in transforming children into socially and civically engaged citizens. It means being able to keep up with current events, communicate effectively, pass a driving test, and understand the issues that are shaping our world. It enables us to self-advocate, understand finances, and make better decisions regarding healthcare, housing, and nutrition. The fact that twenty-five million children in the U.S. cannot read proficiently is alarming because every child deserves equitable access to books and education, and we must all come together to address this crisis and make a real change. That statistic doesn't bode well for our future.

Macy's wants to support creating a literate America until every child reads, which is why for the past 18 years, they've partnered with Reading Is Fundamental to provide more than 14 million books and thousands of supplemental literacy resources for children across the country.

Photo courtesy of Macy's

Additionally, Macy's is a founding partner of the organization's Race, Equity, and Inclusion (REI) Initiative, which launched in fall of 2020. The purpose of this effort is clear: to provide books and literacy resources to the most marginalized, the most disenfranchised, the most at-risk youth in America, located primarily in the underserved communities of color — and use the power of books for positive impact and change, showcasing diverse books, characters and authors.

The goal is to extend all children the opportunity to reach their potential and to see themselves and a reflection of their experiences in the books they read, inspiring generations to read, learn and grow. RIF's approach not only helps families build diverse at-home libraries, but also builds up diverse book collections at local schools so that every student has an opportunity to see themselves in the books they read and learn about others to create empathy and inclusion.

"Thank you so much for all your organization has done [during COVID]… it's been a difficult time for schools & families. We have been able to begin a book distribution program in Athens that will continue throughout the summer. We estimate we've given out over 12,000 books with no end in sight. Our precious children light up when they get to choose their beautiful new books—and they are reading!" said Jennifer Walker, a Librarian at Ingleside Elementary, in Athens, TN.

So, as you're shopping at Macy's to prepare for the coming school year, be sure to round up your in-store purchase to the nearest dollar and donate your extra change or donate online. A $4 donation equals one book, and one hundred percent of the donations go directly to Reading Is Fundamental, leaving a direct impact by funding critical literacy needs in communities that have the greatest need.

Let's join together to support children's literacy until every child reads.

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