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From left, Select Realty agents Darlene Martin and Elise Crossman stand with Amy Burdick, Marquette Morris Store Leader, as Martin and Crossman donate $250 to the Morris Giving Tree. (Photo Daily by Antonio Anderson)

MARQUETTE – Morris Fashion Store, located in the Westwood Mall in Marquette, has created the Giving Tree to help provide for underserved girls throughout Marquette County school districts. This Giving Tree has inspired other Morrises stores in Wisconsin and across the Upper Peninsula to do the same, and brought other charitable organizations out of the store’s home in Marquette.

The idea came to the store president at the Market Morris location, Amy Burdick.

“On one of my conference calls, I was asked to bring this up,” Burdick said. “Now there are a few stores in Wisconsin doing it, as well as a few others in the Upper Peninsula. We’re starting a little thing here in Morris.”

The Giving Tree is decorated with tags outlining each girl’s desired list of clothes and sizes. Those looking to help schoolgirls can purchase select items from the menu, or everything.

“This is our second year doing this.” Burdick said. “Before I went back to retail, I worked with schools collecting data for the state (Michigan). So I learned a lot about the 502 in school and how there are a lot of kids in schools who are underserved. So last year we decided to create a giving tree, and I just reached out With (school) counselors that I know in our school district and they gave me names.

The Giving Tree helps girls from elementary school through high school, mostly in grades five through 12.

“Last year we were able to help 23 girls, and this year we have more than 50 girls on the tree.” Burdick said. “We end up wrapping them all and the counselors all come and pick them up, call each student individually, and then the student unwraps them and takes them home.”

This year, Morris completed all the signs, and helped provide clothing for 50 children, thanks to the people and groups who donated money to help these girls.

One of the groups that donated was Select Realty. Select Realty did this while simultaneously organizing its own celebratory charity event, the 12 Days of Giving initiative.

“Last year, I realized we donated to at least 12 different causes, so I decided to launch a new marketing initiative for Select Realty called 12 Days of Giving with Select Realty, which will run through December 25.” said Select Realty Marketing Director and Real Estate Agent Elise Crossman. “This is our second year doing this initiative. We hope this will raise awareness for these groups and encourage other people to donate to their community. On our first day of giving, we are supporting the Morris Giving Tree. We donated full clothes to four girls, and shoes to two more , for a total donation of $250.

Funds used for the 12 Days of Giving come from the Select Realty Community Fund. Each real estate agent participates in providing the fund, which originally began helping victims of house fires but has since grown enough to provide more.

“So when we sell a house, we each donate a lot of our commission checks to put into what we call our community fund.” said Select Realty associate broker and former owner Darlene Martin. “We also work on the Haunted Hayride so the money we get from the Haunted Hayride goes into our community fund.”

“This fund helps us donate to many local organizations and events throughout the year. “Darlene and I took over the Giving Tree for Morris but all agents are part of one of the days, and this is company-wide from all the agents at Select Realty,” he said. Crossman said. “Other places we donate to are Alger County Food Shelter, Jacobetti Home of the Veterans, Button Up Project, Up North Lodge – Operation Great Christmas, Rock the Socks, Seasons of Sharing in Big Bay, Teaching Family Homes, Great Lakes Recovery, UPAWS etc.

Antonio Anderson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. His email address is aanderson@miningjournal.net.