Claus's Cause
Our sole purpose is to raise money for food, clothes, toys, and counseling for the children and families of those who have taken their own lives around the holidays.
The Story of Brian Huffman
On November 19th of 2021, I awoke to two missed phone calls during the night.
One at 4:16 AM and another at 7:15 AM.
What I would learn later is that those two phone calls were to alert me to the fact that my dear friend, Brian Huffman, had taken his own life during the night. I had spoken to him at 8:32 PM the night before...
Needless to say, I was shocked and angry and grieved and in anguish, as were many of the people whose lives he touched over the course of his short time on earth.
Fast forward to Thanksgiving of 2022...
As some of his closest friends gathered to celebrate his life at our first annual
"Friendsgiving" we had the idea for a charity in his honor. We want to have a positive impact on the lives of children whose parents or loved ones committed suicide during the holidays. It occurred to us that there are plenty of people who go through this very same ordeal with little to no resources at their disposal.
And that is our mission. To help these families and children try to enjoy some semblance of normalcy during the Christmas holidays and enjoy the same presents and food and clothes that all the other kids get to experience. In addition to this, we would really like to raise money for counseling for the families and children who are victims to this horrid horrid affliction. We are just getting this off the ground... So be patient with us as we learn social media, and those platforms. But our goal is to spread good will and cheer and positively impact the families. We want to try to change the trajectory of their lives for the positive.
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-Kirk Rittenberry
The Story of Santa's Beard
My friend, Brian K. Huffman, for whom this charity was founded, wore a big burly beard for what seems like as long as I knew him although that’s not exactly true.
After he took his own life in November 2021, I thought it might be a cool person homage to him to grow my own beard out (I had never really had much of a beard before maybe just here and there). To my shocking surprise it was very very white once I had grown it out completely when we got together in November 2022 to commemorate his life.
Several of our friends said Kirk you look like Santa Claus! And that thought had already dawned on me… And henceforth the idea for the charity was born.