Project Christmas Cheer for many years operated under the auspices of the Carteret County Department of Social Services, under the direction of Eloise Blair, with a volunteer board of directors. Project Christmas Cheer was, and is, an outreach service to the residents of Carteret County who are experiencing financial need around Christmas time, and are unable to provide Christmas presents, food, a
nd other needs for family members for the celebration of Christmas. The needs in Carteret County for the services provided by Project Christmas Cheer expanded over the years to the point when it outgrew what could be provided through the office of the Carteret County Department of Social Services, without jeopardizing the ability of the department to provide for the federally mandated services for which they must provide. Eloise Blair approached the board of directors of Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc. with the proposal that Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc. take over Project Christmas Cheer and the services it provided. Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc. is a community wide organization made up of two board members from each church that supports its ministries with a minimal annual financial contribution of $100.00. is an organization that was created in the late 1960s by the cooperative efforts of several local churches to provide for the Christian outreach to the local community that could better be done through the cooperative effort of the many churches that would participate. Among these ministries were a coffee house at Atlantic Beach to serve the spiritual needs of youth during the summer, a service ministry to the needs of the migrant workers in our county, the Seamen’s Center at the NC State Port, and many other ministries that came under the umbrella of Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc. Since Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc. had evolved to be an organization that did not provide direct services, as it did in its beginning, but had become more of a coordinating “umbrella” organization that helped secure volunteers and financial aid to the organizations under its “umbrella”, its board felt that it did not have sufficient resources to take on Project Christmas Cheer. After much discussion and after the failure of Project Christmas Cheer to find another organization to take over its responsibilities, the Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc., on 6/2/1987, authorized Stanley C. Harrell, the then president of Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc., to look into organizing a new steering committee for Project Christmas Cheer, with the possibility of making it independent of the Carteret County Department of Social Services, and temporarily under the auspices of Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc., partly for the benefit of enjoying the benefits of being a tax exempt organization under the IRS, and providing for tax benefits for donors. This authorization was with the understanding that if Project Christmas Cheer was so organized, that it would immediately become incorporated as a not for profit, tax exempt organization, with its own officers and directors, and could then continue as an organization under the “umbrella” of Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc. Stanley Harrell sent an invitation to all the existing officers and directors of Project Christmas Cheer to join him at a meeting at Mrs. Willis’ Restaurant on Thursday, June 25, 1987, for the purpose of discussing the possible future of Project Christmas Cheer. Those in attendance were Lora Gray, Jean McElvein, Oliver Hill, Ken Windley, Mary Cloniger, Rev. Ron Leigh, Stanley Harrell, Betty Holloway, Joe Christian, Eloise Blair, Joan Greene, and Doris Blackwell. Others invited, but were not able to attend, included Diane Poag, Laurence Stith, Lee Miller, Elizabeth Moore, and Rev. Howard Knight. After some discussion and agreement as to the importance of being affiliated with Bogue Banks Resort Ministry, Inc., and the understanding that a newly formed organization must become separately chartered, all those present, and all those who were unable to attend, agreed to service as steering committee members, and later board members of the to be formed new organization of Project Christmas Cheer, with the officers as follows: Jean McElvein, Chairman, Joe Christian, Vice Chairman, Eloise Blair, Secretary, with a Treasurer to be selected at a later date. Soon thereafter, the steering committee met, applied for corporate charter, with the existing steering committee and officers becoming the officers and directors of the newly chartered Project Christmas Cheer, Inc., and has continued, without interruption, with servicing the needs of Carteret County residents and their needs during the Christmas seasons, as an outreach Christmas ministry. still exists as a dormant organization, and becomes temporarily active only under emergency circumstances and special needs of its members. Its dormancy is the result of the organizations under its umbrella having become independent and self-sustaining.
