Last Christmas, Carly Merritt had a wish.
Not for herself. Not for her family.
Instead, Merritt, 20, wanted to help people she didn't know, families in need of a brighter holiday season.
The idea grew out of her own less-than-merry Christmas the year before. In 2014, she spent the holidays at boot camp for the Air National Guard.
Boot camp lasted from November 2014 to March 2015, and when October rolled around last year, she started brainstorming. She knew what it felt like to miss out on the holidays, and she didn't want others to go through that.
"I was trying to figure out who I could deliver presents to or help donate to charities or something like that," she says.
Unable to find something with the hands-on connection she wanted with the families, she started her own charity: Carly's Christmas Wish.
She raised more than $2,000 through yard sales and a GoFundMe campaign and used the money to buy clothes and shoes for kids. She helped with electricity bills and the cost of rent. She bought one family a washer and dryer. And of course, presents for the kids. In total, she helped six families.
So far this year, she has raised between $8,000 and $9,000. About $5,000 of that came in during an event she threw together for Sunday, Nov. 20.
Between 150 and 200 people bought tickets to the event, which included a silent auction, raffles, music, face painting and Santa.
Like last year's scramble to raise money to fund her secret Santa tendencies, Merritt only just came up with the event idea in September.
She had already begun raising money through yard sales earlier this year.
"People would donate stuff and I would raise money that way," Merritt says. "I was averaging about $500 per yard sale. I thought that was a lot of work. There had to be a better way. I had three yard sales this year and then came up with the event."
A good thing too, considering Merritt is an aspiring dentist, working at Thornydale Dental, studying at Pima Community College and babysitting when she has a moment.
Over the summer, Carly's Christmas Wish also became a 501c3, allowing her to accept donations from larger companies, she says.
"I do all of the shopping for this," she says. "I don't like to shop for myself. I've never been a good shopper for myself. I usually shop for other people."
And then she gets to deliver the gifts personally. She had originally hoped to play Santa for 12 families — double what she did last year — but now she's hoping to help around 20 families, depending on the needs. Usually, she allocates $500 to $600 per family.
Last year, families sent her pictures and videos of the Christmas morning hubbub. And even though she delivers a few days before Christmas, she does get to see some of it firsthand, thanks to her rule: Kids must open one or two gifts while she's there.
"It was truly amazing just seeing their faces and their reactions, and I knew that they were truly excited and blessed," Merritt says of the families. "They were so thankful. A lot of the moms cried because they couldn't hold it in. The feeling is unexplainable. It's amazing."
This year, the application to nominate a family for Carly's Christmas Wish can be found on her website.
She says her family and boyfriend have supported her along the way.
"The whole purpose of Carly's Christmas Wish is to be a community," she says. "To help each other out instead of helping myself out."
