Stu Pospisil: Omaha Goodfellows bringing good will, Christmas cheer since 1910

Since our inception in 1889, The World-Herald has been a community leader in charity.

Others noticed, all the way back to 1910 and the first year of the holiday-based Goodfellows fund drive.

“The Omaha World-Herald has pulled off some splendid works during its existence, as for instance its Cuban Relief Train, its relief headquarters during the awful winter of 1894-95, its special train to return the First Nebraska from San Francisco and others,” the Lincoln Wageworker wrote in December 1910.

“But not one of these came so close to the hearts of us all as its ‘Good Fellows’ club. It made itself a clearinghouse and called on all ‘Good Fellows’ to come across and agree each to make some poor little child happy on Christmas. Not by sending in money or gifts, but by agreeing, each one of them, to go right out and make a personal call in some designated child of the poor and carry to that child visible messages of Christmas cheer.”

The Chicago Tribune was first with the Good Fellows concept in 1909 at the urging of an attorney from Springfield, Illinois. A reported 20,000 poor children had a happier Christmas.

Newspapers across the country picked up on it for the next year.

“You have a chance to show whether you are a good fellow or not,” The World-Herald wrote in its announcement of Good Fellows in 1910. “Hundreds of children in Omaha know only sorrow on Christmas Day, many never even hang up stockings because they know it would be of no use.”

In its debut, Good Fellows collected names of poor children in Greater Omaha and turned those over to the Associated Charities. The forerunner of United Way of the Midlands was to ensure that those children would have a Christmas gift solely because of Good Fellows, to spread around the city’s generosity.

Sign-up forms on the front page asked for people to “agree to be Santa Claus” for the number of children the new Kris Kringles specified. They were sent the names of children, if possible those living in the neighborhood.

“The charity organizations pay attention to providing meals and necessary clothing. But this is more to give them toys, candy, nuts, something that will make the real Christmas for the children,” The World-Herald wrote. “And women are not excluded. Any woman who has the true motherly desire to play ‘Santa’ for some ‘wee bairn’ on Xmas day will please cut out the coupon and send it in right away.”

Almost 900 children had something in their stockings on Christmas morning that first year.

The newspaper’s earliest holiday goodwill program was in 1889, when it gave a Christmas dinner to the “poor children of Omaha and South Omaha, at which 1,200 were entertained.” The next year, the dinner served several thousand. Also in 1890, was a World-Herald Christmas bureau at 1413 Farnam St., across the street from the newspaper office, that collected clothing, toys and cash.

The newspaper’s charitable efforts, not always holiday-centric, became known as the Tow Line over the next 20 years. A relief bureau during the severe winter of 1894-95, the Cuban relief bureau of 1898 and Nebraska troop-related support during the Spanish-American War, a tornado relief fund for the devastated town of Herman in 1899 were notable.

The first five years of Good Fellows, according to a 1974 Sunday World-Herald Magazine of the Midlands article by Harold Cowan, helped about 4,000 children. In the mid-1910s, Good Fellows began providing baskets of groceries for needy families at Christmas. At first, one reporter handled all the work from a desk in the newsroom. Then it took a newsroom volunteer force to investigate needs and distribution, “working long hours without pay to keep faith with people who contributed.”

In 1919, Good Fellows gave toys to 2,500 children and helped 590 families with food baskets.

The newspaper incorporated its charitable arm in 1945 as a nonprofit organization.

Sports raised awareness of Good Fellows and raised money. For 30 years, Good Fellows sponsored the regional Golden Gloves boxing tournament. The Good Fellows Bowling Tournament started in 1948. The citywide contest determined winners by highest number of pins over their averages for a three-game series. Entry fee was 50 cents in 1948 and it rose to only $1 before its end in 1986. Almost $10,000 was raised by the 1983 tournament.

Over the years, promotions or stunts to help Goodfellows included the “Mile o’ Dimes” and a “Miss Good Fellow” in the late 1930s, 1950s Omaha kiddie TV show host Sailor Dan urging kids to donate toys for the annual giveaway that the Salvation Army took over in 1974 and in recent years eCreamery creating a special Goodfellows ice cream flavor.

The role of Goodfellows — the term became one word in the mid-1970s — evolved from toys and food baskets. The Fresh Air Camp for underprivileged children, the Free Milk Fund in conjunction with the Visiting Nurses Association, the Free Shoe and Clothing Fund in conjunction with area schools, the Hearing Aids program in conjunction with the Cary Research Foundation and the eye examination program all were Goodfellows-sponsored.

While Goodfellows continues to provide holiday meals, by 1993 the focus was shifting to year-round emergency assistance to people with one-time, urgent needs. Referrals came initially from Together Inc., United Way of the Midlands First Call for Help, Holy Family Door Ministry and the Nebraska Department of Social Services.

After years of World-Herald employees operating Goodfellows, the newspaper in 2020 turned over the charity’s administration to United Way. The World-Herald writes stories about donors and clients and United Way collects donations and invests the money within the community.

In a way, the United Way partnership has brought Goodfellows full circle from its 1910 start.

This holiday season, Goodfellows will reach $20 million in contributions since recordkeeping began in 1945.

To donate, go online to omaha.com/goodfellows or mail to World-Herald Goodfellows, c/o United Way of the Midlands, 2201 Farnam St., Suite 200, Omaha, NE 68102.