Christmas House Fundraiser Helps Give Women A Second Chance [VIDEO]

SARTELL - The Zonta Club of St. Cloud hosted its 25th annual Christmas House fundraiser tonight.

The Christmas House event allows people to appreciate the work of local decorators and raises money for the Anna Marie Alliance, the Journey Home organization and scholarships for local women.

Deb Kellerman and Kirsten Freeman helped to put on the silver anniversary event.

"Everything that you see has been donated by 20 different local decorators, we've got food that's been donated, all of the staff time is donated, [and] every penny that we are bring in today is being donated to our causes," Freeman says.

They say that it can be a hard sell to get people to nominate their homes for the event, but luckily there are some very accommodating families willing to help.

"We tell [the families] that there will be over 1,300 people who'll walk through your home in the next few days," Kellerman says.

"[But] we've had very generous families who are more than willing to open their home."

Kellerman has been involved with the Christmas House fundraiser for all of its 25 years, she says she has seen the good it does for the community.

"In the last 25 years, we've donated over $250,000 locally," Kellerman says.

"Thanks to our members of Zonta who help us pull all of this together...we have a lot of people to be thankful to."

This year's Zonta House at 10009 19th Avenue North in Sartell continues today (Saturday) from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.