Our History is Extensive
The Goodfellow Fund is a local tradition almost as old as the Star-Telegram. The Chicago Tribune started the first newspaper charity drive in the United States on Dec. 10, 1909. A Chicago city attorney wrote a letter challenging his friends to donate the money they would have spent on holiday partying to charity.
Two years later the Advertising Club of Fort Worth staged the first local Goodfellow campaign. The next year, on the day after Thanksgiving in 1912, Publisher Amon G. Carter brought the tradition to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It was newspaper editor James M. North asking readers to help “lonely little children” and become one of the “Good Fellows” by doing so.
Over the years, the type of assistance provided to children and families has changed. In the early years the Goodfellow Fund volunteers delivered wood and coal to homes and later providing fruit and candy. During the Depression and after the Second World War the need shifted to one of the very basics of need, that of shoes and clothing. This continues today to be the only mission of the Goodfellow Fund.
