BUFFALO, NY – Little Match Girl Foundation is excited to ring in the 2023 holiday season with its seminal fundraising event for Buffalo Wishes on November 2 at Big Ditch Brewing Company.

The Buffalo Wishes program collects, wraps, and delivers gifts that are matched to underprivileged children’s personal wish lists. Each October, students at Enterprise Charter School submit their top gift and school supply wishes. Once all lists are compiled, Buffalo Wishes participants are able to go online and select a student to sponsor. And the organization encourages participants to spend at least $50 per student, though many are more generous.

“All of us at the Little Match Girl Foundation are thrilled to lend a helping holiday hand to some of our region’s neediest—and also most deserving—children,” Mr. Biggie said. “We’re so excited to be coming back to Big Ditch Brewing Company for our kickoff. Big Ditch has been a wonderful partner to our cause for many years now, and I’m always so thankful for the community support. I’m also absolutely humbled to think back to the thousands of children’s and families’ lives we’ve impacted together since 2005. Seeing the way we all work for such an incredible cause seems to be the embodiment of both the holiday and the Buffalonian spirit!” 

The Buffalo Wishes program was launched by Buffalo attorney Brian R. Biggie in 2005. Mr. Biggie then formed Little Match Girl Ltd. in 2014 as the nonprofit home for this popular and important effort. And, while fundraising events did pause in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, support for Buffalo children did not; Buffalo Wishes continued to enrich the lives of students with holiday gifts.

This season, unwrapped gifts will be accepted through December 15th by the Little Match Girl Foundation at Enterprise Charter School (located at 275 Oak St., Buffalo, NY), the offices of Gerber Ciano Kelly Brady (located at 599 Delaware Ave., Suite 100, Buffalo, NY) and Aleron Group (located at 250 International Drive, Williamsville, NY). Volunteers from the Little Match Girl Foundation will wrap the gifts and deliver them to the students in time for the holidays.

Buffalo Wishes Kickoff:

Thursday, November 2, 2023

6 – 8 pm
Big Ditch Brewing Company
55 East Huron Street, Buffalo, NY 14203

A tax-deductible $25 ticket purchase includes one drink ticket and appetizers, and they can be purchased here. Tickets will also be sold at the door. All proceeds collected at this event will support the Buffalo Wishes campaign.

Parties who are unable to attend the kickoff event can still sponsor or support the cause by making a donation here. We are very grateful to the sponsors who have already rallied behind our cause in 2023, including Aleron Group, Gerber Ciano, USI, Cypress North, and Avalon!

About The Little Match Girl Foundation
The Little Match Girl Foundation Ltd. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the principle that every child deserves the opportunity to experience the joy, wonder, and optimism of youth that many of us take for granted. Inspired by the classic Hans Christian Andersen short story of the same name, the Little Match Girl Foundation focuses on helping those children most in need by collecting and providing them with school supplies, essential seasonal items, holiday gifts, and other donations in collaboration with their schools and other community organizations.

Founded in May 2014 in Buffalo, New York, the organization’s roots trace back to an annual holiday gift-giving program begun in 2005.