Xclaimed Ministries 4th Annual Community Christmas Festival

Stanton, CA, December 13, 2012 --(PR.com)-- On Saturday, December 8th, Xclaimed Ministries hosted their 4th Annual Christmas Festival. The concert style festival drew a crowd of nearly 1,000 people (more than half were children). The event began with a free lunch consisting of grilled hamburgers, chips and bottled water. After the Xclaimed Ministries Band opened with a couple of Christmas songs, Christina Karanick, co-founder of Xclaimed ministries, drew several names for gift cards donated by Sam’s Club and meal vouchers donated by Original Tommy’s Hamburgers. The children were pleasantly surprised as members of the band began to toss toys into the crowd. During the festival, each child chose two toys from the great variety available to them. Thanks to a generous donation from Adventure City Theme Park, children aged 2-8 were given free admission vouchers to the theme park. As always, the highlight for this event was the bicycles. Children patiently waited to see if their name would be drawn for one of the 20 new bicycles. Paul Karanick, co-founder and evangelist for the ministry, said, “I can’t wait for the day that we can give each child a new bicycle. A child receiving a bicycle is like an adult winning a new car. Currently, we raise money throughout the year to purchase bicycles for our events and each year the number of bicycles we are able to purchase seems to be increasing. During our summer concerts, we gave away 42 new bicycles in addition to the 20 we gave away at this event. For now, we simply give away as many as we can and the children that do not win a bicycle will at the least receive a free toy or two. No one goes home empty handed.”

The question many people ask is, “Why do you do the concerts and events?” Paul says, “It all comes down to helping others. We do not have a rehab center, a house program or any special services that we offer. What we do have is the ability to meet the people in the community, find out their needs and help them get connected to the help they need. Most of all, we offer hope through Jesus Christ. We have found people a shelter, we have found people help for dealing with addictions and we have helped abused children, but our greatest accomplishment is that we have shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with thousands of people each year. On an average, 8-10% accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The ministry released its 2013 Schedule at this event as well. Since rain in the winter months is so unpredictable, Paul says that the February and March events are held inside their main building which will be held on February 9th and March 16th. The outdoor concerts are on May 4th, July 27th and September 21st followed by the Christmas Festival on December 14th. They hope to help the community people with as many resources as they can gather.

For the additional information visit www.xclaimed.org or www.facebook.com/xclaimed