Mike Shreve was honored in May by the Rotary Club of Ponte Vedra Beach and The Recorder at the 34th Annual Local Heroes Awards. He was recognized for his decades of leadership with Bright Holidays, which provides clothing, food, toys and essential items to Northeast Florida children and families in need.
Tell me about Bright Holidays, what it does, how it accomplishes its mission, when and how it got started, that sort of thing. What is your role there? How did you first get involved?
Bright Holidays was founded in 2006 by former Ponte Vedra Beach resident John Forrester, along with long time local principal Sylvia Johnson. I have been involved since the inception, and president since 2015.
We give 10 holiday gifts each to 1,000-plus kids around the Jacksonville area (Duval and St. Johns counties). We partner with 40-plus schools, who invite families to participate. The parent provides us shoe sizes, clothes sizes and toy category preferences.
Every child we get from our school partners (and all of their siblings, regardless of age) receives new shoes, socks, pants, underwear, shirt, jacket, book, toy, sleeping bag (in lieu of beds; not for camping). Also, the family gets a Winn-Dixie gift card (sold to Bright Holidays at a discount), to help with food over the holidays.
Each school designates a faculty person to be our liaison — inviting families, gathering clothing sizes and toy preferences and delivering gifts (and wrapping paper) to the families. Hundreds of other volunteers help pull it all together.
Our core group of 10 volunteers buys 9,000 of those items new.
Most of the 1,000 new toys come from multiple toy drives. As we have continuously grown and improved over time, we now have the parents provide us with toy category preferences. (If you are ever donating to any toy drive, we’ve learned the following: The top girls’ preference is beauty/personal care, followed by dolls. The top boys’ preferences are balls, lego/blocks, and cars/trucks.)
Does Bright Holidays accept donations or help from community volunteers? How can people learn more?
The entire operation is funded by generous donors. We raise approximately $100,000 every year. 99% of money raised goes directly to gift purchases.
Anyone can visit www. brightholidays.org to either make a donation or sign up to volunteer in November and early December.
What do you like best about your work with the nonprofit?
We don’t get to see any children receive their gifts, but our principals and faculty partners share heartwarming stories of tearful parents, and very happy children wearing their new shoes and clothes in early January.
Our big Sorting Day in early December is also a joyful event, with hundreds of volunteers and our school partners working together. There is tangible holiday spirit in our borrowed warehouse.
What was your reaction to being selected as a Local Hero?
The recognition by the PVB Rotary Club was certainly an honor. And they have been longtime financial supporters of Bright Holiday, as well. I always enjoy the opportunity to share our story. It usually tends to lead to more donations and volunteers.
Tell us a little about your background, your career and education.
I have an engineering degree from Virginia Tech, and an MBA from The University of Virginia. I’m retired now. But I’ve mostly worked in the defense industry, and the credit card industry. We moved here when I became chief marketing officer for AT&T Universal Card in Jacksonville. After that, I ran my own small consulting business for 20 years (MTS Analytics).
Have you lived in this community long? What do you like most about it?
My wife Sharon and I moved to Ponte Vedra Beach in 1994. Our son graduated from Nease High School. Our daughter was in the first graduating class at Ponte Vedra High. Sharon worked at PV High for many years.
We’ve made many friends in this great community. I’ve coached hundreds of kids in multiple sports over the years, and that really expanded our connections.
