Goodfellow Fund will give more to Tarrant children this holiday season. Here’s how to apply

The Goodfellow Fund is giving more to Tarrant County schoolchildren this holiday season.

For the first time, the Star-Telegram charity will provide $100 Old Navy gift cards to needy Tarrant County schoolchildren. That’s up from $50 in previous years.

Applications will be available Monday at goodfellowfundfw.com .

The fund began as an offshoot of the first newspaper charity drive in the United States, started by the Chicago Tribune on Dec. 10, 1909. An attorney wrote a letter challenging his friends to donate the money would have spent on holiday parties to charity.

On the day after Thanksgiving in 1912, Publisher Amon G. Carter brought the tradition to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Goodfellow Fund accepts donations throughout the year.