Over the holidays I came across an opportunity to "adopt" a family who was in a bit of a pinch over Christmas, the mom was finding it hard to make ends meet and she wasnt sure exactly what she would do for Christmas. I sent out a plea to freinds,
Well, the holiday season is upon us and I am sure that your schedules are filling up with parties and shopping excursions and festivities galore. But I need your help. As you know, many people in our fair city are struggling--struggling with loneliness, with poverty, with personal stories of tragedy that we will never know the scope of. You may ask yourself, how can I help?As many of you know, in the past we have tried to help out by pulling together a Christmas hamper to help a disadvantaged family that might be struggling to pull Christmas together. If we could pull together once more, I have a family in need of our support.
The family has a single mom with 4 kids: a 13 year old girl, a 15 year old girl and two twin boys who are almost 11 years old. Even when money isnt so tight, providing Christmas for this age range can be very challenging, and I put forth this plea to you to help this Christmas be a bit brighter for one of the families in our city.
Anything you can offer, from groceries to basic essentials like new toiletries and socks or gifts the kids (and mom!) might enjoy, to simple well-wishes and glad tidings and prayers would be welcome and appreciated.
I know that we are a busy bunch but I am so grateful to live in a community with support and love and friendship that I would like to share the spirit of the season.
And help came in a landslide. By the end of it we had accumulated(off the top of my memory, forgive me if I cant recall it all):
*A Dove bathset for the mom
*$50 gift certificate at Superstore
*$40 gift certificate at HBC/Zellers
*$50 Gift certificate at Walmart
*A hamper full of Christmas dinner trimmings
*For each of the teen girls, a tunic style top, some hair accessories, shaving gel, razors, various stocking stuffer treats
*For each of the boys, a Canada hockey jersey, model motorcycle, various stocking stuffer treats
*Deluxe edition Cranium borad game for the entire family
*Toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner for the entire family
*And an awesome hip hugger laundry hamper to put it all in!
I am sure that there was more to it that I just cant recall now but I dropped it off and didnt expect to hear about it again. I was blown away (and I shouldnt have been because our friends are awesome) by the generosity of our friends and I was so proud that we all came together despite our busy schedules to make it happen. We had done our bit and I was so thrilled and excited that we could have a real impact on someone's Christmas and relieve at least some of the anxiety.
A few days after Christmas I sernt an email becuase I had forgotten to enclose the gift recipets for the jerseys and wanted to know if they needed them exchanged or not and got a short email
Well, *I* am so impressed looking at my bay window where I stacked all the gifts! A big fat hamper full of goodies and a box of food from Xeryfyn, board games and a food certificate from ***** plus my food certificates! My aunt is going to be THRILLED.She gave a gift from b to a little girl this week and the little girl was so happy that her mom cried! So sweet!
and later, this followed that same day
My aunt emailed me back tonight that the jerseys are perfect and they loved your parcel and had many thanks and tears of gratitude! Awww!
So THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED!!!
You are what makes the world a brighter, safer, wonderful place to live in.
12:32 p.m. - 2005-12-23