Social service organizations are most aware of a community’s needs. Food and housing insecurity has escalated in the region, making the work they do even more vital.
During the holiday season, dedicated individuals and organizations in Lackawanna County go the extra mile to ensure that families have something special to help them celebrate.
Together, they create Christmas magic for roughly 5,000 children.
Gifts for Kids
For two days in mid-December, a shopping experience is created for qualifying families to choose gifts for their children at no cost.
Gifts for Kids is made possible by the Catherine McAuley Center, Catholic Social Services, Friends of the Poor and other donors and volunteers.
“We are absolutely stronger together,” said Mary-Pat Ward, development director at the Catherine McAuley Center and Friends of the Poor.
Last year, more than 5,000 children received Christmas gifts through the program, and they have the same number registered this year.
Viewers can hear from organizers in the next Keystone Edition Reports: The Season of Giving, which will air Monday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. on WVIA-TV.
To qualify for the program, a family must live in Lackawanna County, have a child under 18, and have a household income below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. That’s roughly $41,000 annually for a family of 2, $52,000 for a family of 3, and $62,000 for a family of four, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Roughly 15,000 toys, books, games and other gift items will be arranged for different age groups, and volunteers will walk the parents through the process.
“It is magical,” said Joe Mahoney, CEO of Catholic Social Services. “Lackawanna County comes together to take care of their own and I'm proud of them. I love the volunteers. I need to give a hat tip to the staff, all of our staff across the agencies, because their day to day jobs don't stop.”
‘The need’s just been incredible’
Registration for the Gifts for Kids event was capped at 5,000, and it was full within 36 hours.
Friends of the Poor offers a community dinner and a drive-thru family-to-family giveaway for Thanksgiving. The 48-year-old tradition also includes a prayer service.
In the days before the holiday, the organization gives away 4,000 cooked meals and just as many baskets of ingredients for a dinner to feed six to eight people.
Meghan Loftus, President and CEO of Friends of the Poor, said the giveaway doubled in recent years.
“In 2017 the prepared meal, we probably did about maybe 1,200-1,500 at the most,” she recalled. “The need’s just been incredible.”
She says she has seen a big change in volunteerism over those years, as well.
“Almost every household has to be like a dual-income household just to make ends meet,” she said. “So we don't have people who are able to give 20, 30, 40 hours or come for an eight-hour day.”
According to U.S. Census data, about 28% of Americans formally volunteered for an organization in the last year, showing a gradual increase since the pandemic. Loftus noticed the shake-up on a local level.
“The job market's different, and inflation has kind of been crazy,” she continued. “So while we see a lot more people who need our services, we also see those same people turning around and giving hours when they can as well. So I think the interesting piece is that a lot of the people that we serve are also the people who volunteer with us.”
Keystone Edition Reports: The Season of Giving on WVIA-TV
Monday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m.
'Stronger together'
Prior to Gifts for Kids, each social service organization had its own way of doing a little more for the holiday season. The Catherine McAuley Center previously hosted the Adopt-A-Family program, in which volunteers would be given a wishlist and buy gifts for multiple people in one household.
“The housing, the immigration work, the food insecurity work continues during the holidays,” said Ward.
“On top of that, our staff are expected to do these programs and we need to take care of not only our community, but our staff,” she continued. “So this was a way for us to do that, which is pulling all of our resources together [and] reaching out to other community resources.”
Catholic Social Services recruits volunteers from local catholic schools and parishes.
Jolette Lyons, director of Lackawanna County offices for Catholic Social Services, said her agency provides meals for the volunteers for the three days it takes to set up and run the program, as well as bags for the public to use when choosing their gifts.
The University of Scranton provides a central location for the event, as well as toy donations and security.
The collaborative Christmas giveaway allows them to provide for a lot more families than they could separately, with some donations coming in by the pallet.
“The donations come from all over,” said Ann Montoro Wiliams, stewardship manager for Friends of the Poor and the Catherine McAuley Center. “Some of them are families. Some of them are some of the small businesses in the area that will donate products … Some of the big box stores are very good to us as well.”
"The benefit of this is that we all have different constituents," said Loftus. "And we kind of bring all of that together, and then at the same time, we get to decrease a lot of our admin costs, because we're not doing separate events where each of us have to figure out all of the overhead of, you know, maybe renting a venue, providing volunteer lunches, buying all of the supplies that we need."
Other holiday giveaways
- Valley Santa provides Christmas gifts for children 12 and under in Luzerne County.
- The Zipper Junction Project Holiday Toy Drive collects and distributes gifts for kids up to 18 in Wayne and Pike counties.
- The Cops for Christmas Toy Drive is a partnership between Tunkhannock area police departments, school districts and businesses. Donation bins were placed around the area and gifts will be distributed to families who were nominated.
- The Olsen Christmas Wish, created in honor of Stroud Area Regional Police Officer Jeff Olsen who died by suicide in 2006, identifies families who need help fulfills their Christmas lists.
