All this holiday talk has got me thinking about charity drives this time of the year. Is anyone doing anything through their work/church/community center or even personally?

I've organized a toy drive through my work. We see child patients here (the Psychiatry dept I work for has a practice plan) and the toys we had in our waiting room were JACKED UP. So, we've got a donation box going and it's filling up pretty nicely.
Also, my family donates flowers to a church that a friend of ours was a priest for (he's since retired back to Italy) because they can't afford to decorate. We also buy lots of food to make baskets for the parish families who are finanically depressed so that they can have a holiday dinner.

Yes, we are doing that as well. We collected over $300 to provide toys, and dinners to a family...

We have collected canned goods, and it feels so good to give..

We always "adopted" a needy family where I used to work...they wouldn't know they were "adopted", of course...they would be registered with the Salvation Army or some organization like that...and they'd have a list of things they wanted, along with a list of things they were in need of...and the list would be emailed to everyone at work, with each of us signing up to buy something on the list until the list was completely purchased...then all these things would be delivered on Xmas eve anonymously...it was extremely warm and fulfilling to take part in something like that...

I am not organizing anything, but I have a lot of food that I am dropping off at various collection places for people.

wellbeyond said:

The newspaper I used to work for did that. It was a wonderful experience.

sag10 said:

It really does. Nothing else helps me really get into the holiday spirit.
My boyfriend's mom does a neat thing. She volunteers for an organization that pairs volunteers (after extensive screening) with kids and the volunteers take them for lunch and holiday shopping for themselves and their families (with money provided by the organization.)

applekisses said:

Apparently Santa lives...

wellbeyond said:

Alas, and thank God he does!

Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

-- Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be, which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to have men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive of imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else as real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives and lives forever! A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
[This message was edited Thu Dec 5 10:00:50 PST 2002 by applekisses]

"there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond."

Beautiful...

I was a "support buddy" for children w/ cancer last year at a local hospital. Often times these children are very isolated due to their medical restrictions. So I volunteered to spend time with them, just being their friend. This entailed many hours of reading to the little ones, playing Playstation with preteens and teaching some of the teenagers to play guitar. In fact, I cut off most of my hair so one of the little guys started losing his...Despite the fact that many of these kids have less than 5 years to live, they are some of the warmest, most caring people I have ever met. They appriciate every chance they have and know that each day you wake up in the morning is a precious gift...that there are many more things in everyday life to be excited for than pretty presents under a Christmas tree. I'm already signed up for this year...there are so many wonderful things I have learned by stepping into another person's shoes and realizing how blessed that I am.

AprilMichelle said:

That sounds beautiful, April... I had a friend named Elisa who did just that as well...she had been put into the hospital herself because of a stalker attack, and was very close to dying (at least she said she felt she was)...but she came in contact with the terminally ill children, and drew strength and fulfillment from interacting with them during her stay...and once she got out, she made it her purpose to still volunteer her time and energy to doing exactly what you described up above...and she just glowed from the effects these kids had on her spirit and on her soul...Unfortunately, Elisa passed away...but reading your post brought back a lot of memories for me...thanks...

wellbeyond said:

Yep, that's what we do too! It feels so good doesn't it?