By Chris Ruvo:
“I am hoping that some way, somehow, I can help them."
So said a mother from Lower Bucks County about her young children and their hopes for the holiday season.
She expressed the heartfelt desire in a letter pleading for help from Give A Christmas — the holiday season campaign that collects and distributes monetary donations, typically in the form of vouchers, to families experiencing financial hardship in Lower Bucks County. Levittown-Bristol Kiwanis Club partners with the Bucks County Courier Times to meet families' needs.
As the mother explained, she feared her kids’ holiday spirit would be broken Christmas morning if they came to find no gifts — a real possibility, given that she could not afford to provide them.
Certainly she had tried, working extra hours six days a week. Indeed, after having benefited from Give A Christmas the year before, the Lower Bucks woman had hoped to donate to the fund the following year.
But when the holiday season rolled around, she simply didn’t have the money — for her family or for others. Her husband was out of work with serious injuries and, despite her intense work schedule, she could not make ends meet.
“I am not sure where we will be in a few months let alone how I am going to provide Christmas for all our children,” the mother wrote.
Thankfully, Give A Christmas stepped in to help.
It was able to do so because of the generosity of Courier Times readers, whose donations fuel the good performed by Give A Christmas, which is now in its 60th year.
This week, readers have an additional reason to contribute to the campaign: Giving Tuesday.
Started in 2012 and occurring annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Giving Tuesday is a movement that encourages individuals, businesses and other organizations to generously support charities, events, fund drives, social do-gooding outfits and the like during the holiday season.
“One of the best ways to get involved is in your own community,” the Giving Tuesday website states.
Give A Christmas provides Courier Times readers the chance to get in on the local giving — something they’ve already been doing with resoundingly positive effect over the decades.
Through the years, caring contributors have donated more than $4.5 million into Give A Christmas, helping to bring necessities, gifts and hope to neighbors facing hard times.
Last year alone, Courier Times readers donated $112,232.82 to Give A Christmas, which benefits people of all religious backgrounds. The funds enabled organizers to disperse 4,651 vouchers to children in Lower Bucks County. The vouchers are redeemable at participating local stores. In 2017, those stores include supermarkets — Acme, Redner’s Market, Selecto Market — and other retailers, including Barnes & Noble and Burlington Coat Factory.
“We have to help our neighbors in need,” said Howie Kay, a Kiwanis volunteer involved with Give A Christmas.
Unfortunately, the help is sorely needed. In Bucks County, 6.6 percent of the population — some 41,818 people — are living below the poverty line.
Many are like the mother who simply wanted to preserve the magic of the season for her children. They work hard, but are laboring in jobs that don’t pay enough to cover the high cost of living here. Others have been affected by health issues that led to bank account-crushing medical bills for them personally or their immediate family. Still others are elderly, infirm, stuck on fixed incomes that pay for less and less each year as costs keep climbing higher.
For many of these Bucks County residents, the holidays aren’t a time to rejoice, but another reminder of their difficult situations.
But when Courier Times readers empower Give A Christmas to step in and help, there’s a respite from that harsh reality.
There’s hope. Sometimes, too, there’s inspiration to pay it forward when better days return.
“I hope in the years to come that I can give back to your organization more and more,” the mother from Lower Bucks wrote.
Tap into that spirit of generosity in your own heart and, on this Giving Tuesday, contribute to Give A Christmas.
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