The Pandemic Blues, Part 15: Gift drive overcomes Year of COVID

 

One of the annual miracles of the Christmas season in the Attleboro area has always been the way that the Greater Attleboro Council for Children is able to conduct a major gift drive with hundreds of moving parts --- a drive that annually finds presents for hundreds of needy children in the Attleboro area.
With the area, state and nation still in the grips of the surging coronavirus pandemic, the outlook for the 37^th Christmas Is For Kids drive was uncertain, but those volunteers and former volunteers never doubted the resolve of the organization to allow the drive to continue --- and to succeed.
In order to bring the drive to another successful conclusion, Christmas Is For Kids Chairwoman Kelly Fox and her committee of hard-working volunteers, affectionately called elves, were forced to alter how they handle matters. They, for example, limited volunteers to 25 at any one time at the donor center at the former Attleboro High and Brennan Middle School building on County Street in Attleboro, required masks, and changed many other procedures.
The result, Fox said, was that there were no cases of positive tests reported and that more than 700 children were matched with presents.
That was a significant accomplishment in this pandemic year and one in which all current and former volunteers should take pride in. I volunteered for the drive for the past three years, but had to pass this year due to the pandemic, although I did make donations to help the drive.
Congratulations to Fox and to all of her elves for pulling off their annual miracle of gift-giving in this most difficult and challenging year.

This column on the Christmas Is For Kids gift drive, which this year wrapped up its 37^th gift drive for the greater Attleboro area despite the crushing limitations of the coronavirus pandemic, was published Dec. 12, 2017 in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA. See links at the end of the column to this column, as well as to a story wrapping up the successful 2020 drive.

“Love is not patronizing and charity isn’t pity; it is about love. Charity and love are the same --- with charity you give love, so don’t just give money, but reach out your hand instead.”
--- Quote from Mother Teresa, posted on a door at the Christmas Is For Kids donor center

From the outside, the old Brennan Middle and Attleboro High School building on County Street wouldn’t seem to have a lot in common with Santa’s Workshop in the North Pole, but once you’re inside, it’s hard to imagine Mr. Claus and his elves being any more organized than the nerve center of the 34^th Christmas Is For Kids gift drive.
For starters, in the main room, where the magic happens with volunteers fulfilling the children’s  requests, the back wall is lined with a treasure-trove of toys, games, puzzles, basketballs, footballs, dolls and a whole lot more. One side of the room looks like the clothing section of a major department store, with boots, coats, gloves, shirts, hats, pants and even hoodies fit for Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Once those items are chosen for each child, the gift bags are triple-checked by a system that has more redundancy built in than NASA.
Nothing, however, makes you feel like you’ve been transported to the big guy’s workshop more than the three clocks on the walls. None of them work, at least by conventional standards. The one in the back of the room that’s stuck on 6 suggests there’s plenty of time left during the evening shifts and the one stuck on 12:40 has the same effect during Saturday’s day shifts. But it’s the clock tucked away in a corner of a storage area that seems most like something you’d find at Santa’s place: Stuck on 11:45, that clock suggests it’s close to midnight on Christmas Eve, and time is running out to accomplish the yearly Miracle on County Street.
That feat --- where about 800 kids this year will get the Christmas they deserve and where many children and teens will get a desperately needed warm coat, boots, hat or blanket --- is an annual marvel. It occurs only because of the heart and soul of the operation: the volunteers or elves, who are under the direction of Kelly Fox, who has been involved in the drive for 25 years, the last 12 as chief elf.
The operation should make even the most cynical person believe in the power of people to turn the impossible into reality, and this year I’ve had a front-row seat to the miracle-making, thanks to helping out behind the scenes instead of writing about it. I quickly discovered that the 150 volunteers of all ages who help out annually personify altruism. Many will still be hard at work tonight, making final preparations for the gifts to be picked up by parents Thursday. Here are just a few of their stories.
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“I love knowing kids will get stuff for Christmas.”
“Because I feel good knowing I’m helping kids who could have been forgotten.”
 --- Two of the reasons for volunteering written on the chalkboard at the donor center
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Eric and Donna Gimler of North Attleboro were spending a rare quiet night at the donor center when they were asked to join up with three others to handle a mundane task: creating order out of what was a chaotic-looking storage closet. Like the pros that define the drive’s elves, they put everything into the job.
“We love it,” said Eric, 54. “I wish we had our sons do this. It’s really worthwhile. I  think it’d be good for any kid to come in and see” how many need help. “It’s humbling,” he said. “I would encourage anyone to try it.”
Those sentiments were echoed by another first-time volunteer, 68-year-old Bill Lewis of Norton.
“I think it’s pretty impressive,” he said of the drive’s operation. He said he was aware of the drive in past years, but it’s a matter of “finding the time and making the commitment,” which he did after helping Fox last month with the drive she runs for military personnel at her Plainville financial consulting firm.
“You look at the back wall and the shelves are stuffed” with toys for the kids. “The fact that they’re providing (so much) to the kids is remarkable,” Lewis said.
His observation was especially apt this year, when so many donors have been extremely generous.
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The drive is infused with new people every year, but its backbone remains the longtime elves such as Bill and Diane Jones of Attleboro. Now in their 28^th year, Bill, 62, recalled  many of the previous locations of the donor center, which made him thankful that the school department several  years ago started letting the drive use the current space.
Bill said so many of the stories of the people being helped, such as those who ask only for a comfortable bed or mattress to sleep on or a warm coat, are heart-wrenching and have left him with this sentiment shared by so many volunteers: “There for the grace of God go I.”
He also shares a common feeling among the elves: The knowledge that for the duration of the drive, they’re a part of something far bigger than themselves. Helping out at a time when so much of the nation is bitterly divided “reinforces your values” and faith in people, he said.
That’s a sentiment likely shared by those North Pole elves.

LINK TO 2020 wrap-up story in Sun Chronicle: https//www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/christmas-is-for-kids-wraps-up-another-season-of-magic/article_24309780-e519-5d39-8027-5d3b7a36e94e.html

LINK TO this column, which ran Dec. 12, 2017 in The Sun Chronicle
https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/time-once-again-for-that-miracle-on-county-st/article_c0d39a5e-232e-5642-96ae-b0a5b944084c.html