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October 15, 2013, 12:00 AM - December 6, 2013, 12:00 AMLocation: Holy Family JMJ Catholic ChurchFor most of us the Christmas Season is filled with great joy and thanksgiving. For some of our less fortunate neighbors, it is a time of discouragement, hunger and despair. Many families lack sufficient financial resources to cover the cost of housing, food, clothing, medical care, etc. This situation has been made much more challenging by the current economic situation.The Giving Tree event begins immediately following the Thanksgiving holiday and culminates at the Christmas season.
This year all parishioners are invited to select a family in need—for example for a financially challenged family, an employee with hardships or a family that has recently accumulated a large amount of medical expenses.
What are the procedures? First, complete the back of the Recommendation Form and return to the youth office or place it in the drop box by the Youth Office in bldg. B. Next, give the family the Giving Tree Wish List to complete and return it to the youth office or drop box. Our parish will be providing gifts for 100 families. Along with these families, our parish will also be providing gifts for approx. 80 young people at the Devereux Foundation. For this reason, we need ALL the information returned to the youth office no later than November 10.
Before Christmas the Giving Trees, located in the church, are decorated with gift tags bearing the name, age and gift requests from family members. Parishioners take a tag from the tree and then purchase, wrap and deliver back to the church the Christmas gift suitable for that family member. The gifts are then sorted by the youth of our parish at the Christmas lock-in and prepared for pick up on the morning of Dec. 7. Through the generosity of our parishioners all family members should receive 4 to 5 gifts each, any special needs, and a food basket.
For this reason, we ask that you please only purchase the gift item that is on the tag. (Please do not add more items to an individual gift). If you would like to provide more gifts, then choose more tags. This way all tags will be taken from the tree and all the children will get their wishes fulfilled. Our intentions are to help families with hardships; in this way their financial burdens will be lifted and they will be able to focus on their many blessings.