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Season’s spirit displayed in sea of gifts
Meagan Shinker carries some of the Holiday Gift Baskets while helping sort and store them Dec. 6 at the Lutheran United Church. | Dan Luedert~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: January 14, 2013 6:22AM
OAK PARK — The dozens of long wooden pews in United Lutheran Church at Greenfield Street and Ridgeland Avenue will soon be crowded with worshippers celebrating the birth of their savior.
Last Friday morning, though, every pew and several other rooms in the church were crowded with tangible signs of that savior’s spirit -- hundreds of plastic bags loaded with Christmas presents for more than 900 economically challenged families in Oak Park and River Forest.
Sections of the church were marked “red” “pink,” “orange” “manila,” each color indicating a section of Oak Park or River Forest or a senior citizen center.
At least 500 bags are in the church itself. Another 500 or so are spread through the front foyer, the basement and a large room off the church side entrance.
When the gifts are delivered, each family or individual will also receive a gift card for food.
The Holiday Gift Basket program has made needy families’ holiday season a bit brighter since the last 1970s.
It sprang from the Oak Park and River Forest Food Pantry’s holiday program.
For program coordinator Patty Henek and several on-site volunteers, it’s a literal labor of love.
“People have been generous,” Henek said of this year’s bounty. Henek, hired as the program’s part-time coordinator last year, works long days in December. Luckily several veteran volunteers are also on hand.
While the idea of the Holiday Gift Basket is simple, its execution involves myriad details.
“There’s a lot of puzzles to figure out and a lot of people involved,” said Christine Fisher. She directed the program one year, assisted two years and still volunteers every holiday season.
“It’s a lot of work,” she said. “But I love to be a part of it. It means a lot to me. This is my way of giving back to Oak Park and River Forest.”
Henek also is helped by long-time Gift Basket volunteers Valerie Woods and Mary Jane Welter.
Throughout Thursday and Friday, students from schools around the village arrive laden with bags of donated gifts. They’re placed in color-coded areas around the church depending on their ultimate destination, then get a color tag and a letter and numeral code for the recipient.
Friday, volunteers began arriving at the church to pick up early deliveries. Most deliveries will occur Saturday, when dozens of volunteers load cars and vans and fan out through both villages.
“You never know when you’re going to hit on hard times,” Henek said.
For volunteers, she added, the deliveries can be emotional, usually when they get feedback from families.
“It’s awesome, it’s an incredible feeling,” she said. “Especially when you hear from the (school) social workers who referred the families. It can make you cry in some cases.”
Such as, Henek recalled, the single mom whose son kept asking for a bike, something far beyond her ability to provide.
“She saw the bike and just broke down crying,” said Henek, her voice catching.
Fisher, who said she personally knows several people who’ve benefitted from the Gift Basket program, said the effort is more about community than charity.
Zenobia Puckett of Oak Park is a single mother of three who knows what the Gift Basket can mean to children. Once, years ago, she sponsored a Gift Basket family. Then she started a family of her own, and things changed.
With three kids to care for, she’s been a Gift Basket recipient the past several years.
“I’m what you’d call the working poor,” Puckett said. “I’m living check to check.”
Her kids, Puckett added, “don’t really understand that I have to pay bills, and I’m already late on the rent.”
“Without the Gift Basket program,” she said, “Christmas would be very different.”
She said she’s grateful for the help the program provides her, and volunteers each year as a way to pay back the generosity.
On Thursday her car broke down, but she didn’t let that stop her.
“I got a friend to drop me off at the church,” she said.
This year’s effort will wind down by next mid-week. But Henek said the respite will be short lived.
“I need to raise over $30,000 a year for the food cards,” she noted. She’s looking into the possibility of grants, but the majority of funding, like with the gifts, will come from people who still believe it’s more blessed to give than to receive.
Puckett said she hopes to be on the giving side again soon.
“Hopefully in the future, I’ll be able to adopt a family again myself,” she said.~. OAK PARK
The dozens of long wooden pews in United Lutheran Church at Greenfield Street and Ridgeland Avenue will soon be crowded with worshippers celebrating the birth of their savior.
Last Friday morning, though, every pew and several other rooms in the church were crowded with tangible signs of that savior’s spirit -- hundreds of plastic bags loaded with Christmas presents for more than 900 economically challenged families in Oak Park and River Forest.
Sections of the church were marked “red” “pink,” “orange” “manila,” each color indicating a section of Oak Park or River Forest or a senior citizen center.
At least 500 bags are in the church itself. Another 500 or so are spread through the front foyer, the basement and a large room off the church side entrance.
When the gifts are delivered, each family or individual will also receive a gift card for food.
The Holiday Gift Basket program has made needy families’ holiday season a bit brighter since the last 1970s.
It sprang from the Oak Park and River Forest Food Pantry’s holiday program.
For program coordinator Patty Henek and several on-site volunteers, it’s a literal labor of love.
“People have been generous,” Henek said of this year’s bounty. Henek, hired as the program’s part-time coordinator last year, works long days in December. Luckily several veteran volunteers are also on hand.
While the idea of the Holiday Gift Basket is simple, its execution involves myriad details.
“There’s a lot of puzzles to figure out and a lot of people involved,” said Christine Fisher. She directed the program one year, assisted two years and still volunteers every holiday season.
“It’s a lot of work,” she said. “But I love to be a part of it. It means a lot to me. This is my way of giving back to Oak Park and River Forest.”
Henek also is helped by long-time Gift Basket volunteers Valerie Woods and Mary Jane Welter.
Throughout Thursday and Friday, students from schools around the village arrive laden with bags of donated gifts. They’re placed in color-coded areas around the church depending on their ultimate destination, then get a color tag and a letter and numeral code for the recipient.
Friday, volunteers began arriving at the church to pick up early deliveries. Most deliveries will occur Saturday, when dozens of volunteers load cars and vans and fan out through both villages.
“You never know when you’re going to hit on hard times,” Henek said.
For volunteers, she added, the deliveries can be emotional, usually when they get feedback from families.
“It’s awesome, it’s an incredible feeling,” she said. “Especially when you hear from the (school) social workers who referred the families. It can make you cry in some cases.”
Such as, Henek recalled, the single mom whose son kept asking for a bike, something far beyond her ability to provide.
“She saw the bike and just broke down crying,” said Henek, her voice catching.
Fisher, who said she personally knows several people who’ve benefitted from the Gift Basket program, said the effort is more about community than charity.
Zenobia Puckett of Oak Park is a single mother of three who knows what the Gift Basket can mean to children. Once, years ago, she sponsored a Gift Basket family. Then she started a family of her own, and things changed.
With three kids to care for, she’s been a Gift Basket recipient the past several years.
“I’m what you’d call the working poor,” Puckett said. “I’m living check to check.”
Her kids, Puckett added, “don’t really understand that I have to pay bills, and I’m already late on the rent.”
“Without the Gift Basket program,” she said, “Christmas would be very different.”
She said she’s grateful for the help the program provides her, and volunteers each year as a way to pay back the generosity.
On Thursday her car broke down, but she didn’t let that stop her.
“I got a friend to drop me off at the church,” she said.
This year’s effort will wind down by next mid-week. But Henek said the respite will be short lived.
“I need to raise over $30,000 a year for the food cards,” she noted. She’s looking into the possibility of grants, but the majority of funding, like with the gifts, will come from people who still believe it’s more blessed to give than to receive.
Puckett said she hopes to be on the giving side again soon.
“Hopefully in the future, I’ll be able to adopt a family again myself,” she said.
