Sometimes it seems to take forever to get anything done.
And then, suddenly it all comes together!
Children’s Christmas Outreach. This has been one of the Homosassa Civic Club’s missions for many years. Every Christmas the Homosassa Elementary School pulls together a list of names of families that could use some help with gifts from Santa. From that list, the civic club usually took two or families and bought their Christmas gifts along with holding a Christmas Party for all of the local children.
Meanwhile, other organizations were doing the same thing. Then Shelley and Jon Weichman, owners of the Old Mill Tavern, suggested last year that we join forces and provide for all the families on the list.
All of the names were given to the Old Mill Tavern and the families were put on the “Angel Tree”. Customers could adopt a family or donate money at the bar to the fund. The money donated goes to Christmas stockings and gifts that weren’t purchased by the donors.
This year we have 31 families and 84 kids. Whaaaat????
How exactly do we provide that much stuff?
First, all tips collected at the beer and wine booths at the Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival are designated to pay for the Children’s Christmas Outreach.
Plus this year, the word has gotten out to the community…
A few weeks ago American Legion 166 donated $100 to the cause. A member of that group also belongs to the Homosassa Lion’s Club and went to their board and said that this was a cause that they should support. Yesterday they presented a check for $400 for the outreach program. The Homosassa Rotary has always supported this cause and gave a check for $500.
The Old Mill Tavern and the Homosassa Civic Club will split the remaining costs.
On December 15th, there will be a Christmas Party at the Homosassa Civic Club. This is open to all children in the area. Mr. and Mrs. Santa will be there along with crafts and treats.
Shelley and crew will head out and buy the rest of the presents, the stockings and stuffers next weekend and then on December 18th there will be a huge wrapping party at the Civic Club. The parents will pick up the wrapped gifts later that week and Santa will deliver them on Christmas!
That’s the plan. In reality. Do those kids actually get their gifts? As in all communities, drugs are a problem in our little village. We either remove the bar codes or cover them with markers. The people at Walmart told us to do that so the gifts can’t be returned.
Breaks my heart.
Did you know that there is an organization that provides bags of groceries for the kids to put in their backpacks so they don’t go hungry on the weekend?
Okay. Off of my soapbox before I break an ankle!
This little sweetie was at the Homosassa Civic Club meeting this week.
According to the bylaws, she’s too young to be a member but she is certainly welcome at the meetings. Too Cute!
On another note, the software I use to write this blog got a WHOLE new revision and I have a bit of a learning curve. Typically I write this on my iPad on Thursday evening and schedule it to post very early on Friday. Yikes! I could not get this “new and improved” version to play nicely on the iPad.
Anyhow, I figured it out! (on my desktop) And I’m back!
Have a great weekend!
Kathy
Awesome!