2003 Year in Review

Helping Hands had Big Year of Donating

Nancy Poling, Marj Schleuning, Connie DeSpain, and Judy Pitcher making sure every present is in the right place and ready for delivery Thursday.

The Helping Hands volunteers should have had elves clothing with Santa hats on today. As donated presents came through the door of the Methodist Church, the crew of four were busily putting them by each family name taped to the back of a folding chair. With 69 chairs, or families, and most families have a full box or bag of presents the room looked like Santa’s workshop. In total they helped 194 children this year.

Nancy Poling and Marge Schleuning are the chief elves starting with the letters they send out in October and ending with the deliver of presents on December 18. Distribution of the Morrison Food Pantry happens on that day upstairs at the church and many of the families just go to Heritage Hall afterward to pick up the packages. Connie DeSpain and Judy Pitcher also helped with the distribution of packages.

Parents have tears in their eyes as they thank the staff for helping them through their hard times. It makes all the hard work worth it each year.

The presents are divided between clothing and toys. Each child gets a set or two of clothing including pants, shirts, underwear, and sox. Some get coats, 22 needed shoes and boots often purchased with gift certificates. The High School and Advantage One Credit Union each get a list of children to buy toys for, so that each child gets at least two gifts.

In addition the High School also took 25 families to buy clothes for. Helping Hands elf, Marge Schleuning, shopped for clothing for 39 families using donated money. Individuals, churches, organizations, and businesses sponsored the remaining families. St. Mary’s, St. Ann’s, Presbyterian, Ebenezer, Immanuel and the Methodist churches all help with buying for the families. Organizations like the Boy Scouts, 4-H, Rotary, and G.E. GEM club help out and Farm Bureau, Sterling Federal and Wells Fargo Banks assist too. Rotary buys books for every child every other year.

Other organizations help with the project. Whiteside County Sheriff’s Department donated teddy bears and used bikes for the kids. And for the past three years, Jane Workman has gone around to all the businesses and asked them to buy a new Avon stuffed animal for the children. This year local businesses donated 88 plush cats. All the children five and under each receive a cat then girls six and up received them until they ran out.

“It’s so much fun,” explained Marge. This year Marge had an unusual request for Yu-Gi-Oh on one of the lists but found it on several lists. Bob The Builder was also a popular request. The most unusual request was for flute music.

Nancy always remembers one special family or child each year. “I remember one year a little boy pulled out a red flannel robe from a bag of used clothing that had been donated and loved it so much he refused to take it off. There is always a story like that every year.” Nancy said they have been filling this need for almost 30 years. It started with the Salvation Army. “Originally we wrapped the few presents to be delivered but found it easier to have the donators do the wrapping.”

They coordinate with other organizations such as the Community Christmas for Children in Sterling and GEM Club so the groups do not duplicate giving.

By Thursday night Santa’s workshop in Heritage Hall will be empty but lots of joyful children will be able to have a wonderful Christmas this year.

by Barb Benson, theCity1.com
December 17, 2003