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HOLILDAY GIFT GUIDE
MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2005
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kansan.com
Helping neighbors in need
COURTNEY HAGEN editor@kansan.com KANSAN CORRESPONDENT
Needy Lawrence individuals normally left out in the cold will be receiving some holiday cheer this year in the form of gifts, home items and Christmas dinners from a group of people they will never meet.
The individuals will receive their holiday gifts by way of anonymous holiday adoption programs sponsored by five Douglas County organizations.
The individuals will receive their holiday gifts by way of anonymous holiday adoption programs sponsored by five Douglas County organizations.
The organizations accept applications and lists of items needed to make the holidays a bit brighter for needy families and individuals.
The lists are then distributed with only the
ages and genders of the individuals requesting each gift to the appropriate donors.
The donors go shopping for the items and the food for a Christmas dinner and bring it all back to the centers where they are privately distributed to the individuals.
Paul Hunt, director of resources at Ballard Community Center, is in charge of screening families and finding donors for the program that the organizations have dubbed the Holiday Bureau. Hunt said the program had been around for a number of years and was a great link for the community.
"A lot of times poverty can be alienating and this reminds people that the community does care," Hunt said. "It keeps the people receiving assistance connected to the community and it helps the donors understand that poverty is real and it is not just in some far, far away place."
An estimated 2,000 individuals have already signed up to receive assistance through the program. Linda Lassen, director of human resources at Penthouse, said that the organization reached its maximum of 200 applicants and stopped taking applications on Nov. 21.
"We stopped taking applications because we were afraid not everyone would get adopted, but we also accept
MORE INFO
Contacts for getting involved in the program:
Ballard Community Center: 842-0729
EKAN: 841-3357
Penthouse: 842-0440
Peilethe Center: 841-7202
Salvation Army: 843-4188
walk-ins, if there is anything left over we try to fill it in," Lassen said.
Hunt said that a new program had been implemented this year to encompass the need for extra gifts.
In the Star Tree program, trees are set up throughout town with ornaments listing single gifts that are needed by families who might not have signed up right away.
The program also helps donors who might not be able to afford adopting a whole family.
The trees supplement needy individuals with the specific gifts they are looking for this holiday.
Lassen said that so far families had been asking more for living necessities on their lists this year.
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