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Despite a recession that has hit the south suburban region especially hard, area residents were very generous to their neighbors in need over the recent holiday season. TWC’s annual Adopt-a-Child Christmas program provided gifts to 1,252 children from 438 families that needed assistance last year. Children were “adopted” by residents, businesses, churches or civic organizations and each child received three gifts valued at a total of $75. Additionally, TWC gave each child pajamas or a sweatshirt valued at $15. These items were provided by still more generous people who conducted pajama drives at many venues such as schools and stores. Combined value of holiday gifts to each child was $90. Another $600 in gift cards were provided to some families to supplement gifts they received from sponsors. In total, this year’s program generated $113,290 in funds used to make the holidays bright for families who faced job loss or other economic hardship during this recession. Children helping children was a major theme in the program, with youngsters collecting pajamas at schools, churches, day care centers and Scout meetings for donation to TWC. In other cases, businesses and individuals simply wrote generous checks to be used “as needed” by TWC over the holiday.
Raisin Rhyme: A Rock Band for Rugrats performed free concerts twice over the Christmas holiday for TWC fundraisers, and became a partner with TWC for other fundraising events last year. Another longtime partner, Project Share at SouthtownStar Newspaper, again assisted TWC in providing groceries to many families over the holidays. Time and again, TWC has discovered that hard times bring out the best in human nature as neighbors pitch in to meet challenges in the community. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
