The holiday season is here and families across the world look for gifts for their family members to celebrate their religion and family. What if you do not have enough money for Christmas gifts? But you have children, spouses, mothers, fathers, and the rest of your family. How are you supposed to have the happiest time of the year if you do not have the money to pay for gifts? That is where GraceWorks comes in.
GraceWorks is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that helps families find clothing, food, help pay for bills, and making sure they can stay in their homes. Every year GraceWorks runs an event called The Manger. The Manger is an event where the families are allowed to choose their own Christmas gifts for their family without paying for any of them.
For the past three years, I have had the opportunity to be a personal shopper for the Manger. I personally walk with the families and hold their bags and help them find the best gifts for their children/spouses. The past two years I have been able to bring Echos for Hope students with me so we have had over 25 personal shoppers for our neighbors in our community. This year we had the opportunity to meet many families from across the county, some only speaking Spanish, and some that had been there before and knew where they were doing.
One family I had the opportunity to meet had a little two-year-old with them and I played with her the whole time. I would spin her around and around and she would keep saying “otra ves” on repeat, which means “again” in English. She picked out a pink bicycle for herself and was trying to pick out gifts for her brothers and sisters. Brenden, my partner, then went and wrapped her gifts and when he returned she wanted to open them right then and there. She was so excited for just THREE Christmas gifts.
The giving holiday is the best time of the year because you get to make so many people happy and feel loved. Sometimes it is the little things in life that change someone’s life. Maybe the giving season should be all year. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Happy Holidays!
-Sydnee
