Christmas 2020 was unlike any other, and delivering our Children’s Christmas Program was a daunting task. With some creative planning, lots of flexibility, and plenty of ingenuity throughout, we were able to deliver a COVID-careful program to over 1,800 youth. Community members responded to the need and brought hundreds of donated gifts and monetary donations to TrueNorth in support of the program. While prepacked bundled gifts is far from ideal, there was simply no safe way to bring parents into the building to shop for gifts, as in years past. Volunteers are always a vital part of the program, but COVID-19 requred TrueNorth staff to step up and cover the packing and distribution of gifts replacing the typical 1,000 volunteer hours.
Each child received a bundle of carefully prepacked gifts in the hopes of making their Christmas bright. Over 10,500 individual items were given out including; socks, hats, gloves, art and science projects, blankets, toys, and books. The program stretched over two weeks with families carefully scheduled for socially distanced, walk up distribution.
We are incredibly thankful for our many supporters; our program partners, The Gerber Foundation, the Fremont Area Community Foundation, the Keith Johnston Memorial Fund at Fremont Area Community Foundation, Bombas, and the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation; our many donors; and everyone who collected and donated toys, socks, hats and gifts.
