Making the Holidays Special with Holiday Helpers

By Rachel Harad, Co-Chair of the JFS Holiday Helpers Program

When the leaves start changing colors, and the weather starts to get colder, my thoughts turn to Jewish Family Services of Delaware’s (JFS)Holiday Helpers program. I start to get excited about helping to create the bags that will be delivered to JFS clients and their families. Many of these clients don’t have the resources that I was lucky enough to have growing up in a comfortable, middle-class family in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Their counselors recommend them to our program, and we reach out to our community and ask for donations so that we can give them something that will help make their holiday season a little brighter.

Many years ago, I reached out to JFS because someone in my family was struggling and my family needed help. The care we received made me a loyal, lifetime fan of JFS. I asked how I could give back to the agency and I learned a lot about volunteering at JFS. It was at this time I discovered the adopt-a-family program that JFS ran. For a few years, I adopted a family who created a wish list of things they wanted for the holidays. I spent weeks running all over Delaware trying to find the perfect gifts for my adopted family. It was so much fun! It was a wonderful, engaging program, and the adopted families were so grateful and appreciative to receive a windfall of presents for the holidays. The downside was that only a very few families were showered with an abundance of gifts and many families—who were also in need— received nothing.

The program was revamped so that more families could participate. The community was asked to donate toys, books, clothing, and miscellaneous gift items. We set up a holiday shop at JFS and clients would walk through and select gifts for their families. The shop allowed more families to have something for the holidays.

Each year the program grew. We started making ‘no sew’ blankets for the families. We invited the community to come to blanket making events. Families at the ECC, youth groups, young leaders, friends of JFS, and friends of ours came to blanket making parties. We made hundreds of blankets over the years!

Then, COVID shut us down. We could no longer gather but we were unwilling to give up the program; so we pivoted. We decided to make large bags filled with goodies to deliver to the families. We asked the community to donate blankets, hats, gloves, warm socks, toys, puzzles, coloring books, and lots of other stuff . Our community did not disappoint! They sent in enough donations to fill all of our bags. An amazingly generous, anonymous donor contributed money to buy gift cards for all of the families. We call them our angel donor. They have continued to give us a donation every year.

Last year we made 80 bags. This year, we have been asked to make 124.The need in our community is growing. While we cannot fix the problems, we can help the JFS clients who are struggling to have a more cheerful holiday season.

I love Holiday Helpers for many reasons: I get to participate in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas shopping experience; I get to work closely with my co-chairs, Lisa Driban and Eileen Sarter, on a meaningful project that is so much fun; I get to work with some of the counselors and staff at JFS; I get to feel I am part of the organization and stay connected and give back; I get to immerse myself in something outside my everyday life; I get to watch the program grow and expand from year to year; I get to give my friends and community the opportunity to participate in a wonderful program that helps so many families and they get to feel good doing it; I get to witness our community come together to give for the greater good; I get to see my donations go directly to helping neighbors in my community in a very tangible and immediate way; I get to hear how appreciative those families are to receive gifts from complete strangers. How lucky am I?

The lead-up to Holiday Helpers is always filled with a lot of stress. First there is the distribution of the forms to the counselors and the worry that they won’t get filled out efficiently enough. When they start to come in, we worry that there won’t be enough families and then we worry that there will be too many. We spend a lot of time sifting through and processing the information—counting numbers of things, sorting ages of children to decide what types of games and puzzles will be appropriate, checking the sizes of pajamas, putting the information into a format that makes sense and is easy for our donors to access. We write letters and make social media posts, and we nudge our community and pray we will receive enough donations.

When the deadline arrives, we spend a day or two opening the boxes and sorting all of the wonderful donations. We count to make sure that we have everything we are supposed to have and run out to shop for anything we are missing. We then spend three days filling the bags. When the bags are all filled and ready to hand over to the counselors for delivery, we celebrate another successful year and then we collapse, asking ourselves why we do it and then promptly signing up to do it again next year!

Usually within the first few days of delivery we start to get some feedback from the counselors who are lucky enough to deliver the bags to the clients. We hear how one client stood in the doorway and cried because she didn’t think her family would have a Christmas this year because she had no extra money to make one. We hear about a client who said this is the only gift her family will receive this year. We hear about a client who feels forgotten but realizes she is not. We hear about a client who feels loved and special upon receiving a bag. All the stress and worry and tiredness melt away and I remember why we do this and how lucky we are.

To learn more about Holiday Helpers at Jewish Family Services of Delaware, please contact Vlad Cerbov at vcerbov@jfsdelaware.org.