Holiday Gift Exchange at the Orr Center

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

We try to include as many of our clients as possible in our Christmas Gift Program from giving Giant Eagle gift cards to our Meals on Wheels clients to providing gifts for the children in our youth programs. But several of our programs are a bit harder to include, due to the transient nature of the populations they serve.

The Orr Compassionate Care Center is one example. Guests who stay at the Orr Center come because they have nowhere else to go to recover after illness or injury has led to a hospital stay. Many are homeless, some simply alone, but all are in need of a warm and secure environment in which to recuperate. Our guests stay for as little as a week or as long as a month or so and the population is always changing.

Which is why it’s difficult for them to participate in our Christmas program. The other programs put in their gift requests back in October so that we have time to distribute them to the congregations. But our fall Orr guests are usually long gone by Christmas. What to do?

I’m glad you asked! A few years ago, Janice, the talented and caring staff member who heads up the Orr Center team, came up with a fabulous idea. Each year, in addition to gifts, we receive a number of gift cards to local stores – Giant Eagle, Walmart, etc. And Janice puts them to good use.

On a designated day, the guests at the Orr Center all draw names for a Secret Santa-type gift exchange. They are each given a gift card to Walmart and Janice drives them all there together in the EECM van. The guests buy gifts for one another, then return home to wrap them. They exchange their gifts a few days later, following a special holiday meal.

This lovely tradition allows our Orr Center guests to participate in the holiday festivities and they all have a great time.

Christmas Spirit

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant & Crystal, Food Pantry Client

I love the holidays. Wrapping paper, snow, ribbons, elves, reindeer, carolers, cookies. You name it, I love it. But I’ve come to realize as I’ve been working on our Christmas Gift Program that Christmas can be a really hard time for a lot of people, financially and emotionally. Money gets really tight and the worries increase along with the gas bills at this time of year. And for some of our clients, getting into the Christmas spirit is hindered by other sorrows.

Crystal is a client of our Food Pantry and she participated in the Christmas Gift Program this year. She chatted with us briefly when she came in to pick up her gifts and I was touched by her words.

I’m having a hard time being excited about Christmas this year. This will be the first Christmas without my father who died earlier this year. I miss him and the holidays make me think about him. And about the father of my daughter. He was shot and killed on Christmas Day three years ago.

I want to enjoy Christmas for my kids’ sakes but it’s really hard. I am so grateful for the Christmas presents that you collected for them. Seeing the wrapped packages is the first thing about Christmas this year that has made me smile.

So as we bask in our celebrations over the next days and weeks, let’s take a moment to remember those for whom this time of year is a struggle, and to hold them in our prayers.

Pictures from Christmas

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Christmas week continues and the piles of gifts are dwindling as families have come to pick them up. It's been really fun to put faces with the names and see their excitement as they receive their bags of Christmas gifts. I'll have more actual stories soon but today I just wanted to share a few pictures. They're so great!

The kids from My Father's World homeschool group bring in their gifts.

Richard from Unity Church arrives with a carload of gifts.

Derrell is very excited about his presents!

Cecila and Samuele and their mom brought cookies to share with our Food Pantry clients as they picked up their gifts.

The Christmas Bike

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

This week is Christmas Week at EECM. Between today and Friday, we anticipate that nearly 2,500 Christmas gifts will be delivered to EECM and distributed to our clients. Santa Claus, eat your heart out.

So far, about half of the gifts have arrived. Most of them are temporarily housed at the Shady Avenue Christian Assembly – a gracious and wonderful congregation that opens its doors to this program every year. There are piles of gifts. Mountains of gifts. Brightly wrapped packages literally cascading from every available surface. It’s awesome.

I was over at the church yesterday, helping congregations unload their deliveries and sorting gifts, and I enjoyed perusing the gift tags and speculating about the contents of the boxes. There was one gift in particular I was keeping my eyes open for. I didn’t even know for sure that it would be coming. But I hoped, and I watched as the presents piled up.

And then, I opened the back doors of a 15 passenger van piled high with gifts and there it was. I knew immediately that the present I had been waiting for had arrived. It was an absolutely enormous rectangular box, with clever hand-holds cut into the wrapping paper to make it easier to carry. Inside that box is a brand-new bicycle.

Why was I so eagerly anticipating the arrival of this particular gift? Because it’s a sweet story, worthy of the season. The soon-to-be-recipient of this bike is a 15 year old boy who has a variety of developmental delays. His mother came to fill out the Christmas gift request forms and said that what he wanted most in the world for Christmas was a bike. It was his only Christmas wish. Ordinarily, we don’t put down requests that large – our congregations are generous but a new bike really is a big present – but we decided to go ahead and write it down, with a little note explaining the circumstances, and hope for the best.

I can only imagine what a joyous day Christmas morning will be for that young man and his family. I don’t know who donated the bike, but I hope they know what a very special gift it was and how much it will be appreciated.

Hanukkah at the Orr Center

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Being an interfaith organization has its challenges, especially around this time of year. Is a picture of pine trees on a thank-you card appropriate or is it too indicative of a Christmas tree? Which is the better well-wishing phrase: Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings?

But then there are days when you realize that being sensitive to multiple faith traditions doesn’t have to be all that hard.

Last night, there was a special holiday dinner at the Orr Center. Let me set the scene for you. The Orr Center has a cozy, home-like feel. There’s a communal dining room with seating for 12 attached to a comfy living room with couches and a television. When I walked into the room last night, I was greeted by a Christmas tree glittering warmly in one corner of the living room, while at the head of the dining table stood a man wearing a yarmulke.

We were celebrating the second night of Hanukkah with the guests of the Orr Center – none of whom, to the best of my knowledge, are Jewish. But that didn’t slow them down a bit.

Our Executive Director, Myrna, and her husband Allan had agree to provide a special dinner for the guests and to share with them some of the history and significance of Hanukkah. The table was bedecked with a blue cloth and sprinkled with chocolate Hanukkah gelt and small dreidels. We all sat together as Allan explained the historical context of the holiday and the famous story of the miraculously long-lasting oil (if you don’t know the story, click here. It’s cool).

Allan lit two blue candles in the menorah and said a blessing, and we shared wine (well, grape juice) and bread. Then came dinner of matzo ball soup, chicken, and potato pancakes with apple sauce. For dessert – donuts! Hanukkah meals traditionally include fried foods, to commemorate the oil in the story.

It was fun for me to watch the guests of the Orr Center as they shared in this celebration. Some were hesitant at first, a bit bemused by the Hebrew words, the unfamiliar story, and the new foods. But they got into it quickly. After a bit of glancing around to see who would go first, they were soon all enjoying the sparkling grape juice, heading back for seconds on the matzo ball soup, and dexterously spinning their dreidels.

It was a beautiful evening. A sharing of tradition and food and fellowship. And that’s what being interfaith is all about – sharing traditions, learning new ones, and above all, joining together in fellowship regardless of our varied backgrounds.

Decorating the Soup Kitchen

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Our eating facility at the Soup Kitchen is a big cavernous dining hall. And much of the time it feels like…well…a big cavernous dining hall. Clean and well-kept but sometimes lacking in ambience. Until now.

Thanks to the creativity of My Father's World, a home-school cooperative named after the curicuulum that they use, the dining room now sparkles with holiday cheer. The group came to serve the evening meal at the Men’s Shelter last Monday night and they brought more than food. They set up an artificial Christmas tree in one corner of the room, adorning it with winsome hand-made ornaments. Each table in the dining room is also graced with a beautiful red and silver centerpiece of Christmas balls in a silver painted flower pot, sitting atop sparkly red star fabric. They’re beautiful.

Kate Funk, the volunteer service coordinator of My Father's World, said that as a group, they want their children to learn to serve others. She says, "As for the idea of decorating, I just thought it would be a way to bless others. We got all the kids together ahead of time and made Christmas decorations for the tree and the centerpieces. They actually decorated the tree when we got there. It was a lot of fun and a joy to watch our children serve."

To read about how another home-school cooperative is including service at EECM in their lessons, click here.