It was November 2007, and Jenn Knepper started to dread the approaching cycle of shopping, gift wrapping and handing off another unneeded trinket in the spirit of Christmas.
The Hershey Medical Center nurse took a break from a long shift to browse the local newspaper when she read a story about a giving circle in Harrisburg. This small group of women would gather each holiday season to purchase items for charities in the name of a loved one.
“It seemed like the perfect way to give meaning to a holiday that had, sadly, started to lose that for me,” Knepper said.
She contacted the group, and, over the next several years, it soon would join forces with Gifts that Give Hope, an umbrella organization that provides the tools for people to organize gift fairs during the season.
Knepper’s desire to make the holidays more meaningful isn’t a new concept.
Nonprofit organizations throughout the region have been noticing a trend in charitable donations being made in place of the purchase of a physical gift.
“A lot of us feel like, ‘Oh, what do you get the person who has everything?’” Knepper said. “Your mom doesn’t need another sweater. Your dad doesn’t need another tie. My family is always telling me they don’t need more stuff.”
While the Gifts that Give Hope Fair is hosted in Lancaster County the week before Thanksgiving, there are still many opportunities for people to find local organizations to which they can contribute.
Hands-On Gifts
For people who want to do more than donate money, there are several organizations that ask people to be more hands-on.
Kat Prickett, 31, of Mount Joy has been a volunteer with Operation Christmas Child, a charity run by Samaritan’s Purse, since she was 11 years old. Her mom became a project leader at the family’s church, and, together, they’d fill shoeboxes with toothbrushes, school supplies and coloring pages to send to children in need.
Today, Operation Christmas Child has 19 drop-off locations in central Pennsylvania where people can take their stocked shoeboxes to be shipped to boys and girls around the world.
Last year, 31,571 boxes were collected in this area alone, said Prickett, who now works as an area spokesperson for the organization.
“Usually, the children who receive a box are getting the first gift they’ve ever received in their whole life,” she said. “For a child to know someone across the world is thinking of them, cares about them and loves them, that’s amazing.”
A lot of families make filling the boxes an annual tradition, getting their kids to buy items for children their own age and explaining how not everyone has the same comforts in life, Prickett said.
David LoBianco, children’s ministry director at Devonshire Church in Lower Paxton Township, has helped host a shoebox-packing party the past two years.
Stations are set up in the church for families to take part in the project, whether it’s wrapping the boxes in gift paper, sorting items based on age group or writing a note to the recipient.
“Part of the goal is showing God’s love in a tangible way,” LoBianco said. “We feel that we can reach people through actions, and that’s what this is about.”
The church put together 78 boxes last year and hoped to do the same in 2014.
“It shows our children that they can serve the community, or help people around the world, just by being little members of the church,” he said. “You can see how much it means to them to help out.”
Donating Directly
Those who want to see their donation dollars go directly to work in the local community can take part in a new holiday program offered by Harrisburg’s Habitat for Humanity.
Executive Director Bill Wood said the organization usually does a drive to ask for cash donations during the holiday season, but he came up with a different idea this year so that people can do so in the name of a loved one.
During November and December, those who wish to give to the Greater Harrisburg Area’s ReStore can make a cash donation or purchase a gift card for future construction items in honor of friends or family.
Donors of $25 or $50 are provided with a tile on which they can write the name of a loved one along with a brief message. ReStore will then collect the tiles and apply them to a backboard that will go on display within the store the third week of December.
Donors also can request a photo of the tile be posted on Facebook, so they can tag their loved one, Wood said.
Those who give $100 will be given a clean, 2-by-4-foot stud on which they can write a similar message. The stud will then be used in a new build or remodeled home in 2015. The larger of the three donation amounts also comes with a donor Facebook post, a Habitat for Humanity water bottle and a three-pack of mechanic’s gloves to use as a stocking stuffer.
Gifts cards to Lowe’s, Home Depot, Staples or other hardware or office supply stores also will be accepted, Wood added.
“Gift cards are awesome because they subsidize our budget,” Wood said. “We might be working on a home and find we need more trim. Being able to make a run to the hardware store to buy that, and not worry about where the money is coming from, is a huge help.”
Volunteering with the organization, either as a family or individual, is also a great way to do a service project in someone’s honor, he said.
“Many people don’t realize we have needs outside of construction work,” Wood said. “I’ve been looking for someone to come in here and hook up a fax machine. Sometimes, we have simple things like that, where someone with basic IT skills can come in and provide a big service to us.”
Wood hopes the display of tiles and construction studs in future projects will help encourage people to reach out to the community.
“It’s nice to see people who live in the Harrisburg area helping their neighbors,” Wood said. “Even if they can’t directly be on-site or physically do much for us, there’s satisfaction in doing whatever you can for the people around you.”
