ANDOVER — A local, volunteer-run charity is entering its 25th season of service, helping ensure Massachusetts children in need have a joyous holiday through its anonymous gift giving program.
Operation ELF, founded by Andover residents Kris and Sarah Girrell, connects donors with various agencies and shelters who reach out to the charity’s team asking for help in making the children in their care have a brighter holiday who wouldn’t otherwise receive a gift during the holidays and fulfill their wishes.
Its mission is to bring joy and the magic of the season to some of the most vulnerable populations: unhoused or at-risk children.
“It’s been a ride and a wonderful journey,” Kris Girrell said about what the team has accomplished in 25 years.
Over the years, the charity has worked with different agencies in the Merrimack Valley, including Lawrence, and throughout Massachusetts. It has been able to help more than 30,000 children and teens in New England since it began.
Operation ELF started after the couple and their inner circles began volunteering around Christmas time in 1999. His men’s team was volunteering at Mass Coalition for Homeless, stacking beds in a warehouse.
“We were just blown away because there were thousands of bed frames and thousands of mattresses,” he said.
While at the warehouse, the group found out about the invisible number of children who were living in shelters or in at-risk situations in Massachusetts.
The number shocked Girrell.
He remembered someone from Mass Coalition for the Homeless telling him that there were 33,000 homeless children in the state at the time. After that moment, he and his wife and their teams started volunteering and collecting for places like Cradles to Crayons.
Before becoming Operation ELF, they found out some of the families in need were staying along Route 1.
“Several groups of us went along Route 1 with Christmas presents, knocked on doors and handed presents to the moms,” Girrell said. He recalled it being a magical moment as they drove down the route with light snow falling while “being in the spirit of giving.” They were hooked ever since that moment.
The next year, Girrell and his wife joined forces and Operation ELF began.
ELF stands for “Everybody Loves Families” as the charity’s mission is to be the invisible family for unhoused children. The organization partners with different social agencies and shelters who provide direct care to these children throughout the state.
“We find out from the different agencies what children are there in their protectorate or in their organization that are going to be around during the holidays,” Girrell said.
The agencies then gather holiday wish lists for the children in their care. Operation ELF finds sponsors to buy specific gifts in time to be delivered to the agencies.
Everything Operation ELF and its sponsors do is anonymous.
“The children never see us, and we never see the children,” Girrell said. “All they ever know is the elves did it.”
In 2000, Operation ELF helped 88 children. The next year, that number grew to 200 and kept increasing each year. The charity has grown over more than two decades as it was able to fulfill the Christmas and Hanukkah wishes of 2,000 children last year, with some children getting two or three presents each.
Operation ELF has seen families bring their toddler-aged twin girls with wagons full of birthday presents they received and donate the gifts to kids in need. Another woman donated 100 handmade quilts. The gifts, not earmarked for a specific child, allowed the organization to give to more kids.
Girrell recalled an agency calling at the last minute who had 50 kids and just heard about Operation ELF. Girrell hung up the phone and an hour later, a woman called saying she had 50 gifts she wasn’t able to deliver to their intended destination.
“We always talk about holiday magic and there’s some magic like that happening every year where people out of their own generosity do something we never expected or asked for,” Girrell said. “It’s a privilege to be in the middle of the spirit that happens around the holidays.”
The COVID-19 pandemic expanded the organization’s reach by shifting to virtual as people bought gifts online and shipped them directly. It also forced the charity to decentralize its collection system and set up 10 sites around the state for people to drop off their gifts.
“Our sponsors are the real magic,” he said. “We broker the connection between finding a sponsor willing to go out of their generosity and get specific presents for a child.”
The gifts come unwrapped. Some people donate wrapping paper so the parents of the children can wrap the presents for their kids.
While the Operation ELF team starts planning annually in September, things ramp up around Thanksgiving when the agencies have a better sense of the kids who will be in the shelters or in their care during the upcoming holidays.
“It gives us two weeks to do everything,” Girrell said, ensuring sponsors are lined up to help the kids.
While Operation ELF has been able to help so many children in need, Girrell hopes one day there won’t be a need for his charity.
“Our vision is someday, no one will need us and someday there won’t be children at-risk,” Girrell said.