In the season of giving, charitable organizations are making sure local children receive more than just presents for Christmas.
In Sidney, Operation Merry Christmas volunteers are carrying on a tradition which began more than 80 years ago.
“It was started in 1940 or ’41 by Lucretia D’Imperio,” OMC secretary Lisa Striegler, in her fifth year with the group, said. “She started it, and I think she may have worked for the hospital back then, but I do know it started with her caring about a family that needed stuff. She had the ‘neighbors helping neighbors’ catchphrase, and this family had gone through a tragedy, so she got a group of girlfriends together and helped out and then, every year, they got together and helped a family.”
Striegler and OMC Vice President Cheryl Liberty credited area businesses and individuals with keeping the program going, even amid a pandemic-induced spike and continued rising need. OMC, Striegler said, serves children 10 and under.
“In the COVID years, it changed and got pretty big for a couple years,” she said. “This year, it’s about 250 kids that are enrolled and eligible for our program, which is down a little from the COVID years (when OMC served) 400 children. I think the need has adjusted a little bit, as far as we have more parents asking for things like socks and underwear than I’ve seen in the past. And we changed the signup form pretty dramatically, so I don’t know if that’s a reflection of that or parents specifically asking for winter boots and coats, but they’ve been more willing and forthcoming to ask for that kind of thing.
“We have some big businesses — Amphenol, and ACCO (Brands) is very much a partner of ours … and Butler Auto, SFCU, Community Bank, NBT Bank, and a lot has to do with the churches involved,” Striegler continued. “I think everyone just does the best they can. We put the wishes out on trees in the community at different businesses and each tag is one or a couple closely related wishes of the children, so it’s all split up, so almost anyone can help out anybody if they want to. You can buy a pair of mittens, or a Barbie or an $80 RC vehicle. Every year we stand back and look through what we refer to affectionately as our workshop and are just astounded (by) the amount of stuff and donations we get in. It almost doesn’t make sense; yes, we certainly have some wonderful partnerships with local businesses and get some donations from the businesses and their employees, but just people step up, they really do. And we do try very hard to get every kid everything on their wish list.”
“A lot has changed this year, as we’ve become our own 501-c-3 and have new leadership,” Liberty said. “We have close to 30 (local businesses hosting trees with tags), so I think it stays pretty stable. No one wants a child to be sad on Christmas.”
Though distribution of gifts happens quickly, Striegler and Liberty said, facilitating that is a year-round effort. Signups, they said, happen from Labor Day through Halloween.
“We get people referred to us, but also allow them to sign themselves up,” Liberty said. “It’s Sidney and Unadilla people, with overflow to Afton and Bainbridge, Sidney Center and Masonville.
“Right after the giveaway (in mid-December), we start preparing,” Striegler said. “Sometimes we take January off, but it’s non-stop; we have a board of directors of five people and, for the five of us, it’s pretty much a year-round endeavor. It’s a core group of about eight to 10 people that basically live with us this week, but our group of volunteers is probably about 20 — our reindeer who run around and pick up the gifts.”
For more information on Sidney’s Operation Merry Christmas, including how to donate, signup and volunteer, find “OMC Sidney” on Facebook or contact omcsidney@gmail.com.
Margie Aitken, commanding officer of the Salvation Army, Oneonta Corps, said she, too, has seen need rise among area children. Though the Salvation Army has long offered Christmas assistance, she said, the agency’s Angel Tree program began “over 30 years ago.”
Aitken said programs such as hers not only meet demand, but serve donors, too.
“A lot of times we feel like we’re helpless and we can’t help somebody the way somebody else can, but by having the angel tags, it allows people — individuals — to be able to help with a specific thing,” she said. “It’s, ‘I did this, I took care of this child for Christmas,’ and it helps us feel like we have actually done something.”
Aitken said the unifying nature of the season has kept the program robust.
“It’s the simple fact that there’s need at Christmas time and really, no matter what’s going on in the world, people want children to have a good Christmas,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what politics are like or anything like that. People will fight for the children, no matter what; if they have three nickels to rub together, they’re going to go out and buy gifts for kids. It may be nothing more than a coat on a piece of paper, but this gives them a way to say, ‘I took care of this child.’ The angel tags give them a connection to a specific child where they can feel like they’ve done something concrete.”
Aitken, in her second season with the Angel Tree program, said she expects to see an increase. The Salvation Army’s bell-ringing tradition, she said, dovetails with the Angel Tree program and constitutes their “biggest fundraiser for the year, and where we get the majority of our money to operate on for the year.”
“I see more need this year and, unfortunately, I see a little less ability to help, and that’s got me a little nervous two weeks from our distribution day,” she said. “I know last year we had 224 families, and we took care of 427 children. At this point, we have 227 families, which doesn’t sound like much more than last year, but on the day after the distribution, all the people who couldn’t get here to sign up ahead of time, they will take a chance, and we probably had 50 last year. So, I’d say we’re probably going to be at the 275 mark this year, and we’re already up to 428 children, and that’s before our extra day. That number will go up substantially.”
That day-after distribution, Aitken said, takes place at 9 a.m. on Dec. 21 at the 25 River St. church, with gifts available for those who didn’t sign up but are still in need of Christmas presents for children 12 and under.
“People bring their ID for everyone in the household, with proof of residence, and they come on that day and that’s the day we take their application, just like we would’ve in October,” she said. “We do what we can, and it’s first come, first served.”
And, on Dec. 16, Aitken said, a donor has promised to match all donations made to Oneonta Salvation Army kettles that day.
Aitken, too, said executing the giveaway requires months of planning.
“I will start planning for next Christmas at the very end of this year,” she said. “Starting the first of the year, I’m going to put together notes of what worked, what didn’t, how to reach out to people quicker. It seems like it’s just a month of people out ringing bells and applications and people aren’t thinking about applications in October, but they need to be, because that’s how far in advance we need to start doing it to make it fall into place for Christmas. This is a year-round process, and we work all year to get ready for these days.”
It also relies on volunteerism, Aitken said, calling her volunteers “the best on the planet.”
“I could not ask for better; they know the program, they have the heart for it and passion and they put their heart and soul into it,” she said. “There are the people who work the kettles, people who volunteer in (the church space), several who take applications, several who run our workshop getting everything together … and it’s really neat to watch them come in and say, ‘I want to help.’ We have kettle bellringers who have been here over 30 years. They love what they’re doing and come back every year and our hearts swell when they come in.”
While Aitken said “larger donors are a little down this year,” she called support from community members and businesses affirming.
“Most of the banks in town have (the trees) and Walmart, BJ’s, Denny’s — they’re all over,” she said. “We (serve people) in Oneonta and the outskirts … and if a program doesn’t have enough, they know they can send people here. The more help we get from the community, the longer we can go, and Oneonta has always been a very generous community. They’re going to come through for us again. Most important (is saying) thank you to everyone who gives or purchases toys for these children or makes this possible.
“We have seen people just literally break down and weep over what we’re able to give them,” Aitken continued. “They absolutely cannot believe they’re receiving these things. And, when we stand Christmas kettles, we will hear people come by and put money in the kettle when they really don’t have a lot and they’ll say, ‘You know, you helped me once,’ or, ‘My family was in need and you guys were there and … I remember,’ so we hear all the time about how we have affected them and it’s not just that moment in time.”
Aitken encouraged continued gift donations through the latter half of December, with collection sites at hosting businesses or the 25 River St. space.
In Bainbridge, Dolores Nabinger and Deb Erickson coordinate the town side of the Bainbridge-Guilford Central School’s Angel Tree Program (not affiliated with the Salvation Army’s of the same name). According to a written statement from Keren Seiler, with the school district, the program “as a collaborative (effort) between the school and community, has been in progress since before 1992.” It began, the statement says, “with Hometown Hardware, then Nana’s, and now the town hall” helping to coordinate.
Erickson said she’s been involved for seven years.
“I used to have a shop in town and a tree used to be there,” she said. “It’s just the two of us that do it, besides the people that shop for the kids and take the tags, or some give us monetary donations, and Dolores and I will go out and shop for the gifts ourselves. The community is awesome, and we distribute every tag, every child. We never have any issue or problem.”
Planning, Erickson said, begins in October, when the school sends notices home to students, then Erickson and Nabinger “get involved in November and start putting up the tags and have the trees up before Thanksgiving.”
Donated gifts are collected by Dec. 18, Erickson said, and “families can pick them up after that … at their convenience.”
The program, Erickson said, typically serves between 90 to 100 Bainbridge-area children.
“We’re at 94, so that’s about our average,” she said. “It’s an awesome program to help the local kids in our community and our community definitely comes out and supports the local children. (Recipients) are very grateful and appreciative. And we totally appreciate the support from the community for our kids, that’s a big plus, because the need is there. To make the kids’ holiday a special one, that’s why we keep doing it — to make the kids happy.”