Marcia Alpert, Mary Jane Welter and Valerie Woods became friends through the annual Holiday Food & Gift Basket program, sponsored each year by the Community of Congregations. The three volunteers bonded as they helped pull off the massive community undertaking, which this year helped 900 families enjoy a brighter holiday.
When no one else volunteered to coordinate the effort this year, they obsessed about it awhile, then raised their hands.
They knew it would be hard work but, “Oh my God!” Alpert said. “It’s a full-time job,” one they started back in August. From matching recipients and donors to sorting gifts to getting them all delivered, “it is so detail-oriented. It’s incredibly time-consuming. I don’t think we knew.”
She estimates they put in a good 6-700 hours to pull it off. Fortunately, Alpert said, her comrades in charity are very detail-oriented, plus they had help from hundreds of volunteers “who did time-limited things that were so valuable.”
“And,” she added, “we strong-armed our friends.”
One other thing they did was send letters home with all the public school students in Oak Park and River Forest and that generated “a very big response.” And churches did a good job of publicizing the program.
“This is truly a wonderful community effort,” Alpert said. The number of people who get involved, including shopping, wrapping and delivering, she described as “exponential.”
The program reached 900 families, which Alpert said probably totaled 2,000 people. “People like doing it,” she noted. “It makes them feel good.” She recalls one of their longtime elderly volunteers, Roy Piccone, who looked tired at the end of one long stretch matching recipients and sponsors, so Mary Jane went out to Shake ‘n’ Steak and brought him back a treat.
“He said, ‘After I go, I know there will be people like you to carry on,'” Alpert recalled.
The recipients are all referrals from social workers, local social service agencies, schools and churches. Instructions go out in September and recipients must be IDed (based on income levels) by the end of October.
The day of delivery-this year it was Saturday, Dec. 13-you would expect to be a logistical nightmare, but Alpert said they had all the packages delivered by 10:45 a.m. Some people weren’t home or moved or were evicted, but the last 20 deliveries were completed by the following Thursday.
Is the triumphant trio ready for next year?
“We’re ready to do nothing for at least a month,” Alpert said, but they’re planning to take it on again anyway.
“When all is said and done, we felt we did something worthwhile. This program is special in a lot of ways.”