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Season of giving kicks off with multi-agency drive
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Posted by LisaW Tue Nov 20, 2007 15:35:49 PST
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0 responses 0 comments Northwest residents are getting involved with local community projects to give a new meaning to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Thousands of local volunteers will be giving up their time and resources to make sure that a Thanksgiving dinner at the Salvation Army and the Bakersfield Community Christmas are able to see to it that no family goes without food, care and toys.

Organizers say nearly 1,000 Northwest and Southwest residents are involved in the Bakersfield Community Christmas effort.

The Bakersfield Community Christmas began last year when several local organizations joined their Christmas efforts together.

This year they are not going to have access to their distribution site as early as they were able to last year, so they are going to need more volunteers to get everything together much faster.

“This year we’re really going to have to hit the ground running. Our volunteers are going to serve a big Thanksgiving dinner to families in need, and then that following Monday we have to get out there in full force for Christmas,” said Northwest resident Major David Ebel, public information officer for the Salvation Army. “Last year we probably had around 3,000 people helping us. It was a Herculean effort on the part of everyone.”

Not only does the event benefit families in need, combining resources also solves a multitude of organizational and resource problems faced in previous years.

Rather than compete against each other for donations, a variety of agencies can pool together and serve the most people possible.

“We can serve more families more effectively,” said Michelle Turner of Catholic Charities, which has gotten on board with the project this year. “We can all be more generous per family because we have more resources to work with.”

Those in need all fill out the same application form. Their information goes into a centralized database. The database is equipped to screen out those who apply multiple times or try to trick the system in a variety of ways, for example by using a first name on one application and a middle name on another.

“We discovered in doing these Christmas drives that people would apply multiple times. The best way to cure that was a community Christmas,” Ebel said. “All the churches, charities, businesses and non-profits commit to putting all their resources together so that way nobody double or triple dips.”

By working together and sharing information, each family in need receives more and abuse of the system is reduced dramatically.

“Our goal is good stewardship of the resources we have and treating everyone equality,” Ebel said.

Every year Ebel expects to add new people and organizations to the effort.

“We have found that groups will try to do something on their own, but then see that this works so much better. Catholic Charities is an example of that. Last year they did their own thing and this year they joined up with us because they saw how effective it was,” Ebel said. “So far we have 24 agencies and groups partnering with us. We are still open to others coming on board, we’re certainly not turning down help or friends.”

While it may seem a bit early to be thinking about Christmas, for a drive this big all the advanced planning is needed.

“It is such a huge project that we have to start early. The enormity of the project and the amount of people we serve means we have to plan this far in advance and start getting donations early,” Turner said. “If we waited until the Christmas season to get started that would only give us two weeks to get everything done and that just isn’t enough time.”

Huge is exactly what this project is. Last year, about 1,000 families were served at the Thanksgiving meal and a frozen turkey was sent home with each family that participated. Additionally, 3,000 families were helped at the Community Christmas event in which more than 25,000 toys were given away. Distribution takes place over two days at the Kern County Fairgrounds.

Volunteers and donations are still being sought. Those interested in donating can call the Salvation Army at 836-8487. Donations can come in the form of food, money or toys.

“For the food donations, we like to tell people that it must be something that you would want to eat. Don’t donate the cans in the back of your pantry that you’d never touch,” Turner said. “Think about the kinds of things that go into a Christmas meal and base your donation on that.”

Monetary donations are tax deductible and can be used to cover shortcomings in any area. Toys are a big part because one of the main focuses of the drive is to make Christmas special for children in need.

“We don’t want any child to be without Christmas. We don’t want them to go to school after the break and have to be embarrassed because their family could not provide Christmas for them,” Ebel said. “Every child should have at least a little Christmas. We really want to take care of these people.”

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