Related: America's Christmas Gifts to Afghanistan
And as you read this, America, please think of the TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS that have gone for WARS and BANKS!!!!
Merry Xmas!!!
"No toys to spare; At charitable agencies, Santa's bag is emptying fast" by Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff | December 13, 2008
Rosalyn Osei called Catholic Charities as a last resort but was stunned yesterday when the agency told her they had no toys to spare. Now she fears her five young children may have to go without presents on Christmas morning.
That is a thought I find very hard to bear.
"My son was just singing Christmas songs so loud in the house yesterday and I wasn't even in the spirit," Osei said. "It made me cry a little bit. What am I going to do?"
Hit up the Globe?
First the recession, then holiday layoffs, and now many longtime Boston charities have more bad news: Santa's sack is almost bare. The Home for Little Wanderers and Catholic Charities - among the city's most venerable charitable groups, providing children with gifts on the holidays for decades - are now saying they may not be able to meet this year's demand for toys.
The folding tables inside the toy room at the Home for Little Wanderers' Jamaica Plain office were not brimming, like they were last year. The aisles, unlike last Christmas season, are not crowded with donated bicycles. There are toys, but far fewer.
"This is the worst we've been," said Brian Condron, director of advocacy at the Home for Little Wanderers. "The worst I can remember."
Agencies from across Greater Boston come to the home to collect toys to give to foster children, children with physical or emotional disabilities, and others. The agencies have asked the children to create wish lists, and next week agency advocates will begin arriving at the toy room to pick them up....
***************
Officials at the Home for Little Wanderers said the agency gave toys to 7,500 children last year and it has never run out in the 50 years it has sponsored the program. After last year's holiday season, the agency had two van loads' worth of leftover toys, which were distributed by the mayor's office.
"The need is greater; we've got double the families that are requesting this year," said Lisa Rowan-Gillis, vice president of the Home for Little Wanderers. "It breaks my heart."
Mine, too!
Officials said gifts for teens - such as video games or gift cards - are most needed; stuffed animals are not.
What they don't want a book?
Yesterday morning, Mayor Thomas M. Menino delivered a large children's easel to the Home for Little Wanderers, which he said was picked out by his granddaughter. Menino wrapped a gift and posed for photos with other politicians, such as Councilors Michael Flaherty and Robert Consalvo, as he does annually, but the mood was not entirely festive.
"Just think about kids on Christmas morning without anything under the tree," Menino said. "It's the most difficult [season] I've seen."
Leave to a pol to spoil the moment even more.
It's the kind of gift Kalda R. Smith would love to give to her daughter, 8-year-old Yantaya. Smith took the girl in as an underweight 1-year-old and later adopted her. Smith doesn't work and has saved money working odd jobs to afford to buy gifts from Walgreens for her daughter and godson, 10-year-old Nicolias Docanto.
She tells them both to remember that they might not get what they want. "You keep your kids happy by being real with them," she said. "And today in the real world, there ain't no money."
Unless you reside in the elite upper crust!
You wanna be the one to see the broken-hearted faces on the buttons in the back?
Kalda Smith has told her godson, Nicolias Docanto, and her daughter, Yantaya, they might not get the gifts they want. (ESSDRAS M SUAREZ/GLOBE STAFF)
--more--"
Too bad no one needs stuffed animals.
"Knitters provide bear hugs for children; Dressed-up toys will go to young ones in accidents" by Gabrielle Dunn, Globe Correspondent | December 13, 2008
STONEHAM - They sat in rows, dressed in fuzzy sweaters, jackets with colorful buttons, striped scarves, and tiny hats with their ears sticking out.
The teddy bears, and the more than 100 handmade outfits made for them by the Baa Baa Black Sheep Knitting Guild, will soon be used by Massachusetts State Police to comfort frightened children at car accident scenes.
Some of the bears, differently sized but equally plushy, will be kept inside cruisers statewide while others will be given out at Logan Airport to scared children who have been separated from their parents....
Couldn't a few be given away at Christmas time, this blogger plaintively begs!
Usually, the guild holds a traditional Yankee gift swap, purchasing or knitting items for each other for the holiday season. This year, Cathy Greene, board member in charge of programs, decided it would be a better use of money and time to do an extra charity project. Last year, they knitted mittens and hats for residents of the public housing developments in Lawrence.
Greene thought of the teddy bear idea in the summer after she saw a similar program at a knitting guild in New Hampshire. The Baa Baa Black Sheep, members of the Knitting Guild of America, purchased the bears in bulk online over the summer for $300, using money from their small budget, made up of members' yearly dues. Each member took as many bears as he or she wanted to make outfits for in September, and had until now to finish their creations....
Anyone looking to donate teddy bears to the program can drop them off at their local State Police barracks..... Millie Sullivan took on seven bears and spent a week working on an elaborate soft pink ice skating outfit, complete with a matching headband. "Everybody loves teddy bears. You don't grow up, you always love them," she said....
I guess I must be some kind of wuss for letting something so silly affect me so much, huh, readers? What's this puddle at my feet?
--more--"
