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TUSTIN (CNS) - The Orange County Rescue Mission is seeking more gifts for adults through Dec. 13 for its annual Christmas event for its residents in the Village of Hope.
The event allows parents to pick out and give out toys for their children, but also does the same for the children to return the favor.
"One thing that might be lost on people is that when a family is on the streets or coming out of homelessness or are in a near homeless situation the parents are not in a position to give their kids a Christmas present, and it's a loss of dignity," Orange County Rescue Mission President Bryan Crain told City News Service.
"And even if they come into our program where the gifts are provided that dignity can be lost if the gifts are given directly to the kids. So we stage all the gifts in the cafeteria and everyone gets a coupon and they get to pick out the gift for their children, so they have the dignity of giving their kids the gifts. It's a little twist on the generosity while still maintaining the dignity of the parents who otherwise don't get the joy of giving their kids a gift."
The mission is "on track with the toys," Crain said of the donations so far. "We're pacing well with the toys... It's the adult gifts that we're always sort of scrambling for the final week before Christmas."
The items needed include beanies, wallets, watches, journals and pens, hair ties and accessories, reusable water bottles, baseball caps, socks, nail polish, throw blankets, local sports teams fan gear, $10 fast food gift cards and $10 department store gift cards.
The items for children that are recommended include craft kits, paint sets, coloring and sticker books, dolls, Lego sets, toy trains and cars, sports equipment and non-battery operated or USB-connected gifts.
The Miracle at the Mission event is a "fantastic event where we bring in 20 tons of snow and the kids get to sled in the courtyard and there's a band and hot chocolate and good food and it's basically the best of Christmas day," Crain said.
The Rescue Mission which helps homeless people get back on their feet appealed to the public for donations for its annual Thanksgiving Day meal and it worked, Crain said. The mission has found it tough to keep up with demand as inflation affects food prices.
"Thanksgiving was amazing," Crain said. "It was our biggest turkey trot we ever had. We ended up having 1,600 people run in the turkey trot, which is a record for us. It was a fantastic day."
After the fundraising turkey trot the mission served up a Thanksgiving meal, he said.
"For people going through a program such as Village of Hope who are on track to get back on their feet maybe this is not where they planned on being for Thanksgiving, but they found themselves here and it was fantastic," Crain said.
"Their family members came and celebrated with them and they had a full dinner... We were so grateful to receive so many donations of turkeys and fixings and canned vegetables. I think we cooked 30 turkeys."
The mission's grocery budget "has skyrocketed in the last year or two," Crain said.
"Usually right now at Village of Hope 240 people are living here and we do three meals a day, so you can imagine throughout the year we're grateful for any donations," Crain said.