Last week, SHARE Outreach prepared Christmas for 462 children and another 185 households with adults. We were a little exhausted, but exhilarated, knowing that these families have gifts and food to celebrate the holiday. And believe me, they are very grateful.

We could not have done it without our wonderful community.

Thank you to everyone who adopted families (schools, churches, businesses, families, individuals), collected hats and mittens and PJs, took a star from a giving tree, sponsored a giving tree in your business or church, collected food, made monetary donations, dropped off gift cards, gifts, and more.

And as all things with SHARE, we could not have done it without our volunteers. They have (again) gone above and beyond, putting in dozens of hours a week for the last several weeks — administering our databases, acting as the “adoption agency”, picking up food, sorting food, building and distributing food baskets, double checking bags of gifts, greeting clients and helping them collect the gifts for their children. There is a lot of brain power and a lot of heavy lifting that goes into SHARE’s holiday program – all done by the hands of our volunteers. Thank you.

Special thanks to Curtis Snow and Gene Madigan who are the perfect volunteers – always available and unable to say no. We are in awe of their dedication. Special thanks to Brenda McGrath Nadeau for her decades of service to this holiday program. Brenda manages the giving trees (no easy feat) and is our shopper extraordinaire for gifts not returned to the trees! And special thanks to Don and Eileen Foley who were in charge of the drop off and distribution of gifts. We love you and miss you as Pantry volunteers but so glad you are here for our special projects.

And thank you to Karen Graveline – no matter that you are no longer an employee, you always remain a friend. Thank you for your dedication to SHARE.