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player ready...No one at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Aurora can remember a time when its members didn’t choose tags from its Angel Tree to provide gifts to those less fortunate.
Giving gifts to children, seniors and special needs adults is such a tradition at the church that St. Mark’s member Clare Toynton said, “None of us can remember the exact year it started. We just remember always doing it.”
This year, 197 tags were placed on the Angel Tree on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving representing children, seniors living at Constitution House and clients with the Association for Individual Development. Organized by St. Mark’s Naomi Circle, a group of women members who meet monthly, the children will be receiving clothes and toys and the seniors and clients will be receiving gift cards.
For seniors living at Constitution House, a residential facility for 232 low-income seniors, these gift cards from members of St. Mark’s may be the only Christmas gift that they receive, Taylor Mucho, a residential services coordinator with Constitution House, said.
Some of the residents do not have families nearby or their families are not involved, and the holidays can be very stressful for them for many reasons including financially, she said.
“Each year, these gift cards are something our residents appreciate and look forward to receiving,” Mucho said.
The gifts offered through the program are important to the families who receive them, said Natasha Williams, a program health coordinator with the non-for-profit health care provider VNA Health Care.
“Many of our families are faced with choosing to pay a bill or buying gifts for their kids for Christmas,” she said.
St. Mark’s members provide these gifts so we can “lighten the load of these families,” she added. “Often, these gifts are the only gifts these children receive at Christmas time.”
“We don’t even have to do any promotion within the church,” Toynton said. “Members see the tree and take the tags off the tree. It is just something our members look forward to.”
In addition to toys and gifts geared toward a child’s age, gender, and size, as part of the tradition, one member of St. Mark’s provides a special doll ensemble for two young children that includes a doll, doll bed, a homemade doll mattress, sheet, pillow, and pillow case.
For the dolls, the member sews a handmade coat, hat and muff, pajamas, a fancy dress, a skirt, top and hat, and jeans and a sweatshirt.
The congregation looks forward to our Angel Tree each year, Toynton said.
“We picture how these children will feel when they receive the gifts and play with them,” she said. “We feel empathy for the families and are happy to help. It gives us great joy to deliver these gifts.”
Cathy Janek is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News