An early Santa sighting on Sunday enchanted neighborhood children who shouted after the jolly, white-bearded gentleman as he strode down Spaulding Avenue in Evergreen Park.
Calls of “Santa! Santa!” came from homes as small faces appeared in front windows. Youngsters emerged from backyards and darted out of alleys to gaze at the spectacle.
Mr. Claus engaged briefly with the whooping kids, but on this day an extra special mission called.
He was headed to the home of Raquel Lopez, a mother of four who is battling colorectal cancer. It was St. Nick’s second of four stops Sunday as he spent the day visiting the homes of Southland families stricken by cancer.
Christmas Without Cancer, a volunteer-run nonprofit that provides gifts and basic necessities to families affected by cancer, facilitated the visits.
The organization, founded by Evergreen Park resident Gerri Neylon, operates more-or-less behind the scenes year-round, quietly supplying families with gift cards for gas, medication, groceries and on occasion even helping with mortgages and school tuition. During the holiday season, the charity steps out into the community to provide a “full Christmas” to a handful of its beneficiaries who have small children.
“It’s very humbling,” Neylon said Sunday, of her experience running the charity. “I really feel like this is my Christmas, today is. Because I’m not receiving gifts, but we’re giving gifts.”
Neylon said she didn’t anticipate the organization growing so rapidly — Christmas Without Cancer assisted 17 local families over the course of the year. She credited her committee of dedicated volunteers and the community’s embrace of the concept for the group’s flourishing.
“It was really amazing because people found out that I had this organization and I would come home from work and there would be gift cards and checks in my mailbox,” she said. “It’s just people that just want to give back and that’s the amazing thing. That there’s so much pay it forward. That’s the beauty of this whole organization, it really is.”
A radiation oncology nurse who worked for many years at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Neylon was moved to found the charity in 2003 because of her professional experiences with cancer victims.
“I’ve seen the effect cancer has on families,” she said. “There’s always a loss of income when a family member has cancer, be it their spouse, their parents, their child.
“Just for us to be able to stop and give them a helping hand, take a little financial burden off them so they can enjoy Christmas, that’s what we love.”
Lopez, who was diagnosed earlier this year while pregnant, was introduced to Neylon shortly after giving birth to a healthy baby boy, Maximus.
Neylon popped into Lopez’s hospital room during a radiation appointment soon after her son was born and told her she’d do anything she could to help the family, Lopez said.
“They took care of school supplies, gift cards for diapers and formula for the newborn,” she said. “They’ve been phenomenal.”
The assistance has allowed Lopez to focus her energy — which can be sapped by the grueling treatments — on spending quality time with her family. Among the gifts Christmas Without Cancer provided Lopez’s family on Sunday, in addition to toys for the kids, was a getaway to Wisconsin Dells for the entire clan.
“The best thing we could do is spend time (together),” said Lopez, who became emotional after opening the family vacation gift card. “Cancer robs you of time. The kids got time taken away from their mom when they need her, but we got a little bit of time back. We have a weekend, a weekend away, just us. Away from work, away from school, away from other things, away from appointments. We get to just go and have fun.”
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Ashley Melody, another Christmas Without Cancer recipient visited by Santa on Sunday, said through tears that the organization had given her peace of mind as she deals with her husband’s brain cancer diagnosis.
“It gives you peace of mind because you know that there’s this support net that’s going to catch you if you can’t make it that month,” she said. “I’ve never had to worry about whether or not I’m going to be able to feed my kids because I know I can call Gerri and ask her for extra (gift) cards that month and she’ll be more than happy to bring them over and we can get groceries.”
Melody, who lives in Oak Lawn with her husband, Andy, and their three young children, met Neylon at the hospital earlier this year when she served as her husband’s radiation nurse.
“Our first visit was like, ‘Guys, this is my organization and this is what we do and we’re going to take care of you,” she said. “And they have taken care of us ever since.”
On Sunday, the organization gifted Melody’s mechanically-inclined 9-year-old son a robot and her 3–year-old twins a toy rocket and a princess dress.
“It lets us breathe when we’re constantly holding our breath wondering what the next shoe to fall is going to be,” Melody said of the charity. “It makes a world of difference for us.”
Twitter @ZakKoeske