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A blue shipping container that held the fixings for a holiday party for an Englewood community group has disappeared, possibly relocated to a city auto pound, forcing the cancellation of the group’s party.

The container was taken Tuesday from an empty lot on Stewart Avenue just north of 75th Street, according to the group.

The container belongs to Mothers Against Senseless Violence (MASK), a group that has been protesting the epidemic of killings of young people in the predominantly black community. MASK’s members quietly throw down a challenge to Englewood’s gangbangers by sitting on lawn chairs on the rubble-filled lots that dot the neighborhood. They also run a summer program for school kids and throw a block party or two through the year.

Inside that blue shipping container were the fixings for a holiday party scheduled for next Monday at a nearby church.

But then Tamar Manasseh, the group’s organizer, started getting phone calls from neighbors of that shipping container.

“They said: ‘They’re hauling away the shipping container! We told them, ‘But there are Christmas toys inside!'”

Indeed, there were: Maybe 50 or so dolls, educational toys and play figures. Plus a Christmas tree and decorations. An electric generator, and table and chairs for the kids and parents to sit on. All contributed by supporters. Some guests were expected to also bring toys to the party.

All that was stored in the shipping container because MASK is an organization without a roof over its head. During the fall Sukkot holiday, the group put up a sukkah on an empty lot. A sukkah is a three-sided hut, open to the sky, that commemorates the ancient Hebrews wandering in the deserts. Manasseh is black and Jewish.

“It was going to be a multicultural celebration,” she said. “We honor Christmas, Hanukkah, the Islamic tradition and Kwanzaa.”

Besides protesting violence, MASK has experienced it.

In July, Andrea Stoudemire and Chantell Grant were standing near the corner of 75th and Stewart, part of a group that has maintained a vigil there trying to reclaim the intersection as a fun place for mothers and children to hang out.

Just before 10 p.m. a blue SUV drove by. Someone opened fire, Stoudemire and Grant were hit and taken to a hospital, where they died. A man was wounded.

No one has been arrested.

Manasseh said the shooting “was one of the saddest nights of my life.”

And now she and other MASK members have lost Christmas at the very same spot.

Neighbors told Manasseh the tow truck driver said the shipping container was being taken to a city auto pound on the Far South Side. City officials haven’t said anything to her. Yet the organization’s logo and website are written on the container.

“You can’t just hitch a shipping container to a car and bring it back,” she said. “That would take a crane and a flatbed truck. Can you imagine how much that would cost? And the decorations, what shape are they in, after being lifted and dropped?”

So reluctantly, MASK’s holiday party has been canceled.

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The Tribune contacted various city officials. Hali Levandoski, one spokeswoman for the mayor, said Wednesday morning that the city has been looking into the situation, but no updates were available by about 4:30 p.m.

Check back for updates.

baiduhai’s Jessica Villagomez contributed.