For Jorge Maza, Christmas started early this year. Back in August, he decided to help with the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Adopt-a-Family Program and go door-to-door interviewing families in the poorest sections of Los Angeles to see what they wanted for Christmas.
Armed with a clipboard and joined by a group of volunteers, his hope was to do his part to help the families have a day of joy when their personalized boxes filled with wrapped Christmas presents were delivered Dec. 15.
"You see all of these families that live in such dire conditions here in our city," he said. "We saw up to 10 families sharing one bathroom and one kitchen. Or two families living in one room with a closet and that's it. They sleep wall-to-wall on the floor with no bed."
The Adopt-a-Family Christmas Program, sponsored by the Cathedral provides presents for families in poor areas downtown. This year, they delivered presents to 377 families --- the highest number in the program's nearly two-decade history.
"Our mission statement is for every child to have a magical Christmas," said Lydia Gamboa, program coordinator.
Founded by Msgr. Terrance Fleming, the program is unique in that it pairs needy families with sponsor families, groups, organizations and schools and that it "tailor-makes" its deliveries by conducting extensive interviews with the family in advance to find out what they really need.
In August, groups organized by Gamboa visit the homes and fill out a census on the family --- names, ages, sizes, needs and Christmas wishes.
"As soon as you walk in with a clipboard, they know," Maza said of the children who have been in the program in the past. "The parents say that the children have been waiting for months. As the time approaches, they get very excited."
Gamboa said that the interviews are the most important part of the process. The census-taking occurs in the heat of the summer, when people are not exactly thinking of Christ.
"One Sunday, the Capital Group sent 25 of their employees to help me register families," she said. "It was just amazing."
The information is passed along to a sponsor, who purchases the gifts for the family by the drop-off deadline. The gifts are then wrapped by volunteers. Each family also receives boxes of food with a variety of items beyond canned goods. In addition to bikes or stuffed animals, families receive much needed home items --- beds, dressers, sheets, towels and even brooms.
The night before delivery day, the boxes are staged and ready for volunteers to pick up in the Cathedral parking structure. On delivery day, more than 700 volunteers meet at 7 a.m. and line their cars through the parking lot, caravan-style. After a 7:30 blessing ceremony led by Cardinal Roger Mahony, volunteers return to their cars and process through the assembly line while volunteers pack their cars.
"Each of the packages has been designed, wrapped, engulfed in love for these children and for their parents," Msgr. Fleming told the volunteers at the prayer service.
Jeanne Estrada helped deliver presents with her husband, Ed, her children and friends Tracy and Alex Martinez and their children. Parishioners of St. Louise de Marillac Parish, Covina, they joined with another family and the three families adopted a family for the first time this year.
"We really wanted to teach our children this year how fortunate they are," Jeanne said. "It has been very moving. It really opened our eyes."
Many of the loading crew members, wrappers, delivery people, interviewers and staging crew people come from Gamboa's own family --- 37 to be exact.
"I could not do this without the help of all the volunteers and all the donors, but especially my husband and my family," she said.
A large cross-section of groups volunteer in all aspects of the program. Some include a variety of Catholic high schools (including La Reina Thousand Oaks, and Providence, Burbank), Culver City High School, Whittier College, USC, UCLA, university fraternities, County-USC Hospital. Staples office supply store sends trucks manned with volunteers to help on delivery day. Many of the volunteers bring their entire family and have been making it a Christmas tradition for many years.
Brooke Maile, her daughter Marian, 13, and Marian's friend Julia Jones, 13, delivered presents this year for the first time, though the teenagers had been participating in the Adopt-A-Family program through their school, the Archer School for Girls, where each grade level adopted a family. The students also made blankets to accompany their boxes for the families. Maile and Jones wanted to go beyond their school program and meet the families and talk to them.
"I thought it was amazing," Marian said. "I was a little nervous at first. You are going to meet up with a family that you don't know. But once we got into it, it was fine."
Joining Cardinal Mahony in the deliveries for the first time this year was Los Angeles Chief of Police William J. Bratton and his wife, Rikki. The Los Angeles police also helped with deliveries and patrolled the delivery areas.
Msgr. Fleming said he is amazed at how the program has grown and also at the ever-growing generosity of volunteers.
"In my own life, I don't know what Christmas would be like without Adopt-a-Family," he said. "This is how I start my Christmas." |