With all of the lights, trees and presents around this time of year, it is sometimes easy to forget that this is supposed to be the “Season of Giving.”
One way to get into the holiday spirit this year is to donate time or resources to those who are less fortunate.
Not only will it help those in the community, but donating can also be a very rewarding experience for the donor.
Whether you’re looking to donate money, gifts or time, there are a lot of ways to give back to the community during this holiday season.
1. Adopt or foster a pet
There are a lot of pets in the animal shelter that have had a hard start to life.
When looking for a pet this holiday, try the animal shelter first.
However, if your family is not quite ready to make a full life-long commitment to a new pet, consider fostering a pet.
Animal Control has many pets that are available for fostering right now and would love a nice home to stay in for the holidays.
Leonie Agurcia with Animal Control said that fostering a pet can be a very fulfilling experience.
“It’s just holding the pet for us until we can find it a home,” Agurcia said. “Sometimes we have feral kittens up for fostering. If they’re handled by humans before they’re 12 weeks old, they can be turned from a feral into a very loving cat. The cat has a second chance at life.”
Also, good dogs that are simply not used to humans or other animals can find a new life through foster care.
“Sometimes we get dogs that are un-socialized, so it’s good to get them in a foster home and get them used to people. That really helps with their adoption rate,” Agurcia said.
Fostering a pet is free and all that is required is filling out some paperwork.
The shelter provides foster families with some food, gets the animal up-to-date on shots and vaccinations, and families bring the pet in for regular check-ups.
The foster care only lasts until the animal is socialized, which can take as little as a week or as long as a year or two, depending on how long the foster parent wants to put into the program.
2. Volunteer at a nursing home
Mike Guillera, administrator at Luling Living Center, said that volunteering at a nursing home can be a rewarding and free way to make someone feel special this season.
“There are several residents who don’t have family members who come to visit,” Guillera said. “It helps to have someone to talk to because they get lonely, especially during this time of year.”
Nursing home volunteers mainly help with activities or just talk to someone who lives at the home.
“When people visit, they get a true understanding of what it is to be an elderly person in a nursing home setting,” he said.
Tiffany White, the activities director at Ormond Nursing and Care Center, also said that donations are a way that people who are tight on time can help.
“It’s a big help. It really puts a smile on their face to know that someone other than their family cares,” White said. “They also love visitors.”
To volunteer, call the home and set up an appointment. To make a donation, call for a list of what is needed.
Luling Living Center can be reached at 985-758-8271 and Ormond Nursing and Care Center can be reached at 985-764-1793.
3. Serve food to the homeless
Another inexpensive way to help others during the holidays is to volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
Dottie Dibella, with the Center of Jesus the Lord, said that the center serves food to the homeless every Sunday.
“It’s just a blessing,” Dibella said. “The gentlemen that we feed are truly the blessing to us.”
Those interested in helping at the center can call 504-430-1015 or meet at the Center of Jesus the Lord, 1236 N. Rampart St., New Orleans, at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday.
To find other homeless shelters or soup kitchens to volunteer at in the community, visit the Louisiana Department of Social Services Web site at http://www.dss.state.la.us.
4. Adopt a family in need
St. Charles Social Concerns is looking for people who would be willing to help a family have a better holiday.
Social Concerns currently has accepted 18 families into its Social Success Program which provides psycho educational training on topics from goal setting and financial planning to getting and keeping a job.
These families are mostly low-income with the parents currently working towards bettering themselves and their situation.
Jasmine Berfect-Gillis, executive director of St. Charles Social Concerns, said that without help from the community, these families will not have much of a holiday.
Host agencies and families are needed as soon as possible, she said.
Berfect-Gillis said that the people in the program are all hard-working people who have just fallen on hard times.
“It’s not like these people are sitting at home doing nothing. They are actively searching for employment,” Berfect-Gillis said. “These are motivated people – that’s why they qualified for our program.”
Many of the people in the program are returning to school to earn their GED or college degree or they are skilled craftsmen who have recently been laid off.
To adopt a family, call Social Concerns at 985-758-1216.
Adopters are given the family’s name, clothing sizes and a character or toy that the child likes.
“Our families are appreciative of anything they’re receiving,” Berfect-Gillis said about how important the adoptions are to the families. “Most of the kids that are in our program will not wake up on Christmas morning to anything.”
Another way that parishioners can donate locally is through St. Anthony’s Outreach’s Toys for Tots program. The program is now accepting registration and all that is needed is a picture ID. Gifts for young children are going to be collected on Nov. 19. To contact St. Anthony’s Outreach, call 985-785-8745.
5. Donate to the elderly
The holidays can be a hard time of year for some elderly people, but the Council on Aging does all that it can to make it easier for them.
One way that the council tries to help is by delivering food baskets to families or individuals.
Margaret Powe said that the council is currently putting together these food baskets and would appreciate any donations that people can give.
“Sometimes an elderly person, especially if they have health problems, can’t really cook a full meal,” Powe said. “It helps because people are giving back out of their own blessings to help someone who is less fortunate or who may not have a lot of reasons to celebrate the holidays. It helps the person who’s giving to have a more fulfilling feeling of the spirit of the season.”
To make a donation, contact the Council on Aging at 985-783-6683.
The council is also looking for gift donations for senior citizens. To donate a gift, contact the Retired Senior Volunteer Program at 985-785-1037.
6. Let the troops know that you care
There are about 4,000 service members from Louisiana who are deployed or will soon be deployed, many of which will be missing the holidays with their families.
Parishioners can show these men and women that they care through a program called Soldiers’ Angels.
Soldiers’ Angels is a non-profit organization providing aid to the U.S. Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and their families and veterans.
Hundreds of thousands of care packages have been sent out through this program.
Besides providing care packages and first aid supplies, Soldiers’ Angels has teamed up with the Department of Defense to provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptops to nearly 3,000 severely-wounded service members and to provide flights to soldiers on leave or in emergency situations.
The program also helps to uphold families whose loved ones have been lost.
Parishioners can contribute by visiting www.soldiersangels.org or contacting the state coordinator at tawney@soldiersangels.org.
Items for veterans, families or soldiers can also be mailed to Tawney Tallo, 122 Gum Street, Pineville, LA 71360.
LOCAL RELIGIOUS OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE
Donating to local churches or synagogues is one way to help those in need in the local community and around the world during the holiday season.
Contact your own place of worship to find information on charities they are contributing to or call these locations to contribute to the charities they are participating in:
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church
985-765-9232
Collecting food, children’s gifts and gifts for those in nursing homes.
First Baptist Church of Luling
985-785-8271
Collecting money for the Southern Baptist International Mission.
First Union Presbyterian Church
985-785-8486?
Collecting monetary, food and gift donations for four local families that the church adopted.
Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans
504-780-5600
Looking for volunteers to help rebuild houses locally. For more opportunities to get involved, call or visit www.jewishnola.com.
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