April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
CoNSERNS-U, RENSSELAER
Christmas store allows low-income parents to choose kids' gifts
Christmas store allows low-income parents to choose kids' gifts
The Catholic Charities program, whose name stands for "Community Network of Schodack, East Greenbush, Rensselaer, Nassau and Sand Lake United," has a stated goal of helping people "meet the challenges of day-to-day living."
CoNSERNS-U will hold its annual "Christmas store" Dec. 14-15 at the McManus Center in Rensselaer. The event enables low-income adults to shop for free gifts for their children from a selection of more than 2,000 donated items.
"Everything is brand new," noted Colleen Pidgeon, program coordinator. The store offers toys, clothing, board games, knitted goods, books and stocking stuffers. "We set it up like a retail store," so adults can "pick and choose for their children, knowing them better than anyone else."
Bonnie Quickenton has used the Christmas store several times.
"It's really special when you find that one gift your child has been asking for," she said, adding: "Times are rough right now."
Ms. Quickenton has 10 people in her family, including grandchildren and children with disabilities.
"CoNSERNS-U helps me out a lot," she said. "You walk into this place and it's like walking into Toys 'R' Us, and I'm not exaggerating. It gives you such a sigh of relief to know that you're going to go home with presents and wrapping paper to wrap those presents."
In addition to the tables of gifts at the Christmas store, there are service providers on hand to assist eligible people in signing up for health insurance or food stamps and getting nutritional information.
"It's nice that they're doing that to help families," said Carol Ziegler, who has used the store before to be able to provide gifts for her twin four-year-olds. This year, she's hoping to get clothes and Barbie dolls for the girls.
She told The Evangelist she appreciates the chance to choose things her daughters will like, instead of "having them just give you whatever."
The program attracts donations from all over Rensselaer County. A thousand children receive gifts through the Christmas store; the other 1,000 gifts are distributed through other organizations in Albany and Rensselaer Counties.
Ms. Quickenton called the store "a godsend for families. When you go down there, they make you feel welcome and at home."
The Christmas store assists hundreds of people, said Ms. Pidgeon.
"Families will leave crying," she said. "They give the volunteers big hugs [and] thank us so much [for] empowering them with the ability to choose."
*******************************************************[[In-content Ad]]Holy Trinity parish in Cohoes is taking part in the Holiday Hope program, which is part of Bridges Out of Poverty, a national organization that reaches out to the working poor. The program gives members of the working poor a "passport" to collect points all year through efforts like attending school parent-teacher meetings or doing service for a church. Barbara Hildregh of Holy Trinity said people can use the points toward gifts for their children: "For 30 points you can probably get $150 worth of toys. They can shop instead of people just giving them a bag of gifts." Bridges Out of Poverty's Christmas store will be held in the Cohoes Library Dec. 10-12, and Dec. 19; 46 volunteers from Holy Trinity will be assisting.
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