Every year, St. Vincent de Paul in Juneau organizes its Adopt-a-Family program to bring Christmas gifts to children in need.
This year, St. Vincent de Paul Housing Manager Tamee Martini said, participation in the program has been much lower than usual. As of Wednesday of last week, there were still about 100 children who had not yet been “adopted.”
In the program, people can sign up to buy gifts for children who might not otherwise get them. The children in the program make a list of a couple of items they want, and community members who sign up to “adopt” them go out and buy the gifts. Martini said more than 200 children were up for adoption this year, and almost half of them still have not been adopted.
“It’s for the kids,” Martini said, “and we just want to give them a good Christmas.”
She said the drop in participation this year might be due in part to the size of families on the list. She said people often sign up for families that have one or two children, but families with four or five are a little more daunting. Martini said groups can adopt these larger families. People can also donate money at svdpjuneau.org so St. Vincent employees can purchase the gifts.
To sign up for the program, people can email info@svdpjuneau.org or Martini personally at tameesvdp@gmail.com. They can also come to the St. Vincent de Paul office in Smith Hall at 8619 Teal Street. The building is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Gifts for the program must be in by Friday, Dec. 22, Martini said, so they can have time to wrap them and deliver them by Christmas.
