The Christmas of the Eleventh Hour
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These happy photographs show what the good people of SHAPE and Chièvres have done in a last minute rushed appeal to help the Sisters of Charity who found that they didn’t have sufficient toys or gifts to fulfil their huge Christmas Charity Programme.
I thought that things were going according to schedule; the Chapel Centre had their flyers sent out in plenty of time and posters placed in all the usual strategic places, so all we had to do was sit back and wait. If only things could be so easy! We have found through twenty five years of experience that nothing is easy in the charity field and like the old saying goes, “Don’t count your chickens until they have hatched.”
The Home Bethlehem was well covered for the St. Nicholas party thanks to the Canadian Family Centre and the Spanish Ladies’ Association. The Home Don Bosco was taken care of by the American NHS. Another huge success was the Americans coming up trumps with a van load of new toys for Notre Dame. These were donated by the High School and Elementary School staff and the AFJROTC students doing their community service project.
We knew that we could rely on the ‘old faithful’ – the SHAPE Hive, Thrift Shop and Grandma’s Attic at Chièvres, as well as individual toy donations. So you are probably asking yourselves, what was the problem? Well my good friends, the problem seems to be the same the world over - demand exceeds supply. No matter how we try there are always some poor people who don’t seem to get on the band wagon and they get left behind and get nothing, and when it comes to children, especially at Christmas, this hurts.
We seemed to have reached all our goals when my phone rang asking if we could help with more food and gifts. We made an urgent appeal from the Chapel Centre and within hours the phone started ringing again but this time with good people making donations. Then one particular call came from Mrs Shivnen, the US NMR’s wife, asking if I could give a small speech to the SHAPE Officers Wives’ Club. When I arrived I hadn’t a clue what to expect but soon found myself surrounded by two-hundred-and-forty lovely ladies, all in their Sunday best, and each with a new gift for the children in our appeal. This was the icing on the cake: our toy drive was now complete and all we needed was extra food.
The following day the phone rang again and this time it was one of the Spanish ladies telling me that she had put over fifty boxes of candy and cereals in our charity garage and with the extra food I had received this meant that our worries were over. We had enough food to feed 300 children and the gospel truth is that I didn’t think that we could do it. Once again though, when the going got tough the good people from SHAPE and Chièvres rallied ‘round and saved the day.
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There are so many people and so many nationalities concerned that it would be impossible to mention you all, but you all have the satisfaction of knowing that your efforts have made lots of poor people and their children very happy. What else can I say but, on behalf of the Sisters of Charity, thank you all very much, and may God bless you always,