|
Each year, community members like yourself donate hundreds of toys, books, clothing items, and more to disadvantaged families through Inland Empire United Way's annual Holiday Program. This year, we asked Rhonda Blake of the Ontario-Montclair School District to describe the impact such donations make in the lives of local children. She told us the story of Angelica, whose Christmas was saved in 2010 by the generosity of the local community:
"Last year, some of the donations were used to help Angelica, the daughter of a single mother named Julie. On December 4th, Julie got into a bad car accident that left her in a coma for several days. Angelica's grandmother flew in from Hawaii to take care of the little girl, but with the family's only source of income now in the hospital, they struggled financially to make ends meet. What made it worse was that all this happened right around Christmas. Even after the people at Julie's work helped pay [the family's] rent, there was no money left to give Angelica any Christmas gifts."
That's when the IEUW Holiday Program stepped in, distributing donated gifts to Angelica, her mother, and her grandmother. Rhonda remembers the reaction
of Angelica's grandmother:
"[She] was in tears when she found out one of the groups with United Way had adopted their family for Christmas. She said, 'I did not know how I was going to tell my granddaughter that we had no money to buy gifts and that Santa was not stopping at our house this year.' But she didn't have to worry about that. When Julie finally was allowed to go home, which was two days before Christmas, they all found a Christmas tree full of gifts at home. And all these items had been provided by a kind family through United Way."
Thank you for helping to bring joy to families this season and throughout the year!
| 
