There is hope…

 

Today, just one week away from Thanksgiving, I’m smiling today because I had a lovely evening and to be quite honest, it gave me hope.

This week, it looks there are several potential vaccines for this dreaded COVID-19. Now, I also know that it isn’t happening tomorrow, but it does appear to have promise and I find hope in that. It doesn’t mean my disappointment about the holidays has disappeared, but it gives me hope that sometime soon, we will be able to get vaccinated and be together again!  Maybe we’ll have turkey for Easter with several people around the table! A girl can hope, right?

My true hope comes from my experience last night. As you know, I work for a small non-profit that provides tuition assistance to about 70 families, around 100 students. Our organization tries to build community amongst the families, and with the donors, by having a Thanksgiving celebration each year. The celebration would normally consist of a catered meal by a local business…with all the Thanksgiving favorites. There would be activities for the kids and socializing that involved the families mingling among their benefactors and the donors seeing the families that are supported with their dollars. It’s a comfortable event and a lovely way to celebrate.

This year, sadly, this was just another casualty of COVID-19. However, we felt like we needed to come up with a different plan…leaving these families with nothing just didn’t feel right. After some careful planning, we had a new plan…. a Drive-Thru Thanksgiving!  With the cooperation of a generous caterer and one of the foundations that we work with, the meals would be donated! We decided we would have them prepare a “ready to eat” dinner for the families. They would “drive-thru” at the front of our building and we’d deliver the treats to their cars.

With the plan in place and the logistics worked out, we scheduled the event for November 17 (last night). Each family would receive their ready to eat dinner, along with a bag of Thanksgiving crafts, a letter and prayer card from a local girl’s high school and a Christmas ornament from us.

Late last week, we received three bins of Halloween candy collected at one of the elementary schools. We had no idea what we would do with it. Then, we decided to fill up some bags and throw in a bag of candy with each carload of people.

The food arrived in a timely fashion by three pickup trucks, and six smiling men. They each commented about how this event was always one of their favorites and they were sorry they couldn’t be there with the people. We thanked them for their generosity, and we were ready for the first car to pull up. Young men from a local high school signed up be our runners and they were ready to go.

The first few cars pulled up, right at 6pm…we loaded them up and added the jug of iced tea that the caterer decided was a must! The gratitude shown by each carload of people was heartwarming. The young men felt especially helpful and loved! Each of them, smiling with their eyes and behind their masks.

We took pictures and socially distanced. We served our neighbors. We found grace in the gratitude shown by all. It was a good night.

Although this drive-thru alone was a much-needed lift for me, my conversations with these young men is where I found my hope. Each of them was courteous and helpful. I spoke to them about the transition to all online schooling which will begin next Monday for them. They were disappointed but understand that this is what needs to happen. They said they couldn’t wait for a vaccine. They are juniors in high school and two of them said, “I just hope we can start college in person!” They get it…they understand that unless we do the right thing, it’s not going to change. They were conscientious about their mask wearing, their hand sanitizing and how they were going to have to find ways to keep from going crazy during the next two months at home. But none of them was complaining. NOT ONE OF THEM said anything that I would have thought a spoiled 16/17-year-old might say. It was so refreshing, and it gave me hope.

We need to look to these young people (and our slightly older young people) to bring us hope. This event is real to them. They are seeing family members fall ill, they are fearful, and they want to do their part to make it change. I know they are out there, but last night, spending three hours with them was enough to make my heart swell and to give me the hope that sometimes is hard to find.

All of us talked about how our Thanksgivings would be small, but at least we’d have turkey. After seeing some of these families, I think they wondered if they would have a dinner like the one we served. There was compassion in their eyes. Again, they get it.

Hats off to the parents of these young men and all of those who are raising amazing young people.

Oh, I nearly forgot. This same boy’s school supports us during Christmas too. We collect letters to Santa and these young men prepare an angel tree, listing the gifts that these children want, and they provide the gifts. We host a Christmas party where the guys come and help Santa distribute the gifts to the children.

As you can imagine, with all online schooling, they will not be able to do this. They have offered to do a gift card collection in the spring, collecting gift cards for school supplies for next year. We are grateful for that and when the time comes, we will work together to make this happen.

However, Christmas is still on our radar. We had planned for a similar thing for the Christmas gifts, but it would involve the car pulling up and an elf asking the name of the children. The elf would then run and ask Santa if he had anything ready for the child. We’d dig around and find the gift and then provide a goodie bag and a gift card from Kroger for the family. It sounded perfect.

Now…that must change. The boys can’t be involved physically, but they will be writing personal notes (on behalf of Santa), telling the boys and girls that he can’t come to the party at Community Catholic Center this year so he wants them to have fun picking out a special gift. We will be providing a $20 gift card for each child, including siblings in the house who are not our students. We will also provide a gift card for the family. We’re choosing Walmart this year so parents can get gifts and/or food.

The funds for these gift cards will be a tight squeeze for our organization, but as luck would have it, our budget is looking great to date, so we’ll approach the Board, who will surely agree and the money will be there.

These boys volunteering to do this nearly made me cry. I wanted to hug them but instead I gave them turkey cookies and sent them on their way.

I hope you feel hopeful today. I’m sending you lots of love, because today, I have some to spare!!