Photos courtesy of St. Brigid of Kildare
When Lisa Redd and her family moved to Dublin from California 10 years ago, she wanted to become more involved in her new parish of St. Brigid of Kildare, where her four children attended school.
She quickly decided to help out with the church’s Giving Trees program. A decade later, now in her fourth year as coordinator of the project, Redd says her entire family has come to cherish the holiday outreach project.
“This project has been a wonderful experience for my family by allowing us to provide for others and enjoying our time together,” she says.
The basic idea behind the project at St. Brigid is one seen at numerous churches across the country. Community members can select paper ornaments from one of the five trees available in the church, purchase the listed gift and then return the gift to the parish.
The Giving Trees project at St. Brigid provides different colored and shaped ornaments depending on which organization the gift is sent to.
For example, a gift request on a blue star paper ornament benefits Kentucky Mission, a ministry that helps the local residents of Booneville, Ky. One on a brown house benefits the Heinzerling Foundation, which serves Columbus residents with mental disabilities.
A total of eight organizations this year will be assisted: Holy Family Soup Kitchen, St. Stephen’s Community House, St. Vincent Family Center, St. Lawrence Haven, Kentucky Mission, Heinzerling Foundation, Gladden Community House and the St. Brigid emergency fund.
On Dec. 4, the church and its team of volunteers accept any last-minute gift drop-offs. Then, they check each item to ensure that the recipients receive what they asked for.
Finally, volunteers shop for any items for which ornaments were taken but no gift was dropped off.
After all of this is done, the gifts are given to the various organizations and outreach programs. Last year the Giving Trees were able to provide approximately 1,800 gifts to those at need in or near the Dublin community.
The project’s main goal is to provide children of low-income families with toys for the holiday season. But secondary goals are to “provide household and food items for families and gifts for adults with special needs,” says Redd.
Giving Trees is just one of more than a dozen programs of St. Brigid’s Social Action Committee, whose mission, according to its website, “is to coordinate programs and donations for alleviating human suffering and outreach targeting to the needy in the parish community, the Dublin area and greater Columbus area.”
As for the Giving Trees program itself, Redd says families and individuals being able to share their blessings with those less fortunate during the Christmas season is what makes it such a valuable service to the community.
“My favorite part of the project is witnessing the generosity of the members of our parish and the joy that is shared among those participating in sharing the spirit of Christmas with others,” Redd says.
Zachary Konno is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
