PROSPECT HEIGHTS — The Christmas season was once again a little bit brighter for children and families in the Diocese of Brooklyn and beyond, thanks to the generosity of Tablet readers who heeded the call to help the less fortunate.
Every year, The Tablet runs the “Bright Christmas” campaign to ensure that as many children as possible receive a Christmas gift. This year, the campaign raised $102,786.29.
The donations helped schools, churches, and organizations in the Diocese of Brooklyn provide children and families with a memorable Christmas.
At Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills, Father Francis Passenant invited his parishioners to contribute to a second collection for Bright Christmas and vowed to match those contributions personally.
“I said, ‘I’m throwing the gauntlet out to you, so instead of throwing a dollar, throw in a 20. Instead of a five, throw in a 10,’ and it ended up being $995,” Father Passenant said.
He rounded that up to $1,000 and then added $1,001 of his own money, bringing the total to $2,001. When asked about the significance of his adding the dollar, Father Passenant laughed and recalled the days when The Tablet would print the amount each parish gave and how adding the extra dollar would put his parish in the higher bracket.
Among the Diocese of Brooklyn churches and parishes receiving Bright Christmas funds were St. Michael-St. Malachy in East New York, the Shrine of Our Lady of Solace in Coney Island, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Jamaica, and the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph-St. Teresa Avila in Prospect Heights, where Father Christopher Heanue said the money was used to buy gifts for the children of the parish to celebrate the Three Kings Day feast and to help aid individual families who are struggling financially.
Bright Christmas offered a glimmer of hope for the families at St. Michael and St. Malachy Parish. The parish’s director of religious education, Vanessa Garcia-Pinedo, said that the campaign is a blessing to the parish community.
“Bright Christmas has been a great blessing to us just being able to provide gifts for families in our parish as well as the migrant community who are in need,” Garcia-Pinedo said. “It means so much to us because it gives families a glimmer of hope and a sense of relief that their kids are going to be able to celebrate Christmas one way or another.”
At the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Solace in Coney Island, the goal was to provide toys for underprivileged children at their annual Christmas celebration. Maria Garces, the parish’s religious education coordinator, also said Bright Christmas was a blessing.
“It’s all about putting a smile on a child’s face,” Garces said while noting they want the “children to feel it in their hearts through our teaching and our love.”
With the help of Bright Christmas funds, the parish held a surprise celebration for students after Sunday school class. The children who otherwise might not receive Christmas gifts were given toys and goodie bags.
The Bright Christmas donations also helped soup kitchens and family shelters receive a hot meal, clothes, and a gift on Christmas. Thomas Neve, founder and executive director of Reaching-Out Community Services, called it “the most wonderful time of the year for more than 600 children who received toys and met with Santa thanks to the generosity of The Tablet readers.”
Make a Difference Christmas co-founder Thomas Flood recalled when a 12-year-old girl asked the organization for oil for Christmas. Flood said he initially thought she was referring to body oil or oil for a diffuser. As it turned out, the girl meant oil for her home because they had no heat or hot water.
“So on Christmas Eve, we had 60 gallons of heating oil delivered,” Flood said.
That is just one example he shared of how Make a Difference Christmas has helped children and families over the years. Flood and Ann Turner founded the organization 29 years ago to collect and distribute Christmas gifts and essential items for children and families in need.
Last year, with the help of donations from Bright Christmas and others, the organization delivered gifts to 1,000 children. In addition, it provided 300 children with hats, gloves, socks, shoes or sneakers, two outfits, two pajamas, and one wish list item — ranging from a Barbie doll to a train set.
Sister Annelle Fitzpatrick of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, a religious community of over 500 Catholic women and 500 lay associates who live and minister in the U.S. and around the world, said that the sisters were grateful for the Bright Christmas funds they received, which allowed refugee children from Ukraine and Afghanistan to have a joyous Christmas.
It’s not too late to help Bright Christmas, which has raised over $1.6 million over the past 10 years. Any additional funds received will be added to next year’s campaign.