This week, we’ve been extra busy trying to send Bright Christmas checks to parishes and programs that help the needy of Brooklyn and Queens celebrate Christmas.
Our goal every year is to make sure that no child goes without a gift this Christmas. Thanks to the generosity of The Tablet readers, we have received almost $70,000, but that falls short of the $115,000 we distributed last year.
There are still envelopes to open and donations to count, but if you have not made your donation yet, please do so quickly. We want to help as many people as possible.
The requests for funds that we’ve received are the best incentive to donate. The Boys Hope Girls Hope helps “motivated children-in-need to meet their full potential.” They offer children a family-like home, access to quality schools and educational support. In their letter to The Tablet, they say:
“Every year during the holiday season, your generous gift on behalf The Tablet enables us to provide our scholars with holiday gifts that express how proud we are of their hard work and commitment to the standards of our program and their own success. Without the commitment and dedication from supporters like you, the resources and support we are able to offer our 80 scholars in residence would not be possible, and we are thrilled to have you as part of the Boys Hope Girls Hope family.”
Another request came from St. John’s Bread & Life, a Brooklyn-based non-profit serving over 2,500 meals to hungry New Yorkers daily. “We hope very much,” the request letter states, “that The Tablet will be able to send us a donation so we can share the joy of Christmas with our neighbors in need.”
And this is indeed the essence of this campaign – to share the joy of Christmas with our neighbors in need. We celebrate with family and friends the birth of Jesus Christ. We should not forget that Jesus was born in extreme poverty, in a stable where Joseph and Mary took refuge because “there was no room for them in the inn.”
Sharing what have with those less fortunate is the best way to express “the Christmas spirit.” That is what many of our readers are doing and we thank each of you for your support and generosity. Every dollar, every quarter counts.
One of the best things about the editor’s job is reading the letters of request and the donors’ letters. I would like to share one of them with you. A gentleman, living now far from Brooklyn, sent us a small donation – and a beautiful letter. “As a kid in Brooklyn,” he writes, “I delivered The Tablet every Saturday morning for years; and then, having eventually moved to Virginia, I subscribed … until at one point it stopped coming, probably because I never saw a renewal notice.”
Last month he received an invitation to donate to the Bright Christmas campaign. And now we have received his donation together with his request to renew his subscription to The Tablet. To paraphrase Bogart in Casablanca, I think this is the new beginning of a beautiful friendship.
If you haven’t sent your donation yet, please send it today. Simply make out your check to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas and mail it to me at The Tablet, 1712 Tenth Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11215.