Seeking 8,000 Christmas gifts

By Christina Galeone
CFP Correspondent

Deacon Walter Doyle, the co-founder with his wife, Kathy Doyle, of Urban Missionaries of Our Lady of Hope, has seen the apostolate’s Christmas Giving Program help many people. He’s grateful to have served – through the generosity of the community – every family. But there are some families that remind him how vital the program is.
One of those families reached out to the program a couple of years ago. When a local low-income woman sought Christmas gifts for her sons, she confided to Deacon Doyle that she had just learned that she had cancer and didn’t know how advanced it was. He reassured her that the program would provide gifts for her boys. He also told her that he would personally deliver them, so she wouldn’t have to worry about being able to pick them up. When he brought the mom the presents, along with a little gift for her, he could see how ill she had become.
Although, tragically, she passed away from Stage 4 brain cancer less than two weeks later, the program allowed her to give special gifts to her sons for their last Christmas together.  The apostolate also helped give the woman a proper burial. 
“This program gives just a little bit of the light of Christ in the world,” Deacon Doyle said. “A little bit of happiness.” And he refuses to let the COVID-19 pandemic interfere with that good work.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, the apostolate is expecting to officially launch this year’s Christmas Giving Program. Deacon Doyle hopes that Catholics in the Worcester Diocese will once again support the apostolate in providing 7,000 to 8,000 gifts for local children in need.
 Founded in 1979, the apostolate and Catholic social action ministry provides vocational, educational, mentoring and re-settlement programs and services for struggling refugees and immigrants. It also runs a thrift shop that offers inexpensive clothing and household items and a food pantry. Its Christmas Giving Program originally helped four families and has grown to help around 1,500 local families that are struggling financially.
In a normal year, the program provides two or three gifts for each child by partnering with 54 parishes that receive gift tags with the parents’ requests for their children. The gift requests are then plucked from church giving trees by parishioners. Finally, around 20 apostolate volunteers and four trucks are used to pick up the gifts and bring them to a distribution center where more than 100 volunteers sort, bag and prepare the gifts to be picked up by the families.
But this year, the program faces significant challenges. Economic instability and decreased outreach to parishioners due to the pandemic could result in a higher number of unfilled gift requests. Pandemic fears are already causing a decrease in the number of volunteers and participating churches.
“Life goes on,” Deacon Doyle said, explaining that some people the program helps will be sick, some will have lost their jobs, and some won’t know if they’ll still have jobs at the end of each week. “We want to put everything on hold. We can’t. People still need help.”
This year, everything is being done differently. Parents requesting gifts for their children are doing so over more days. They’ll also pick up the gifts via curbside pick-up. Instead of having crowds of volunteers, only five to 10 masked, socially distanced volunteers will be able to process the gifts at one time. And instead of choosing gifts from church giving trees, parishioners can visit the Christmas Giving Program page online, www.urbanmissionaries.com/virtual-giving-tree-sign-ups/, and request gift tags. They’ll have the option of dropping off the gifts at participating parishes or having them shipped to the apostolate. The apostolate has also set up a Go Fund Me campaign, www.urbanmissionaries.com/christmas-giving-2020-go-fund-me/, for people to give a financial gift.
Deacon Doyle, who said he understands that the churches are in a difficult situation, wants people to know that there’s nothing to be afraid of when proper precautions are taken.
“There’s an awful lot of fear out there,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean you have to stop everything.”
Deacon Doyle said that he’s thankful to everyone who has supported the apostolate’s Christmas Giving Program, and he hopes additional churches will participate. Ultimately, he’s very hopeful that the program will have another successful year.
“The people in the churches have always risen to the occasion whenever we ask for stuff,” he shared. His faith in God’s goodness gives him confidence as well. “He has provided for us for 41 years. We’ve gotten everything we needed right on time.”