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Live United by Erin Haag

I spent last weekend working with board members, volunteers and donors to finish up Jingle families. We were fortunate enough to have volunteers to donate or shop for our families. Monday, we had additional donors walk into the door, bring us hugs and coffee gift cards and a donation for Jingle. We worked our way through our list and hauled out boxes through the snow and filled cars of social workers.

On Tuesday, the cracks were starting to show in my team. While the pantry was challenging and overwhelming in the beginning, we hit our stride, and by the end of the night we had exactly three bags of frozen chicken and a small box of oranges left. As the pantry was ending, Nikolle got a text. A school social worker called us about two families that she had just learned fell through the cracks. Little boys, 7 and 8 years old with nothing for Christmas. The other family, little boys at 11 and 7. We were already working on another last-minute request to help a mother in a domestic violence situation. Our issue wasn’t even so much finding adopters or funding, thanks to amazing community members that made sure this wasn’t an issue. The issue was more finding the physical time to go and shop, and being able to find needed sizes in stock locally. A late evening trip to Whimzy stocked us up on the toy items. Our Jingle families need more than toys though. They needed basic items such as clothing, boots, winter coats. Our Winter Gear Drive stock was low. We texted late into the night, talking about All. The. Things. I sent a text to a couple of beloved volunteers, asking if they could help us with the running around to deliver items. Such a lot to pack into three days, with an impending blizzard.

Wednesday is when the magic happened.

I started my day with a stop at Arcadian Bank, picking up a few coats and a pair of boots. I stopped by the post office on my way back and had two big boxes waiting for me.

Our beloved volunteers came through the door, bringing us a good dose of holiday cheer, willingness to help and a whatever-you-need attitude. They brought us coffee and me a reindeer drink. (steamed milk with vanilla — I had no idea it had a name either).

The doorbell kept ringing. Almco brought us coats from their internal winter gear drive. The coats were brand new, beautiful colors. Perfect size for one of the girls in our Jingle family.

We opened up the boxes I picked up at the post office. Socks. New socks, collected from the United Methodist churches in Cresco, Iowa. Socks was written on every single remaining Jingle wish list. Over the weekend, one of my board members had shopped for socks, and they were hard to find in some places.

The doorbell rang again. A local business was dropping off a collection of gifts and gift cards. These gift cards were added to family adoptions, so they could shop for food and winter coats.

A social worker called. Two boys needed boots and winter coats. We gulped and went back. We had two nice heavyweight coats, ones that were a little more teenager style. The boots I picked up at Arcadian Bank that morning? They were the size needed. We packed up the box and sent it over to the high school.

We had made a promise to ourselves that we were going to lunch, we were going to celebrate the holidays with each other. Of course, we got a text as we headed out the door. Did we have another coat? The social worker will pick it up. Sure! We have it! We’ll be at the 112. We’re keeping our promise to each other. Nikolle ran out into the falling snow to meet the social worker but hopped right back to our table. We looked at each other and said, “We did it.”

I need to check, but I believe we wound up filling 17 Jingle families, three of which we learned about this week. We had a huge stack of papers of needs filled for Winter Gear Drive. We hosted our last Welcome Pantry of 2022 and made progress on our plans for the new location.

We delivered boxes to homebound seniors from both the NAPS program and the Welcome Pantry. We hugged social workers, we cried, we laughed and we hit up McDonald’s and shoved food at each other because that was the only way we stopped long enough to eat. Nikolle and Heidi drank lots of coffee. I drank my Reindeer and a lot of Coco Cola.

Now, it’s our time of quiet. Our office is closed through Jan 6. Our team will be taking a deep breath, staying warm, snuggling our children, watering our plants and nourishing our bodies, physically and mentally. We’re not quite MIA, as we’ll still be checking the mail, our phone messages for urgent items, and that sort of thing. We have big dreams for 2023, and we’re resting up for another busy year.

If you’re hoping to make a charitable contribution for 2022, know that it’s not too late! Any donations postmarked by December 31st, 2022 is eligible. We will answer questions or make arrangements to meet donors if needed, so please give us a call at 507-373-8670 and leave a message, or email director@unitedwayfc.org.

For those of you that have already contributed, and all of the encouragement, volunteering, warm drinks and support, we thank you, because this year could not have happened without you. I’m proud of the work we’ve done this year, and so appreciative of the support we’ve received. As we head into the holiday weekend, know that we’re thankful for each and every one of you. Thank you for giving where you live, today and every day.

Erin Haag is the executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.