Christmas over Kaufman
Father W. P. Pechal, Council 11721 Kaufman, Texas December, 2018 Beginning in early October, Council 11721 with help of the St. Ann’s Catholic Church staff and other concerned agencies and individuals, begin collecting the names of families in need of help with their Christmas celebrations due to poverty, disability along with other reasons. A sign-up sheet is filled out by each family to find out what the family needs in the way of toys for the Children. The sheet includes the sex, age, and special needs of the children; e.g. a mentally challenged boy of 15 who has a mental capacity of a 9 year old is given toys for his mental age (normally children over 12 are not given toys). The names of potential recipients were entered into the Salvation Army Holiday Clearinghouse. This clearinghouse is part of the project which helps prevent a duplication of efforts across organizations and enables more families to be served during the holiday season.
After Thanksgiving, the Knights in partnership with Marine Corps “Toys for Tots” campaign begin collecting toys for the Children. All toys are turned over to the Marine Corps for distribution across a large group of selected organizations.
On December 20th, the Knights went to the “Toys for Tots” depot to get their distribution of toys. The Knights took the toys to the St. Ann’s Parish center where the toys were sorted by age and sex, then displayed on tables. On December 21st, toys were numbered & bagged by family for distribution on the 22nd. In addition to the toys, the Knights quietly purchased 82 turkeys, 150 lbs. of potatoes, 50 lbs. of Onions, 164 cans of green beans, 164 cans of corn, 420 apples and oranges, 82 packages of dinner rolls and 164 boxes of Mac & Cheese, which was then distributed to each family for Christmas dinner, costing $1,627.00. Council 11721, Christmas over Kaufman, distributed 900 toys, complete Christmas meals to 82 families or 420 people.