Santa’s elves
Connie Vaughan
Caring Hearts & Hands of Quail Creek (CHHQC) wants to thank all the residents who participated once again in supporting a holiday gift drive for underserved South Tucson students (kindergarten through high school) with its partner Lapan. Lapan provides students from underserved communities with scholarships, mentorship, access to opportunities, and support for their often-overlooked additional needs. Lapan’s aim is to level the playing field and empower deserving students the opportunity to pursue their dreams of college or technical training through trade schools.
Due to the generosity of the Quail Creek “angels” (our residents), a record 166 students had a bright and merry holiday. Resident angels on average gifted $75 per child, demonstrating that Quail Creek is a caring and nurturing community. Gifts ranged from books, pajamas (Hello Kitty was especially popular for girls), toys, games, sporting equipment, and essentials such as winter coats and gloves. Gifts were dropped off on Dec. 7 and 8 at the Kino Conference Center, with a drive-thru service added this year. The Kino Conference Room was filled up with large holiday gift bags for each student, packed with their requested gifts, and additional wrapping paper. Caring Hearts & Hands volunteers (the elves) then went to work bundling all the gift packages into family units and placing the holiday gift bags in large black bags to be delivered to the 100 families that the children belong to.
In addition to the holiday gifts, Caring Hearts & Hands also provided a holiday meal to each family through the generous donations from the Quail Creek community and CHHQC selling handmade cards at the Fall Festival. Contents of the holiday meal included canned ham, vegetables, rice, beans, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pudding for dessert, and candy bags for the children.
The Caring Hearts & Hands elves made quick work of staging these packages for pick-up by Lapan employees under the direction of President Sue Ann Obremski, with committee leads Gail Boulet, Carol Richardson, and Caryl Reitinger in coordinating the work and elves. These four women gave up mornings, evenings, and weekends to organize the event, shop for food, and make sure all gifts were delivered by Dec. 9. Thank you, ladies!
Finally, Caring Hearts wants to send out a virtual hug and thanks to our residents who know how important Christmas gifts are to children and delivered, exceeding last year’s generosity.