Operation Holiday Delivers Holiday Cheer Every Year

Photos by Evan Brandt

Volunteers inside The Mercury celebrate the packing of the last box Thursday morning. About 300 boxes of food were distributed to needy families Thursday.

I have struggled to find the holiday spirit this year.

What with what my sister calls "the world on fire blues," having to scrap one of my family's two vehicles and an invasion of squirrels who gained entry to my attic by chewing through the wood of my house and making their home in our Christmas decorations, is all making it hard to be merry.

I tried "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "Charlie Brown Christmas" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." ( Usually save "It's a Wonderful Life" for Christmas Eve.)

I was prepared to cue up Dylan Thomas reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales" after listening to some of my Christmas CDs, which my son, the Welsh poet's namesake, insists are too numerous to be normal, failed to snap me out of my funk.

Since he was small, Dylan and I have always volunteered together for pack-up day at The Mercury's Operation Holiday. It's one of our family traditions.

But college and a calculus final kept us apart this year, so I was prepared to be moping around yesterday morning.

But instead, a coffee and doughnut later, I caught myself unconsciously whistling carols as I packed up a stream of about 300 boxes with cans of chicken soup and loaves of bread.

It is also an annual tradition that I take a photo of
former Mercury Editor Nancy March with a cup of coffee
after we have finished box 1 and box is being set up,
"so you can make it seem like I'm not working,"
she complains each year.

I looked up and saw a dozen or so Pottstown High School students who could have been hanging out with friends, or going to class.

But who instead, they chose to stand in a cold distribution area and pack boxes coming down an assembly line so their neighbors would have a holiday meal on Christmas.

I guess it's true what they say about traditions of giving.

It's a tradition that the Pottstown area has sustained for nearly 40 years.

So far, Mercury readers have donated $18,000 to Operation Holiday, chasing last year's total of about $30,000

Those boxes we packed yesterday will help ensure 147 households, with 412 children, struggling have something to eat on Christmas.

And the $100 Boscov's gift cards for each of those children under 17 will ensure there is something under the tree for them on Christmas morning.

But former editor Nancy March, who was here for the very first Operation Holiday, puts it best in her well-practiced pep talk before the packing starts:




"There's a lot of need in this community and this program really helps the children in need to have at least a bright moment or two on the holidays," she said.

How could that not put you in the holiday spirit?

Here are some Tweets from a fun morning.