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.

That Good Old Operation Holiday

Photo by Evan Brandt

Smale's Printery printed these up for us.

It's been a rough year.

So it's not always easy to get into the holiday spirit.

But one thing never fails, even if decorating the tree, putting out the nutcrackers, going on the Holiday House Tour, or going to the school holiday concert, does.

Mercury Photographer Kevin Hoffman

looks cheered up too.

Operation Holiday never fails to cheer me up.

For those of you who don't know, and it should be just a few of you, Operation Holiday is The Mercury's annual drive to raise money to provide gifts and food to needy families during the holidays.

Social service agencies, school districts, hospitals, food pantries provide a list of names of people they know are struggling and we call them up and interview them.

We write their stories and this, apparently, inspires a community that arguably does not have much to share, to give generously.

All kinds of folks work behind the scenes to make it happen including a lady named, I am not kidding you, Sue Klaus.

So yes, as editor Nancy March put it in her talk the food pack-up volunteers Thursday, "it is not lost on us that the person who keeps track of the list is a person whose e-mail is sklaus..."

Then comes the big day, when all the food provided by Weiss Markets is packed into two sets of boxes for delivery to the referring agencies, who in turn pass it on -- along with $75 gift certificates for each child -- to this year's families.

This year, that day was Thursday.

Here is some video:

Pottstown High School student government, after the work is done.

My son and I have been volunteering with the food pack-up since he was old enough to put  a ham in a box and now he is one of the teenagers who come each year from Pottstown High School student government to help out.

(Of course now that he's a teenager, I mostly have to pretend I don't know him, but that's just par for the course. He's still here doing it and that's what counts.)

This year we also got help from students from Pottsgrove High School, Pope John Paul II and St. Joe's.

This is not to mention all The Mercury employees and their families who unfailingly lend a hand.

So it worked.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Santa's High School Helpers

From left, high school students Becky McCloy, Jake Gery, Sage Reinhart, Kelsey Shumaker, Derek Beyer, Nate Flickinger shown here at Lincoln Elementary School.

Blogger's Note: Before the holidays are too far away in the rearview mirror, let's dish out a little more credit courtesy of John Armato.

We all know that Christmas is a busy and hectic time for Santa. 

This year, he received helped from members of the Pottstown High School’s Student Government.

First graders throughout the district were encouraged to write letters to Santa. 

Members of Student Government then helped Santa by writing individual and personal response letters to each student which they hand delivered and read to students throughout the district. 

In addition to Santa’s response letter, each student received a candy cane and reindeer food to help guide the reindeer to their houses on Christmas night.

Mark Agnew, sponsor of Student Government, said, “I am so proud of the members of Student Government who came up with this idea on their own. They spent a lot of time doubling as Santa’s helpers in writing response letters to the students.”

Kelsey Shumaker, one of Santa’s helpers said, “I’m not sure who was more excited the first grade students or us when we had the opportunity to read Santa’s letters and handout his gifts. It was great knowing that the students went home that day looking forward to a visit from Santa.” 

Mercury Photo by John Strickler

Students from Pottstown High School student government also

helped pack up food for needy families during The Mercury's

Operation Holiday.

Student Government members taking part included: Becky McCloy, Jake Gery, Sage Reinhart, Kelsey Shumaker, Derek Beyer, Nate Flickinger.

Blogger's Other Note: I hasten to note here that this was not the student government's only contribution to holiday spirit. 

I worked alongside most of them just a few days before Christmas when they arrived once again to help the staff of volunteers from The Mercury and elsewhere to pack up the meals for Operation Holiday.