Children from low-income Hollister families were treated to an
early Christmas Saturday by 250 facsimiles of Santa Claus.
Children from low-income Hollister families were treated to an early Christmas Saturday by 250 facsimiles of Santa Claus.
Armed with $16,350 in donations – enough to allow $75 for each child – volunteer organization Small Steps provided new winter jackets and shoes for 218 kids at the group’s fifth annual shopping spree at the Hollister Target and Payless Shoe stores.
“The community really came through for us, as usual,” coordinator Sally Silva said. “What’s that saying? ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ – and we’ve got a pretty good village.”
Small Steps actually raised $19,500 through community donations, Silva said, but 42 children who were invited to the shopping spree did not attend. That’s a typical number, Silva said, but she lamented that the 42 did not get new winter clothes.
On the bright side of the no-shows, Small Steps already has $3,150 for next year’s shopping spree.
Major donors included Milgard Windows and the Hollister Rotary Club, which gave $1,000 from the funds the club raised by hosting the beer garden during the Hollister Independence Rally. Many other large donations came anonymously to Small Steps’ headquarters at Bianchi, Lorincz and Co., Silva said.
“You’d be surprised how many of them are anonymous,” she said.
Among the record number of volunteers who accompanied the children – each had an escort – were several San Benito High School seniors, including members of the Haybaler football team who split their day between community service in the morning and a game against North Salinas High School in the evening.
New hands for the cause were lent this year by “Kids in the Community,” a group of Gavilan College students who adopted Small Steps as a community service project for their communications class. Not satisfied to work only at Saturday’s event, the group plans a fundraiser this month for next year’s shopping spree.
“That’s the most volunteers we’ve ever had,” Silva said. “It was wonderful; they filled a lot of roles. Those of us on the board didn’t have to have specific jobs. We were able to troubleshoot and whatnot.”
Small Steps was formed in 1998 when a group of former Hollister Jaycees decided to continue the disbanded organization’s tradition of taking underprivileged children shopping near Christmas for jackets and shoes. With money still in the bank designated for the Jaycees’ project, Small Steps took 89 children on its first shopping spree that year.
