This Christmas season members and friends of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Wyndham and Deer Park areas of Melbourne have joined together to provide 316 Christmas children's gifts to families in need.
Volunteers collect and sort donated gifts for children in families experiencing tough times this Christmas season. December 2021. Melbourne, Australia.
Volunteers collect and sort donated gifts for children in families experiencing tough times this Christmas season. December 2021. Melbourne, Australia.© 2021 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Donated gifts were dropped off at local Latter-day Saint meetinghouses and then delivered to Melbourne Tautoko Whanau (MTW), a charity that supports local families with food parcels twice a week, throughout the year.
MTW have identified an increase in families' needs coming into Christmas each year and work hard to support these growing needs. MTW saw a need in those families, with children especially, to have a little gift to open on Christmas Day.
A gift drive culminated in the delivery of all accumulated gifts on 15 December to MTW in Brooklyn, Victoria. They are now being distributed to families that seek help from MTW this Christmas.
Local missionaries gathered to help unload and organise the presents into age groups.
According to local Latter-day Saint leader, Emmanuel Richards, there was "a wonderful feeling of love" as volunteers "shared what they could to lift the lives of those who may need a little support this Christmas."
Several participants shared their feelings about their expereinces:
“I didn’t expect to feel so engaged in purchasing our presents, it made me remember when my children were that age and the memories from that time touched my heart. I wanted the children receiving these gifts to be as happy as my children, I got gifts to bring the children joy.”
“We were asked to get the gifts for our ward, 13 girls and 13 boys gifts, we went to lots of shops and couldn’t find what we felt was right. We went to another store and I found a car set that felt right. Whilst standing there looking at this set, a worker came and brought a box full of these car sets. With that box full and the one on the shelf we had exactly the 13 we needed. It was a small miracle that meant so much to us. We had fulfilled our assignment and felt the spirit guiding us along the way, the Lord blessed our efforts.”
“We wanted to participate in the gift drive because we felt that our own Christmas preparation had been lacking that special feeling that Christmas normally brings. We talked about the age group assigned in our family council, our children felt they knew exactly what to get. We went shopping and couldn’t find what the kids had wanted to buy. At home that night the idea changed to making the gift because we couldn’t find it. We made the gift together and that feeling we couldn’t find before seemed to build as we engaged as a family. We love the feeling that now saturates our home, thank you for this opportunity to serve and give from our hearts.”
“We wanted the children receiving these gifts to enjoy them as much as our children did at that age. We shopped for joy, not just gifts, it was an amazing and uplifting experience, to be focused on bringing joy to others this Christmas.”