It has been six decades since the Globe Santa program took wing, and sadly, the number of people asking for help has grown almost sixfold.
With five week to go for this season, Santa’s mail bin is filling up with requests from families who are struggling to make ends meet and still provide presents for their children on Christmas Day.
One young mother from a North Shore community had her hands full with her own three children, she wrote, before circumstances forced her to accept guardianship of her sister’s four children, two of whom are teenagers and have passed the age to be eligible for presents from Globe Santa.
She is asking if she can obtain gifts for the remaining five kids, who are all under 10 years of age. She is fighting mightily, she wrote, to maintain both stability and a happy home, particularly since her nieces and nephews have suffered in recent years looking on as their mother battles drug addiction.
“I had to jump in and take them no matter how much of a struggle it would be,’’ she wrote.“So this year any help will make a great big difference.’’
With the state preparing to take custody of her sister’s children, she stepped in to keep them together, an act of kindness that has paid dividends for her extended family while at the same time making it that much harder to provide the essentials of food, clothing, and a decent place to live.
There is nothing left over for extras, she wrote, even for the holidays, adding that she has no regrets about asking for help in getting some gifts to put under the family tree on Christmas Day.
The five children in her care will be among the tens of thousands who will receive a visit this season from Globe Santa, a program of The Boston Globe Foundation. The generosity of individuals, groups, and local businesses that donate to the holiday drive is what helps to fill Santa’s sleigh. Please consider donating today.
Stories about participants in the Globe Santa program will continue daily through Christmas Day. Listings of contributors to the fund will be published every day beginnning early next month.
Christopher Tangney can be reached at ctangney22@hot-mail.com.
