


HOMELESSNESS

Event helps families with gift giving
Union Station Homeless Services holds holiday market

Volunteer Tom DeSanto, right, helps families gather gifts for their children during Pasadena’s Union Station Homeless Services holiday market Wednesday. Anthony Bacon, left, was picking gifts for his four children and Anna Almaraz was getting gifts for her daughter. Photos by Sarah Reingewirtz — staff photographer

Volunteers wrap gifts during Pasadena’s Union Station Homeless Services holiday market Wednesday. The event also included holiday music and dinner.
Pasadena’s leading homeless service provider, Union Station Homeless Services, held a holiday market Wednesday bringing together participants from Union Station’s housing programs for a day filled with crafts, cookie decorating, holiday music and dinner.
The event, at the nonprofit’s Family Center, gave parents and guardians a chance to select donated gifts for their children. The gifts were collected through the organization’s annual Holiday Drive.
This will provide them with a shopping experience they might otherwise be unable to afford or would have to manage within limited budgets, officials at the nonprofit said.