More than a 1,000 families in the Kansas City metro in need this year will have a Christmas.
As part of its annual giving project, the City Union Mission packed up and delivered 16,000 presents with the help of a thousand volunteers on Christmas Eve.
Around 550 families qualified for the 2015 Mission: Christmas this year. They shopped around the Mission store last month for presents all donated by the Kansas City community.
Another 650 families qualified for the No Family Forgotten program, which helps those who didn’t anticipate being homeless or needing help this holiday season.
Volunteers pulled up in their cars to the Community Assistance Center on 8th street in KCMO, loaded up the cars with presents and a Christmas dinner, including a turkey and fixings.
“We just continue to be thrilled that Kansas City is such a generous community. We’ve been here 91 years at City Union Mission and we try to meet the needs of the community,” Development Director Dennis Chapman said. “And as identifying this as a need, it’s awesome to watch people get excited to catch the vision to give to others.”
The people who have made volunteering a Christmas Eve tradition say it’s about making a connection.
Eric Oberly and his three girls dedicated their time and say they just want to give back.
“It was really heartwarming to know that a lot of people are struggling this time of year and if there’s anything we can do to try to make their experience better we’re happy to do that,” Oberly said. “Just the smiles on their faces. We’ve been invited inside people’s homes to just talk to them a little bit about Christmas and their holiday. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Presents are also going out to kids in the mission’s youth group, nursing homes, folks at the homeless shelters, and inmates at Jackson County jails.
