STEAC STORIES

Special to The Enterprise

December 7, 2019

By Kelly Coleman Special to The Enterprise

The rain clouds took a break on Saturday morning to spread the warmth and joy of the holiday season to some very special Davis families. In what has become a Davis holiday tradition, STEAC, the Short Term Emergency Aid Committee, once again brought holiday cheer to more than 400 individuals and families through its annual Holiday Program.

On Saturday, Dec. 7, recipients lined up early under unexpectedly blue skies to receive gifts and food donated by Davis families, groups, and individuals who “adopted” them for the holidays.

Generous adopters from the surrounding community donated food, gifts, and money to make the holidays special for each low-income family who applied and accepted into the program. The distribution day was a festive event with music and Santa Claus handing out candy canes. Families were able to select children’s books as well as warm coats and knitted hats donated by local schools, churches and caring individuals. Families with children were also given handmade blankets as well as donated stuffed animals and Santa Kitties.

There are so many organizations and individuals to thank for their contributions for what is really a community effort.

STEAC is grateful to the staff and congregations of the Davis Lutheran Church and the First Baptist Church of Davis, which donated their facilities and grounds for multiple days to host STEAC Holiday Program volunteers as they conducted screening, and collection and distribution, respectively.

Adopted families in the STEAC Holiday Program also benefitted from the generous donations of gift cards from St. James Church parishioners and from the Salvation Army of Davis to be used for perishable groceries.

Numerous groups, individuals, and schools sponsored used coat or book drives — the schools included Birch Lane, Cesar Chavez, Korematsu, Montgomery, North Davis, Patwin, Pioneer, Willett, Emerson/DaVinci, Harper, Holmes, Davis Senior High School, DPNS at Danbury, and DPNS at 8th Street. Churches who collected for STEAC included First Baptist Church, Grace Valley Church, St Martin’s Episcopal Church, and Unity Center of Davis. Organizations and Businesses to thank for their donation drives include Lyon Real Estate, PrimeLending, Right & Relevant, Ink Monkey, The Friends of the Davis Library and UC Davis Fire Department.

Food donations to keep volunteers well-nourished were provided by Woodstock’s Pizza and Dos Coyotes.

Extra-special donations this year were the more than 300 handmade blankets from the blanketeers of the Project Linus of Yolo County Chapter and the many hand-knitted hats donated by several local knitting groups and individuals. Restored stuffed animals were donated by Nancy Keltner and more than 85 “Santa Kitties” were donated by Jeannette Lamar, both Davis residents.

A big thank you to the Davis Enterprise for being so responsive, publishing articles and supporting STEAC throughout the year.

Many individuals, families, groups and organizations banded together to support STEAC or adopt our 409 qualified individuals and families, which is at the heart of this neighbor-helping-neighbor program. And, as generous adopters delivered their food boxes and gifts this last week, they also dropped off an incredible 1,245 pounds of additional food that will support the Davis community beyond just this holiday season.

STEAC is grateful to the many distribution day volunteers who manned the dollies, checked in families, and managed the distribution of gifts, blankets, books and coats to the many families who came. The STEAC Holiday Program is a huge team effort and countless volunteer and staff hours are spent in the office matching families and adopters, screening recipient families, translating materials, coordinating and receiving coat/book/food drives, receiving and organizing boxes at the church, taking boxes out to family cars, and overseeing the whole operation! There are too many to name here but the entire team deserves our deepest appreciation.

None of this is possible without the support of the Davis community and their generous commitment year after year to bringing holiday joy to those facing hardships in our community. All year long, STEAC is able to help families with basic necessities because of the support we receive from the caring and committed Davis community.

The generosity of our supporters allows STEAC to provide help with basic necessities to low-income families and individuals over 10,000 times every year. For information about STEAC and its programs, go to www.steac.org.

— Kelly Coleman is the STEAC Holiday Program chair for 2019.