Hometown holiday miracle
On December 9, 2020, the Windsor Times publisher wrote about “Hometown Holiday Miracles” and I would like to share my own holiday miracle which was working in collaboration with some amazing people.
For the last twenty years the Kiwanis Club of Windsor in conjunction with the Windsor Fire Department, Santa Tim and the Windsor Service Alliance have provided food and toys to the families of Windsor. This year we knew the need was going to be greater, and the Windsor Service Alliance were not able to help this year with food. The question was, what were we going to do to meet the needs of the families who need it the most this year?
A core group made up of several Kiwanis members, Santa Tim, Marie Ganister and Dennis Rutkowski aka “Rudy” with the Sonoma County Professional Firefighters met via Zoom, listed our fellow service organizations and decided to reach out to them and ask if they would like to be part of the Food and Toy Giveaway. The response was an overwhelming yes. I am happy to say the following groups jumped in to be part of the committee, to donate funds, to donate toys, food and many volunteers.
The Windsor Chamber of Commerce and The Rotary Club of Windsor were the first to join followed by the Windsor Odd Fellows Lodge, Windsor Presbyterian Church, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, Windsor Middle & High School staff and students, Russian River/Windsor VFW Post 768, Lions Club of Windsor, Soroptimist International of Windsor, Windsor Wellness Partnership, Lideres del Futuro, The Pediatric Dental Initiative, WorldMark Of Windsor, Grocery Outlet, Petaluma Poultry and community members Rosa Reynosa and Erika Garcia.
Never in the history of my living in Windsor have I seen or heard the Windsor Service Organizations and community members working side by side to meet the needs of the families of Windsor. To embrace our collaboration, we changed the name of the event to the Windsor Community Holiday Food and Toy Giveaway.
Together we wrapped 1200 gifts, assembled 400 boxes of food, provided masks, toothbrushes and toothpaste to be distributed via drive-thrus on Dec. 19, Dec. 24, Jan. 3 and Jan. 5 all done within the COVID safety restrictions.
In the end we served 381 families and 1164 children. Did we reach all those families who could use our assistance? Probably not. But, did our community and the amazing group of people come together to meet the needs of so many families/children making this was my holiday miracle? The answer is yes.
I would like to thank all those who assisted in making this event a success and to the residents of Windsor who donated toys, food, money and their time to support the Windsor Community Holiday Food and Toy Giveaway. You made a difference in the lives of so many families.
Our last Zoom meeting brought discussion of continuing this committee to celebrate events which are being cancelled because of the pandemic. The Kiwanis Club of Windsor in the past has put on the Easter Egg Hunt and the Windsor Day Parade, and we welcome their support and ideas. It has taken a pandemic, unfortunately, to gather all these organizations and volunteers to unify and work for the good of the community and we are looking forward to future joint endeavors.
Thank you,
Sherry Rubin
Kiwanis Club of Windsor
Girl Scouts appreciate support
Girl Scout Troops of Windsor wanted to thank our Windsor and Healdsburg communities and residents for supporting them. The girls and their parents worked really hard to collect over 500 Christmas trees for recycling.
We also appreciate the support and donation from the Sonoma County Resource Recovery company to help with the recycling of all the Christmas trees. Girl Scout Troops 10068, 10279, 10639 and 11301 and helped to pick up and deliver trees to the recycling bins.
Rhoda Hauth
GS Troop Leader 10068
Windsor
