Emmaus Center thankful for donations past, future

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As staff, volunteers and supporters of the Emmaus Center in Ellsworth celebrate the tremendous success of its first Harvest Food Drive in November, they are also hard at work preparing for their eighth annual Share the Gift Program.

We spoke with center co-director Judi Joy this week, and she told us that the center is collecting gifts it expects will help make a happier Christmas for more than 300 people.

That is the number of people the program helped last year, but while “we have fewer shelter residents this year,” Joy said, “we have more people from the community calling us. There seems to be a huge need in the community, so we’re expecting to serve about the same number of people this year.”

For adults at the shelter, she said, financial donations to Emmaus Center would be most welcome because it would enable staff “to purchase small but special items for them, that they want.”

“People really do hesitate to write anything down, even when you ask. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to make a wish list, but we’d like to get them something really special.”

And while gifts for the children at the shelter “have been taken care of by generous community members,” Joy told us, “there are 121 children from the community on our list.”

“Gifts for teen-agers is our biggest problem. We are desperately in need of toys and gifts for them.”

Any new, unwrapped toys or gifts, as well as cash donations, can be brought to the Emmaus Center in downtown Ellsworth 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Wrapping material, including tape, bows and tags, are needed as well.

Joy expects that the “organizing, sorting and wrapping” of the gifts will take place the evenings of Monday, Dec. 20; Tuesday, Dec. 21; and Thursday, Dec. 23.

Anyone willing to help in this effort — “and we need all the help we can get,” Joy said — is asked to call the center at 667-3962.

The center is also preparing for its open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Christmas Day, when it will welcome anyone who comes through its door to enjoy a holiday buffet.

The Christmas Day open house includes not only a great meal, but the singing of carols and other holiday music provided by willing volunteers and attendees.

“We just want to be sure that everybody has a place to go on Christmas Day,” Joy said. “Everyone is welcome to our open house.”

Volunteers and food for the potluck buffet are needed for this event as well.

Earlier this month, Joy wrote to report on the success of the Harvest Drive, which elicited a response “beyond our expectations.”

“We were inundated with a bounty of food,” she wrote, enabling the center to provide Thanksgiving boxes for 70 families, so “more than 230 people” could enjoy “a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.”

Also due to your kind donations, the center was able to serve “a marvelous meal to more than 40 shelter residents and volunteers,” Joy wrote. “We couldn’t possibly have done it without the generosity of our friends in the community, and for this, we are very grateful.”

That gratitude, Joy said, is extended to those members of the community who support the center and its work, not just at holiday time, “but throughout the year.”

Here is an update from Manna Ministries in Bangor, with sizes listed for items it still needs to provide for the needy this Christmas.

To fill requests for the holidays, Manna is in need of coats — perhaps like a barn jacket — in men’s sizes 2XL, large and medium-large; and women’s sizes 2X, medium and size 12.

Manna needs men’s winter boots sizes 9, 9 1/2, 10 and 10 1/2, and women’s sizes 7, 8 and 9.

Manna is also in need of men’s and women’s flannel shirts in extra large and large sizes.

Items may be left or donations sent to Manna Ministries, 180 Center St., Bangor 04401.

Rick Petrie and all the folks at Capital Ambulance in Bangor, and the folks at radio station B97- WWBX hope you will participate in their first Bright Lights Christmas Toy Drive.

The drive will benefit more than 250 children in the care of the state’s Department of Human Services.

These are children who will be spending the holidays away from their families, or are the children of families who have a hard time providing the necessities of life — to say nothing of the extras — at holiday time.

Those involved in this project hope they can give each of these 250 children a special gift for Christmas.

The Bright Lights Christmas Toy Drive will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Bangor Mall and at Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and the Airport Mall in Bangor.

Representatives of Capital Ambulance will have ambulances at those sites to collect your gifts, and B97 will provide remote broadcasting during the event.

Toys are needed for infants and children up to age 18. Financial donations will also be greatly appreciated, and will be used to purchase gift certificates.

In addition to leaving presents at the above sites this weekend, gifts can be dropped off at Capital Ambulance, 315 Harlow St., Bangor.

Working on this project with Capital Ambulance and B97 are representatives of Advertising Specialists of Maine, Affiliated Healthcare Systems, St. Joseph Hospital, Eastern Maine Medical Center and Bangor Area Visiting Nurses.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.