YDI Holiday Helpers

Summary

During the 2004 holiday season, AmeriCorps members served at Youth Development, Inc. in New Mexico and brought joy, and gifts, to a family in need.

Description

During the 2004 holiday season a family was identified as “In Need of Assistance” by the St. Anthony Plaza Apartment Management in Albuquerque. St. Anthony’s is a Section 8 housing facility that houses one of Youth Development, Inc.’s (YDI) AmeriCorps tutoring sites. YDI was informed a couple of weeks before Christmas that one of its participants’ parents was terminally ill with cancer and was not expected to live through the holidays. The ill mother, age 47, lived only with her ten-year-old son; the boy does not have any siblings or a father in the home.

The holidays proved to be an incredibly difficult two weeks for YDI at the St. Anthony’s center, and the AmeriCorps members were struggling internally to make sense of why things like this happen. Two members, with the help of their AmeriCorps Vista mentor, brainstormed ideas of how to make this the best Christmas it could be for this family. The members pulled money from their own pockets, organized other staff, friends, and family to do the same, and managed to get enough resources to purchase a Christmas tree, many toys, items of clothing, shoes, coats, books, and household necessities for the family. In addition, the members presented the mother with a check for $50.00 so that she could purchase something special for her son on her own. The members also included the youth participants of the learning center, who made tree ornaments through various arts and crafts projects.

These members really stepped up to the challenge and let the spirit of the holiday season move them toward serving those in need.


Thanks to Tess Mirabal, Program Director for Youth Development, Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico for submitting this success story.

Return to Stories from the Program