Interesting Tidbits on Christmas for Children

Our Club’s

Christmas for Children Program

Points of Interest

~ excerpted from D. Murphy’s SOP

• The program began in 1987.
• We have people who have made donations who were once recipients of the program.
• Many of our donations come from people who live outside the area.
• When the program first began, we would take convoys of trucks to Auburn, Lewiston, or Portland and purchase toys.  We would bring them back to the “old” Crescent Park School and set up plastic bags of toys for each child.  These bags would line the hallway for a weekend while parents came in to pick their gifts up.
• Eventually, some parents had concerns that some of the toys purchased were not one they would want their children to have.  After several years, the Board made a decision to begin purchasing gift certificates instead so parents could choose to buy whatever they wanted for their children.  Originally, these were purchased at the Ames Department Store.
• One year a blackout occurred and since the bags needed to be put together that night, Rotarians parked their cards at both ends of the CPS hallway and shined their lights down the hall so we could get the job completed.
• Dave has handed out gifts to families on Christmas Eve at least twice.