Lifeline Youth Ministries plans to once again make Christmas a little brighter for some Elkhart families but they need more donations.
Executive Director Darrell Petersen says donations are down this year, perhaps because of a slowdown in the RV industry compared to the past couple of record-setting years. And that money has to go further this year because of inflation.
For years Lifeline took the more common approach of having donors adopt families and buy them presents. But this is the third Christmas that the organization will run the event as a “store,” in which parents are allowed to pick out presents they know their kids will like, paying just 20% of the retail price that Lifeline paid.
And Lifeline volunteers find a lot of Black Friday bargains.
The format does require the parent to come up with some money, but Petersen says that has not proved to be a problem.
“In the grand scheme of things the vast majority of the people are single moms,” Petersen said. “But the neat thing is that she leaves with gifts in hand. She wrote the “to” and the “from” so it’s in her handwriting. All of the gifts are wrapped.
“And I’ll tell you what, if you’ve seen the movie 'Elf,' if you had a Santa meter at Lifeline on the Christmas store day, it would bust right through the glass.”
To donate, visit Elkhartlifeline.com and find the "DONATE NOW" button.
