Bath Christmas Mother Program Makes The Holiday Merry For Many

Hot Springs, Va – You may not have given much thought yet to Christmas, but in Bath County a lot of thought and work has already gone into the Christmas Mother program to make Christmas merry for those in need in Bath. The 2010 Bath County Christmas Mother is Becky White from Warm Springs.

“I think it’s very important because there’s a lot of people in our community that have a lot of needs” says White. “A lot of these individuals would not have Christmas for their children, some senior citizens would not have Christmas without the Christmas Mother program. It is a strong need for the service in our community.”

Monetary donations are accepted and you can also adopt an individual or a family and buy gifts for them. You can shop at your own convenience and then drop items off at the Christmas Mother shop.

“The biggest challenge I believe is wanting to serve everyone and realizing that our funds are limited” says White “and not being able to do everything for everyone that you would like to.”

The Christmas Mother Shop will be located in St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Hot Springs. It will be open November 30 through December 10, weekdays from 9 until 2:30. You can also help out by volunteering at the shop. You can help wrap packages or help with organization of items.

“The funnest part part is seeing the needs met with these individuals and realizing their children are going to have Christmas presents to open [on] Christmas morning, and that they are going to have some help during this holiday season.”

In addition to providing gifts to open, the Christmas Mother program helps with fuel costs. Donations will be accepted through January.

“The fuel assistance – we service that need in January” says White. “That helps individuals and families one month out of the year with fuel assistance; whether it be their electric bill, their gas bill, oil – whatever their fuel service may be. We give them monies to help with that cost.”

White has received requests for specific items that are too large and expensive for the program to purchase. The Christmas Mother program accepts donations of new or gently used items. Some of the large items needed are furniture, a wood stove, lawn mower, computers, bedding, children’s items and more.

To get more information contact Becky White at 540-292-8975.