Last year, PUSH’s "Santa" delivered gift bags for about 40 children at the Emergency Services Homeless Coalition’s transitional housing campus. This year we were approved for the same activity, had been cleared for 5:30 PM on December 14, 2009, had received a list of the children by first name, age and gender from the housing manager and had begun purchasing new gifts for the children.
The week of November 29, 2009, the PUSH coordinator for the gifts was contacted by the manager at the transitional housing and told not to come this year, as there were “many churches and the Junior League of St Augustine taking care of the kids and families this Christmas season.” PUSH contacted several area churches and the Junior League and could not find a single organization supporting these families with a holiday party and gifts.
PUSH is hearing from residents at the transitional housing campus that we are the ones pulling out from this activity, which is patently false. In an effort to counteract this lie, each family at the transitional housing is receiving the enclosed holiday card, as is the local print media and all five county commissioners. We will not tolerate this attack on our efforts to support the homeless community.
Because of this late cancellation, our donors have had to be contacted to request diversion of their donations to another group of families in need in our county and a huge amount of effort is being required to make changes to plans that had been in operation for over two months.
It’s unclear why the Emergency Services Homeless Coalition is rejecting the support of PUSH, particularly at this time of year and in these economic times. We hope that the families at the transitional housing campus are in fact being supported by other agencies and churches and that they have a joyous and peaceful holiday.
- Mary Lawrence
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