Here come the holidays! We get a ton of questions about our popular holiday programming here at South County Outreach, so we decided to sit down with the two ladies who make it all happen! Robin and Arline are our resident food drive coordinators during the year, but when October rolls around, they dust off their capes and begin their transformation into our holiday program extraordinaires, executing our Adopt-a-Family, Support-a-Senior, and Holiday Toy Drive programs.

Did we mention they’re volunteers?

Read on to get to know more about our dynamic duo, our holiday programming, and how you can make an impact this holiday season.

Tell us a little about your backgrounds and what led you both to South County Outreach.

ROBIN: I started at South County Outreach two years ago, and really I just decided I had this extra time on my hands after retiring, and I really wanted to give back to the community. I feel blessed to be in a position to do that, so my neighbor told me about South County Outreach. I came in to volunteer and I spent probably the first year helping with our Rental and Utility Assistance program. In 2016, Arline recruited me to do the Adopt-a-Family program, which was probably the most rewarding and fun thing I’ve done since starting here.

ARLINE: This past May was my fourth year at South County Outreach. Through my church we’d done some work at Second Harvest sorting food, and their website led me to South County Outreach. South County had a position open for the front office, and I love doing admin work, so I started there every Tuesday. Then it became Tuesday and Friday, and then came the Adopt-a-Family program. I loved it, but it was a lot of work for one person, which is what led me to recruit Robin the following year.

What can you tell us about the Holiday Programming here at South County Outreach?

A: Well, this year we’re hoping our Holiday Programming goes even better than last year. We’ve got a few changes in the works.

R: There’s basically three interlocking programs—Adopt-a-Family, Support-a-Senior, and then the Toy Store. The Adopt-a-Family and the Support-a-Senior program gets opened up to sponsors in October, and the family clients enroll between October and November with the knowledge that if they aren’t matched with a sponsor by November 30, they’ll be able to attend our one-day-only Toy Store event on December 15 where the parents can come “shop” for toys for their kids. For senior clients, however, if they don’t get matched they don’t get matched… that’s something we’d like to see change—last year we were able to get 174 seniors adopted, but we serve close to 800 seniors every year.

A: We’ll be matching sponsors with their families throughout the fall, but families can also choose to enroll solely in the Toy Store event if they’d prefer not to be matched. For seniors, they have a really difficult time choosing gifts for themselves. They ask for cleaning supplies instead of personal things; they just want help.

“Seeing how grateful [our senior clients] are simply having a family visit them, and bring a meal, is so humbling. They just want connection and love from you…”

Do you have any special memories to share about the Adopt-a-Family program?

A: Every year, a group called Couples for Christ adopts 20 families. They take non-English speaking families, which is very helpful because it’s hard for us to match sponsors with non-English speaking families. They have a big Christmas party at the church with games and food, and they invite their adopted families to attend, receive gifts, and share a meal together. The families are so appreciative and just love being adopted by them. On a smaller scale, we have a ton of sponsors who adopt one or two families and they’ll have a small celebration as well.

R: I’ve seen photos of sponsors dressing up like Santa and Mrs. Claus to give their adopted children presents. It’s so sweet. Also, Prime Lending has different teams who’ll adopt a family, and each team goes above and beyond what is expected since they have big groups contributing to each family’s gifts and donations. Truly, though, every adopted family feels so grateful for whatever their sponsor decides to give, big or small.

What is your favorite part of the Holiday Programming?

A: I love the joy you see in the family when they get their match, and they’ll come back after the holidays and say, ‘oh it was so wonderful!’ And the happiness that you see on parents’ faces when they come to the Toy Store is incredible—pictures don’t do it justice; our Food Pantry really transforms into a huge Toy Store, with rows and rows of toys, shoes, clothes, and gifts for parents to give their kids. Christmas at South County Outreach is my favorite time of the year.

R: Adding to that, there are so many of our senior clients who are alone, so seeing how grateful they are simply having a family visit them, and bring a meal, is so humbling. They just want connection and love from you, because so many of them have no family around, and they’re very gracious—sometimes they don’t even want a gift, they just want someone to stop by and chat with them over dinner.

You both seem like a great team. What is it like working together?

A: We’re the Food Team for a reason—if you can’t reach me, call Robin, if you can’t reach Robin, call me. There’s no competition involved. I just enjoy working with her. Last year, we updated and upgraded all the forms for the website and on-site. I stopped working in the office on Fridays so that I could devote more time to the program. We’re always looking for ways to improve so we can give back to more families every year.

R: I love working with Arline! She’s so sweet and we have so much fun; we even finish each other’s sentences. It’s also such a rewarding program; I’ve adopted families myself both years which has been very special. We’ve really taken the program to the next level over the past two years. After our first year doing the Adopt-a-Family program together, we said, ‘we love this, don’t ever give this program to anyone else.’

We think our dynamic duo is running the program just fine, too. For more information about our Holiday Programming schedule, visit here.