During the holidays, many social service groups seek some extra help from the community, including InterFaith Works, which resettles refugees from around the world to this region, who are fleeing war, persecution and famine.
For this season, the Syracuse-based nonprofit is asking area businesses to put together a gift basket drive for a refugee family. InterFaith’s Community Engagement Manager Rhonda Butler sees it as a great alternative to office gift-giving.
"During the holiday time everyone in their little department gets together and buys for one another. The question is, do we really need those little things?" Butler said. "Instead, as a fun way to build a team, to provide compassion, to pay it forward for another, is to provide a gift basket together as a group. And it could be families, it could be churches, it could be any group of people."
Butler say, this year InterFaith has resettled more refugees than ever to the area, including from Syria, Congo, Burundi and Ukraine.
The nonprofit has received some 40 baskets so far, but is looking to fill around 200 this year. And they're not just any baskets – they're laundry baskets, because everyone can use one, says Butler.
Once a person or group signs up to fill a basket for a family, "we then provide you with the country they're from, the names of the family members, ages," said Butler. The baskets are then with toys, snacks – and specific requests, like baby blankets.
She says the most-needed items range from winter gloves, scarves and hats, to soccer and basket balls, to baby carriages.
The families are always grateful for the baskets, says Marwah Alobaidi, Program Director of InterFaith's Resettlement Services: "We've seen the excitement on the family's faces." Kids and adults alike.
And that's true even if they've never celebrated Christmas before, she says. No family who comes from a non-Christian religion has ever told them, "'I don't want this.' Everybody was very open to this and they were feeling very welcomed, very warmed," Alobaidi said.
She says they also takes checks and gift cards, from those who would like to help but maybe don't have the time to shop.
The organization is accepting gift basket donations on specific days until Jan. 5. More information can be found at interfaithworksCNY.org.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the gift basket drive runs through Jan. 5, and not Dec. 7, as previously stated.
