Guest post by
Matt Admiraal, AACRC Volunteer

On December 19, I had the opportunity to serve alongside members of Hesed Community Church in Detroit and Grace Church of Ann Arbor and Grace Church of Canton at the Hesed Community Church’s Pride for Parents’ Christmas Store.  This is the second year in which these churches have been active in helping individuals in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit in this amazing activity.  The Pride for Parents’ Christmas Store allows parents to purchase Christmas gifts for their children at a very reduced rate.  New items are purchased and donated by individuals from churches (some from members of Ann Arbor CRC as well as from members of Grace Church of Ann Arbor and Grace Church of Canton) and then sold at a “store” (in actuality at a church) for prices ranging from $.25 to $5.  Items that parents could shop for included toys, games, sports equipment, electronics, books, and clothing.  Parents were allowed to purchase two toys for each child in their family, one piece of sports equipment and one game per family, and one winter coat for each child in their family.

The store ran extremely smoothly with several volunteers including those who registered parents who came in (or checked pre-registration forms), those who helped parents shop for their children by keeping track of what parents were purchasing for each child and the cost, those who organized the gifts to be sold by age group and placed them on tables (and restocked the tables to make sure that there was always a good selection of gifts), those who calculated the costs and collected the money for what was purchased, and those who wrapped the gifts for the parents as they waited.

Parents and volunteers were blessed in many ways including having the opportunity to interact with one another, to share the love of Jesus with parents that were purchasing the gifts at a very affordable price, and being able to allow families to be able to celebrate the opportunity to give gifts at Christmas.

From the signup genius for this event comes a description that I think highlights very well what the program is about.

“Pride for Parents started with one simple belief – families would prefer to provide for themselves at Christmas rather than receive a hand out.  Pride for Parents is a program designed to provide the families of the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit the opportunity to shop for their families at greatly reduced cost.  It’s about powering joy, generosity, and community!“

Thank you to those who donated gifts for this worthy cause and allowed families to be able to give gifts at Christmas.  We have all received the greatest gift of all in Jesus Christ, and thanks to those of you who had the opportunity to share the love of Jesus through your generosity.