Jahari Pulley’s squeals were heard across his club’s portion of the Dean and Barbara White Community Center gym, each one more excited than the next.
“I got a Nerf gun!” the 5-year-old from Gary shouted as he looked at his sister, Hailey Manabier, in a holiday-glazed stare of delight while a John Wills Anderson Boys & Girls Club team member handed him gift after gift from a bag taller than he is. Jahari ended up adding colored pencils, another smaller space ray gun, dinosaurs and a whole bunch of pajamas during the Boys & Girls Clubs of NWI 6th Annual Christmas to Remember December 5, but the dinosaurs, he said, were his favorite.
The program remained the same as it has in years past: The organization chooses 500 kids across all 10 of its clubs and hooks them up with $150 worth of loot for the holidays, Club Marketing Director Stephanie Latic. Of that $150, $90 of it is reserved for the “needs” — clothes, coats, gloves, the dreaded underwear and socks — while the rest goes toward the fun stuff.
This year, there were a lot of requests for Poppets, Lilo & Stitch and Wicked-themed items, and the “classics” of Barbies and Legos, Latic said.
The event was Boys & Girls Club of NWI CEO Mike Jessen’s second at the helm, and he has yet to be uninspired with its magnitude. Two hundred volunteers come together starting in October to do the buying and wrapping, and then the rest come out to make sure the kids have a great time, he said, and for more than he’d like to contemplate, Christmas to Remember will likely be their only celebration, he said.
“As I’ve further developed relationships with these kids, you realize it’s not always great for them at all, so our role is to provide an event that’s a lasting, positive memory for them,” he said. “What I’ve learned in these two years are that their struggles are very real, so if we can be a safe harbor for them, there’s no better role to play, I think.
“We know the impact the club has on them is truly life-changing, and they know they can count on the club when there’s no one else. It’s a big win for everyone.”
TradeBe Environmental Services, with branches in East Chicago and Merrillville, has been involved with Christmas to remember for the last three years, its vice president of people and Community Affairs, Jill Long, said. They had 21 volunteers doling out gifts at the event, she said.
“We have a lot of people who were in the Boys & Girls Club working for us, and they love to give back to it,” she said. “We like to support the communities in which we work.”
One gift recipient is getting ready to defend her title as “Club Member of the Year”: Andrea Roscoe, of Gary. Her holiday haul included makeup and makeup brushes, and sweaters in her favorite color, blue.
“(Being Club Member of the Year) has taught me so much, and I have a word of advice to all kids: Stay true to your story, because no one tells it better than you do,” she said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
