Times Telegram
Something new was added to the Christmas presents some families are receiving this year through the Gram Lorraine Children’s Christmas Program. There will be gifts for children in a dozen families to give to their parents.
And it came about thanks to a 13-year-old boy.
Program founder Ray Lenarcic said he was talking with his grandson, Andrew Snyder, about the Gram Lorraine program’s relationship with the Migrant Education Tutorial and Support Services program at Herkimer BOCES.
The program assists school districts in meeting the needs of eligible migrant children.
Children qualify for the program because of their family s movement across school district lines during the past 36 months to seek or obtain agricultural employment, according to the Herkimer BOCES website.
Hunger Coalition aids Operation Sunshine, local food pantries
Times Telegram
Times Telegram
The Herkimer County Hunger Coalition has been working to make sure local families have food on their tables, clothing for children and presents under their Christmas tree.
The Hunger Coalition is donating $2,000 to Operation Sunshine (Herkimer County) in honor of Kathy Orts at Herkimer Elementary School. For years, Orts has coordinated a program with Operation Sunshine, guaranteeing deserving students a meaningful Christmas.
“We’re grateful to our many and generous donors for providing the capital enabling us to support this most worthy cause,” said coalition founder Ray Lenarcic. He said the coalition has also made $1,000 donations to the Food Bank of Central New York accounts of food pantries in Richfield Springs, West Winfield and Old Forge. Similar donations were made earlier to the accounts of food pantries in Little Falls, Kuyahoora Valley, Frankfort-Ilion, Herkimer, Dolgevil
Andrew James
Andrew James
It’s been said that Christmas is the season of miracles. Foremost among the latter is the miracle of the Christ child’s birth. The Immaculate Conception. How about the “Miracle on 34th Street,” that 1947 flick starring Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, the unforgettable Edmund Gwenn as ole St. Nick and Natalie Wood as the young child. Send for it on Netflix, gather the family together and pass the popcorn. Then there’s the miracle, or rather miracles, of 2020. Five year-old Jamie and his sister Annmarie, aged 4, (pseudonyms for obvious reasons), were really looking forward to Christmas and a visit from the bearded man in red who, they hoped, would bring each coloring books, crayons and puzzles along with a car for him and doll for her. But the chances of that happening were slim to none. Their single mother was unemployed, and while she did her best and showered them with love, her kids were lacking in those material possessions commonplace amo