When Mariah Silva asked for help from Catholic Charities for her children’s Christmas, she was thinking of clothes and shoes. She never expected Santa Claus to arrive at her front door on Christmas Eve in a FedEx truck loaded with gifts for her three children, Giovanni, 8, Jayden, 5, and Sophia, 3.
“When I applied, I didn’t know it was going to turn into such a big thing,” Silva said.
Each year since the 1990s, Catholic Charities has been matching families with donors who want to help provide a special Christmas. This year they matched about 125 families. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were not able to provide for the 75-95 families who often show up for a walk-in day at Catholic Charities. These are families that didn t apply in time to be matched.