Sub for Santa

A few years ago I started a collection for Sub for Santa at work to replace employee giving. Each year everyone at work would exchange gifts, and although nice, I felt the money could be spent better. So now I encourange everyone to donate to purchase gifts for children in need through United Way. We were able to help four families this year, in various stages of need.
United Way asks that sponsors purchase two new clothing items, two toys, and one book per child. We try to keep it inexpensive and spend @ $60 per child so that we can help more children. The first two families were the better experience, maybe because the parents were at home. One was a single mother with a teenager who kept thanking us, had written us a card, and did not let us leave without giving us some orange chocolate sticks. The second family was Hispanic, also a single mother with two children. We had a co-worker from Mexico go with us as we do not speak Spanish. This family had a lot of needs. The mom works graveyard and has two young children and sleeps in the living room as she does not have enough bedrooms. There was not even room for a Christmas tree. She was also extremely grateful and made us a Flan.
It is interesting how people determine need. The next family we delivered gifts to was a recently divorced woman with two daughters who is going to school. She is living with parents who live in a wealthy neighborhood and had a new car in the garage. Although I am sure she does not have much, it was obvious that a nice Christmas was being provided by the family. United Way still had 2,000 children without sponsors. Anyway, it is not up to us to decide and we had a great time shopping for the kids.