Advocacy center holds Miracle on McAuley
The Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Center delivered Christmas to 84 local children in need during its 17th annual Miracle on McAuley Court Christmas Program Distribution Night last Thursday.
The importance of the program?
“I guess you can’t really put it into words until you see their faces,” Holly Heer, the center’s development coordinator, said. “When they hear they’re going to get presents, they think it’s just a couple and it’s not going to be to the extent of what we do. We kind of go all out, and when you see their faces and how thankful they are, sometimes they cry, and that’s what makes it worth it, just knowing that they’re going to have a Christmas where hopefully it will help alleviate some of the trauma that they’ve been through.”
The program, which served 63 children last year, saw a greater need due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year,
she said.
“It’s for children that have been through our center and have received services in some way recently — usually within the last year — and the ones that are in the most need, and they receive — through donations and things like that — they receive presents,” Heer said.
“We’ll call the families, we’ll get their sizes so they get a full outfit and shoes and coat, and then they get three items off their wish list.”
The pandemic also affected the distribution process, which is typically held as a party, but was modified as a drive-thru, which was held at Lake Valley Community Church, 910 Shady Grove Road.
“They would drive up, they would tell us their names, we would go and bring the presents out to them, and then Santa was there and we handed out teddy bears,” Heer said. “We usually do a night where they come to the center, we do hot chocolate, we read the kids stories and kind of make it a big deal, but obviously we couldn’t do that.”
The center helps over 700 children annually, and its advocates were responsible for picking those “the most” in need, she said. It is made possible solely by community donations.
“The children that come to our center, they come there because they’ve been abused in some way,” Heer said. “So that’s what we do here; we help children who have been physically abused, sexually abused, sometimes it’s neglect, it just kind of depends and children experience trauma when that happens, so when we’re able to get back to them in these small ways it hopefully helps some.”