BVCA gift giveaway program provides presents for anyone in Jefferson County who needs them

For much of the last decade, Blue Valley Community Action has set up a makeshift store to make finding a perfect holiday present possible, even for Southeast Nebraska families under financial strain.

"We want to make sure every kid has a gift at Christmas, and this is allowing them to do that. We want to make sure that there isn’t a kid out there who wakes up on Christmas that doesn’t have a gift," Ryan Bailey, BVCA's Family and Community Services Director, said. 

That's the motto behind Blue Valley Community Action's annual gift giveaway shopping event - designed to present all Jefferson County families with the chance to go home with a hand-picked present for their children.

Gifts of all kinds acquired through fundraisers and drives - like the first responders' "stuff the cruiser" events earlier this month at the local Walmart - are put on display for local residents to peruse, two gifts per child per household, with big ticket items like scooters and bikes available via a raffle.

"It’s not us picking for them, it’s them picking for them. They know their kids. We don’t have any income restrictions – we want anybody who wants to come down and get kids gifts, we want them to be able to do that," Bailey said. "This is for the entire community. I really like it because it puts the power back to them, getting the gifts they want to get for their kids."

Just under 50 households were served at Monday night's event, with more to come. That's a lower number than in years past - Bailey reports up to 100 households present in some of the first seven or eight installments of this annual event. But she says that number doesn't reflect the bigger, underlying trend she's witnessed this year: a rising need for all services her organization provides - not just Christmas gifts.

"Times are tough. People who in the past have been able to donate to us are now asking for assistance," she said. "With the economy the way it is, with prices of everything going up, people need the extra help this year, and so that’s why we’re here."

BVCA made it a point to present this event as all-inclusive, not just targeted at low-income families - because for anyone who might be teetering on the edge of financial security, finding a present on a loved one's wish list might be at the bottom of their financial to-do list.

"Maybe they were just scraping by before, but now it’s a choice at the end of the month of ‘Do I get food for the kids or do I pay the rent? How do we keep the lights on?’ If you’re struggling not knowing how you’re going to pay for food for your kids, Christmas is sort of at the bottom of the list. So we want to make sure everybody has some presents for Christmas. We want to help take away some of the burden that people are feeling this time of year, and hopefully this helps a little bit."