Written by Ben Cox – One area mother, in an attempt to teach her children the real meaning behind Christmas, is also showing it to others.
Pamela Hoover, who returned to the area with her family three years ago after her husband Seth finished school, started the “Give the Gift of Warmth campaign as an effort to keep Christmas about giving, and not getting for her small daughters.
“Everybody gets so wrapped up in the holidays, and the getting, getting getting, and my oldest little girl, Isabella is four, the age where she’s realizing she can open up a gift and toss it aside, and open another gift and toss it. And that makes me cringe. So this year, we’re gonna do something different. We’re gonna teach our girls that giving is a good thing for everybody.”
The recipients of their “Give the Gift of Warmth” blanket drive will be residents of area nursing homes, in the form of blankets to keep warm with this winter. The idea came to Hoover when “I came across the 30 days of giving, and I thought ‘I’ve got three kids under four, there’s no way!’ but we can do this. We’re doing one act of kindness or a giving project every week until Christmas. I felt it was a little more manageable for me!”
The family will also be doing other, smaller things to show the joy of giving to their girls, but this is something they wanted to let others participate in. Blankets have been donated by other people who have heard what the family is doing, which have been collected at Dazzlin’ Divas. They will be distributed today by the family.
Hoover says her four year old has really taking to this project. “Every time we go to the grocery store, she says ‘Mommy, can we get more blankets?’ And I ask her why we are getting them and she says ‘to take to the nursing home.’ So we end up getting two blankets every time we go to the store!”
Hoover says while it has cost them a bit more than they’d planned, “I’m glad that her thoughts are to give to others.”
Hoover and her family are truly celebrating the Christmas season, and in full Christmas spirit. “We want the girls to know the reason for the season is Jesus, and it’s Him we’re celebrating.”
