St. Joseph Adopts Area Families For Christmas

When asked what they wanted for Christmas, some of Baltimore's neediest families didn't answer with the latest toy or gadget.

Instead, their lists included items like toasters, microwaves, groceries, toilet paper, paper towels and other items many simply take for granted.

Those items and many more filled two rooms at on Thursday, where employees filled a U-Haul truck bound for Villa Maria in Timonium. The presents, wrapped, tagged but unmarked, will give 47 families a rare chance at a normal Christmas.

"It was an eye-opener for them that there were kids that didn't have the simple things," said Susanne DeCrane, St. Joseph's vice president of mission integration.

St. Joseph employees and departments adopted the 47 families from Villa Maria and other Catholic Charities services and each sent in a Christmas list with first names, ages and interests.

"When they went shopping it was for Janice, age 12, who loves green. I think it was the personal sense of 'I'm buying this for this child,'" said DeCrane, adding that some staffers took their children shopping.

Social workers and St. Joseph staffers then supplemented the lists with things they knew the kids or the parents could need.

It isn't the first time St. Joseph has collected gifts for the needy around the holidays. Gary Neal, a systems specialist for the hospital, noted the hospital once gave out 500 Christmas baskets with small gifts and food from Santoni's in Glyndon.

Just before this Halloween, DeCrane, the self-described "air traffic controller" for the project in the hospital's spiritual care department, put out feelers for volunteers willing to shop for total strangers. She had expected to be able to take care of maybe 10 families if she were lucky, but as she surveyed one of two St. Joseph conference rooms packed to the brim with gifts, she remained blown away by the response.

"Talk about labor and delivery down here," she joked.

Of the 47 families adopted, three were adopted by couples who opted to make someone else's Christmas special instead of buying gifts for eachother, according to DeCrane.

"[Catholic Charities] have never had a single partner who is quite like the response they had from here, and that makes you feel really good," she said.

The hospital staff got creative, too, pooling money for big gifts and putting some gifts in reusable tubs or bags, so that nothing goes to waste. Nurses hosted wrapping parties in hospital breakrooms. The only regret, DeCrane said, is that they won't be able to see the looks on families' faces.

"It became a real event that drew departments together and as people would bring their gifts down here there was such a sense of pride not only in their department but to be a part of something," DeCrane said. "They were very proud of what the hospital staff has done."