GILROY
– Everyone was a little shy Tuesday night at a gift-giving
ceremony for Gilroy families whose fathers were in prison.
GILROY – Everyone was a little shy Tuesday night at a gift-giving ceremony for Gilroy families whose fathers were in prison.
Everyone, that is, except for 2-year-old Isaiha Robledo, who couldn’t get enough of the camera.
When his family’s photo was taken on Polaroid film, the youngster wobbled up to the photographer and said “Camera.” He stared at the photo as it began to appear in his hands. As soon as he saw his family come into view, his face lit up with the giant smile.
Of the 16 Gilroy families and two Hollister families invited to South Valley Community Church Thursday night, most had two or three young children. Students from Vine Academy tried to make Christmas a little easier for the mothers.
Each child at the event was given two gifts, a clothing item and a toy, in the name of their father.
“I actually had the privilege of getting two of the kids’ gifts,” said Stacey Trapp, a 17-year-old volunteer from Vine Academy. “The little girl was so excited. She said, ‘It’s from my daddy’‚ … I couldn’t even imagine (what that’s like).”
The mothers and children were very quiet during the ceremony, but the smiles on everyone’s faces told the story.
While the volunteers were from Vine Academy, the program for the families is called Angel Tree, which is a part of Prison Fellowship Ministries. Prisoners – who are locked up in Susanville, Crescent City, or as far away as San Diego or Seattle – fill out an application for gifts for their families, including what size clothes they need and a toy they would like to have. The list was sent to the group of high school students, who, under the direction of Helen Menig, collected the gifts by setting up giving trees at South Valley Church in Gilroy and Morgan Hill. During a special service at the church, which included caroling and the story of Jesus’ birth, the students presented the gifts in the name of the families‚ fathers with special notes from them to their children.
One of the messages read: “I love and miss them with all my heart.”
“It helps kids build relationships between the child and the absent father,” Menig said. “I think it’s a service for the mother. She has enough to worry about. We just want to show that we care.”
The 15 volunteering students spent up to 10 hours of community service helping out make the gift-giving possible. Menig, who is a parent of a student at Vine, said she was impressed with the students‚ effort.
“They kind of encourage each other,” she said. “Look how much fun they are having working together and doing this.”
Trapp said she learned a valuable lesson from helping out the families.
“At first I did it because my mom thought it was a good idea,” she said. “I got into it. Christmas isn’t about me. Christmas is about Jesus and about these kids, and we wanted to do this for them.”
