Holiday-aid efforts in Hanover undergo changes

Mechanicsville resident Sue Beer and her daughters wanted to help a family in need last Christmas.

So she turned to Hanover County's Department of Social Services and, through its Holiday Match program, made the season a little brighter for a local woman who was taking care of her 9-year-old grandson.

She wasn't the only one.

The match program, along with the Hanover Christmas Mother, helped 689 families, or 2,377 people, including 1,445 children.

But when a funding source dried up this year within the Department of Social Services, programs like Holiday Match had to be reconsidered.

A state grant that provided money for three AmeriCorps staff members for the department expired in September.

These people, among others, had been instrumental during the holidays in pairing needy families with those looking for ways to give.

"They reached a very high level of specificity," said county spokesman Tom Harris, meaning that the staff spent a lot of time matching sponsor families to their exact requests. This year, without that help, the department didn't have the staffing to match families, Harris said.

Instead, the county will rely on the Hanover Christmas Mother program to help identify needy families for sponsors looking to buy gifts or give money, Harris said. The Department of Social Services won't be matching families.

Additionally, Harris said, the county is asking residents to contact charitable agencies and organizations directly, rather than going through the county.

To help people do this, the Social Services and Community Resources departments have created a list of agencies on the county's Web site.

Montpelier resident Nancy Enright and her family sponsored a family last year for the holidays, a single mother with two children who had lost their home.

She said her family plans to do it again this year.

"We just really wanted to show our kids that there are people out there having a really hard time," said Enright, a mother of four children ages 3 to 14.

The recipients were grateful, she said, and "our whole family felt really good about it when we did it."

Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or .