Your donations to the Richmond Christmas Mother Fund help provide a brighter holiday to families struggling to make ends meet. The fund provides toys, clothing, food and other assistance to families in need. The fund was established in 1935 by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Richmond News Leader. The Salvation Army now administers the fund as part of its citywide Christmas programs.

The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign will be more than a drop in the bucket this year. Two hand-held credit-card machines will take donations from people who aren’t carrying cash. “We’re trying to stay with the times,“ Salvation Army spokesman Jeff Baldwin said yesterday during a trial run at the Ukrop’s store on Forest Hill Avenue.

The Richmond Christmas Mother program was launched 75 years ago when The Times-Dispatch Goodfellows Club and The News Leader Neediest Family fund joined with other local Christmas stocking clubs to create a single holiday fundraising campaign. The fund was designed to provide needy children and families with toys, clothing, food and other assistance during the holidays. The Salvation Army now administers the fund as part of its citywide Christmas programs.

The Richmond Christmas Mother program was launched 75 years ago when The Times-Dispatch Goodfellows Club and The News Leader Neediest Family fund joined with other local Christmas stocking clubs to create a single holiday fundraising campaign. The fund was designed to provide needy children and families with toys, clothing, food and other assistance during the holidays.

The Richmond Christmas Mother program was launched 75 years ago when The Times-Dispatch Goodfellows Club and The News Leader Neediest Family fund joined with other local Christmas stocking clubs to create a single holiday fundraising campaign. The fund was designed to provide needy children and families with toys, clothing, food and other assistance during the holidays. The Salvation Army now administers the fund as part of its citywide Christmas programs.

Alice Goodwin has been instrumental in donating millions to help others during the four-plus decades she has lived in Richmond. Now that she has been named the 2009 Richmond Christmas Mother, she’s encouraging others to look for their own generous instincts to help families in need this holiday season. The gift doesn’t need to have lots of zeros at the end to be important, she said.

The New Kent Christmas Mother Program braced itself for more pleas for help and fewer donations when the economy began to sour. But this year, applications are down compared with last year and contributions are encouraging, said Jill Cruz, program co-coordinator with Carol Witherspoon. The New Kent Christmas Mother Program has received 62 applications, compared with 76 last year and 72 in 2007. The deadline for applications was Oct. 31, but some are still under review.

For more than three decades, Sylvia Reid worked as a teacher in Amelia County. Her experience taught her that simple gestures can make a child happy, and as the 2009 Amelia County Christmas Mother, her main goal is to ensure a smile on the face of as many county children as possible this Christmas. “I look at what’s going on with the economy and the number of people who have lost their jobs since last Christmas,“ said Reid, who retired in 2008 from the county schools after 33 years. “It has been a very difficult year for many families, but my personal belief is that children are innocent and . . . deserve to feel that joy that comes from getting a gift.“

Helping out during the holiday season is a community effort in Cumberland County. A Christmas Mother committee of 14 leads the effort, but residents, civic organizations and businesses all chip in to do their part. Alice Metts, a lifelong resident of Cumberland, is the committee chairwoman. She has a history of working with youths in the county, first as a social worker in the school system; she currently works with at-risk youths.

You could say that the better part of Virginia “Gigi” Foster’s life has been spent serving others. So it’s only fitting that she serve as this year’s Hanover County Christmas Mother. Foster is a retired registered nurse whose career includes time with the county’s health department, Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital and Westminster Canterbury. Her days are now spent watching over feisty grandchildren and, for the next few weeks, collecting as much money as possible for the county’s neediest residents.

Evelyn Kay Mann, a retired Powhatan County nurse, has put her product invention on hold until next year to focus on her unexpected job as the county’s Christmas Mother. “Everything is on hold until after Christmas,“ she said. “I’m jampacked. Every day.“ Also, Mann’s husband, Tommy, a military veteran and a retired U.S. Postal Service employee, was named the program’s first Christmas Father.

The Henrico Christmas Mother program has been a vital part of Robin Smith’s holiday traditions since she was a child. The county’s 2009 Christmas Mother recalls carrying canned goods to school and working with classmates to decorate boxes so the items could be presented onstage to the Christmas Mother. Smith, who lives in Glen Allen, sees the volunteer-supported program as vital as ever.

After a career spent working with at-risk kids, Gail Feind wanted to find a way to continue her passion in retirement. It found her. Feind, 60, was selected this year’s Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Christmas Mother. “It was a surprise and a humbling honor,“ she said. “You get to represent a lot of caring volunteers and represent children and their families to try and make a better Christmas for them.“

Anne Larus Hardwick didn’t hesitate when asked to serve as Goochland County Christmas Mother this year. After all, it’s a family tradition. Hardwick’s grandmother, Anne Traylor Larus, was the first Richmond Christmas Mother, chosen by Richmond Newspapers Publisher John Stewart Bryan in 1935. “It was important for me to do what she would have wanted me to do,“ Hardwick said of her grandmother, who died in 1950. “I just had to do it. I couldn’t say no.“

Since moving to Burkeville in 1968, Ann Carrington has immersed herself in the Nottoway County community. That same year, she opened a dance studio—Carrington School of Dance—in Crewe, which remains open 40 years later as she teaches a second generation of dancers in Nottoway and surrounding counties. This fall, she will continue to work with the children of Nottoway as the Crewe-Burkeville Christmas Mother.