Letter: Holiday Basket program seeks help

Burbank Coordinating Council is working hard to make sure that all the low-income families who attend Burbank schools and apply for our annual Holiday Baskets program get help with both food and gifts.

In order to assure this, we need your help! It takes hundreds of people working together to make this happen!

Today there are volunteers at stores around the city, at Ralphs (Alameda/San Fernando/Victory), Albertsons, Vons, Handy Market, Fresh and Easy, Sprouts, CVS (at Olive/Verdugo and also Hollywood Way/Verdugo), Pavilions, Kmart, and Smart and Final at Hollywood Way. You can shop at any of these stores and give your donations to the volunteers standing there between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

We need paper items like toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, baby supplies like diapers, laundry soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste, stuffing mix, dessert items like cookies and fruit bars and everything else one can imagine for a holiday meal.

We also need gifts for our teens (gift cards are great) and grocery gift cards for meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables. Monetary donations are always welcome!

Next week we need volunteers between the hours of 3 and 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 13, at Washington Elementary School, 2322 N. Lincoln, to build the baskets for the families that have not been adopted.

Our big delivery day is staged from the playground at Washington Elementary School on Saturday, Dec. 14 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We will need lots of people to help deliver the baskets to all the families throughout the city.

For those of you who have never done this before, it is something you will always remember. Seeing the faces of the children when you bring them food and gifts is priceless — they are so excited! And, the parents are so wonderful and greet you with hugs and tears. You are making the holiday happen for them!

Call us with questions at (818) 238-7647 or email ccholidaybaskets@aol.com and check out the website at burbankcoordinatingcouncil.org.

For teens we offer service learning hours.

This is a way to get that feel-good holiday spirit. It is an experience you will want to repeat year after year. We promise!

Janet Diel
Barbara Sykes
Barbara Salamon
Burbank

Editor’s Note: Diel, Sykes and Salamon are co-chairs of the Burbank Coordinating Council’s Holiday Basket program.