Dec. 17, 2022
By John Bailey
With more than 800 families registered and 2,000-plus individual angels (ages 0-12), including more than 450 teens (ages 13-17), this year’s Catawba County Christmas Bureau met one of the largest needs the annual event has seen in recent years.
The Christmas Bureau is a collaborative effort among many Catawba County agencies and organizations to provide toys, food, clothing and coats to children and teenagers in need of assistance during the Christmas season. This year the event was spread out over three days (Dec. 14 – 16) and again held at the Hickory Metro Convention Center as a drive thru for families.
More than 90 volunteers were recruited to help with all areas of preparation of the Angel bags, event set up and distribution of gift bags to families.
Every year the Christmas Bureau has a lot of moving parts, going from periodic meetings starting in January to distribution days in December.
Toys are gathered through The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program and from Toys for Tots, while the Hickory Soup Kitchen makes sure every family receives a Food Lion gift card. Coats are collected at local dry cleaners and other sites throughout the county.
The Hickory Fire Department helps provide bikes for the event (450+ this year), while Century Furniture helps purchase tricycles.
The Catawba County United Way Teen Christmas program organizes dozens of volunteers and local resources to make sure there are gifts and clothes for teens ages 13-17. They also partner with Shurtape Technologies to provide special gifts for the teens.
To learn more about the annual Christmas Bureau call the Catawba County United Way at 828-327-6851.
More photos at this link - https://www.ccunitedway.com/2022-christmas-bureau-helps-more-800-famili…