As Christmas approaches, I want to share the heartwarming story of how our local community, people in Maine and even across the country, rallied together to help our Christmas program at The Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers this year.

Every year, our Christmas program distributes boxes of gifts and clothing to approximately 1,600 financially disadvantaged children across the state.

In November, donations were down significantly, because of the economy and the impact that superstorm Sandy had on some of our resources in New York and New Jersey.

With December fast approaching, I can remember looking at empty brown cardboard boxes, knowing we were in desperate need of help, so we started reaching out to the community. It started when we shared a photo of our empty bins on our Facebook page and communicated our story to the media. Once word spread in our community, across the state and even the country, donations started pouring in.

I am happy to share that by our deadline, thanks to all the donations, all the boxes were fully packed and distributed to families that had applied for assistance. We had received $40,000 in donations and gifts to our Christmas Program.

I want to express how grateful we are to be part of this incredibly generous community and state that has rallied together to help provide Christmas for 1,660 underprivileged children, a new record.

We know that hundreds of people gave donations to make this all possible. So, no matter how they heard about our need or how much they donated, from our staff and the bottom of 1,660 little hearts, we want to say thank you for being a part of our Christmas miracle.

Sharon Abrams, executive director

Maine Children’s Home

for Little Wanderers