Donations Still Needed for Charity Shopping Spree

To some teenage girls a gift of a make-up kit this holiday season could get lost among her other gifts, but to those who come from meager income families that make-up kit may be the only new thing she'll receive. It is for teens—and other age groups—such as this that West Valley Community Services and work to make the holidays a little brighter.

"Our biggest needs are gifts for adults, as well as young adults, teenagers and senior citizens," says Jacqueline de Guzman, director of community resources for West Valley Community Services.

WVCS operates a Holiday Shopping Spree Gift Drive for its clients—low income families who live in Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Cupertino, Saratoga and West San Jose—an event where parents are invited to "shop" for gifts for themselves and family members at an event at West Valley Presbyterian Church. In turn, the children also get to pick out a gift for mom and dad.

Volunteers are on hand to wrap those gifts so as the family heads home there's no peeking possible.

WVCS also runs an Adopt-a-Family program for 150 families where community members "adopt" a family which provides a wish list that gets filled by the donor. All those families have been adopted de Guzman said, but for the families who weren't able to sign up for that program there is still need for donations that go to the shopping spree event.

For the gift drive program, the current need is focused on age groups of teen and up. In years past there have been plenty of toy donations for the little ones, de Guzman says, it's the rest of the age groups that don't receive enough donations.

That includes personal care items—think bath and body for things such as soap, lotion, razors, hair care products—and household goods such as towels, bed sheets, toaster ovens, and microwaves. Plus there is always a need for new clothing and winter accessories like gloves, scarves, and hats.

For teenagers de Guzman recommends hair accessories, games or sporting goods such as baseballs, basketballs, and soccer balls. And, of course, gift cards to stores such as Target are always welcome, de Guzman says cards in values of $25 or $50 are especially nice.

Donations need to be dropped off by Dec. 16 at WVCS at 10104 Vista Drive in Cupertino to allow enough time to get everything organized into age and gender categories by Dec. 19 when the Shopping Spree takes place at West Valley Presbyterian Church.

In turn the church is collecting donations that will become the gifts children can give to their parents. When families arrive parents can drop off children to a room where kids can watch a movie, do arts and crafts, play games and get a snack.

Then the kids get to go "shopping" to search for that perfect gift for mom and dad.

Last year someone knitted about 80 caps that children were able to have wrapped up and give to their parents, says Sarah Stierwalt, director of children's ministries at the church. Other gift items included scarves, candles, photo frames, and mugs.

The church is still accepting donations for items that kids can give to their parents and Stierwalt recommends donating items between $3 and $10 to keep a balance in the value of gifts that are available.

"If you have $40 to spend we'd rather you buy four $10 gifts than one $40 item," she says.

It prevents the awkward situation where one person may get lucky enough to grab that $40 gift while others are left collecting the less-expensive items.

Donations can be delivered to the offices of West Valley Presbyterian Church during weekday office hours of 9 am. to 4 p.m. at 6191 Bollinger Rd.