Akron Ohio Stake News

A Divine Mandate to Care for the Poor

submitted by Sister Christy Mathatas

For more than 18 years, members of the Ashland Ward have partnered with Associated Charities of Ashland County in collecting food and gifts for people in need at Christmas time.

Associated Charities is a local organization whose mission is to provide short-term emergency assistance to the people of Ashland County. They do this by helping with utilities, shelter, medication, doctor visits, and food. Primarily funded through United Way of Ashland County, they also receive money from area churches, organizations, and generous individuals.

The Ashland Ward has provided assistance to this great organization with food and gift donations from individual ward members throughout the year.

For more than 18 years, Ashland Ward members have rallied at Christmas time to collect gifts for adults who may live alone and who may not receive any other gift for Christmas than the one we provide. We try to give gifts that we would like to receive. There are a lot of places that will give people socks, gloves, and toiletries, but we want them to receive a gift that excites them.

In November, ward members gather to wrap the gifts and label them with “male,” “female,” or “either,” to ensure that an appropriate gift is given to each person. Sometimes, the youth are responsible for wrapping the gifts, and other years, just the Young Women or the Relief Society has done it.

Sister Gayle Gorrell of the Ashland Ward is the originator and our chief motivator who has been a big part of this service tradition since it began. She also is a long-time volunteer with Associated Charities. She shares, “Associated Charities gives Christmas gifts to a lot of children and there’s a lot of joy in those households on Christmas morning. Several clients, though, have no children and are alone on Christmas morning. The first gifts that the director gave those alone were a card with a piece of horehound candy in it and the people were thrilled to get a gift on Christmas. The director asked me all those years ago if we would like to give gifts to those people who will be alone on Christmas. The clients change from year to year but they are thrilled to get to open something themselves.”

Our goal as a ward is to collect 35 gifts to donate to Associated Charities. Last year, in spite of COVID restrictions and with a very generous, last-minute donation, we were able to donate 50 gifts, along with a lot of canned food that was also collected at that time.

We are currently in the process of collecting gifts once again. It’s a Christmas tradition of service for the Ashland Ward. As Sister Sharon Eubank said in the October 2021 General Conference, “The Church of Jesus Christ is under divine mandate to care for the poor.” In her talk, she quoted Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who said, “Prayers are answered…most of the time… by God using other people. Well, I pray that He’ll use us. I pray that we’ll be the answer to people’s prayers.”