‘A Community Christmas’ to help hundreds of Baton Rouge families

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The Catholic Charities of Baton Rouge, also known as the CCDBR, plan to make the holidays a little brighter for hundreds of families in need.

Their program, ‘A Community Christmas,’ is a way to prevent families from going without on Christmas day.

“Can you imagine a child waking up on Christmas morning and not having any toys?” said Catherine Weidert, Communications Coordinator of the Catholic Charities Diocese of Baton Rouge.

In September, Catholic Charities screened more than 500 families, clients they have worked with the past year. The program will share the burden of buying Christmas gifts for those families with little to no income.

Vicki Maloid is the Early Childhood Program Manager for CCDBR, she works with families who face these challenges every day.

She says people are still rebuilding from the covid 19 pandemic, natural disasters, and unexpected issues.

“They are still recovering from having their hours cut, trying to find new jobs, or having jobs that pay way less than what they’re worth,” said Vickki Maloid, Case Worker/Early childhood programs manager.

The ‘A Community Christmas’ program pairs individuals or businesses with families on the Catholic Charities Christmas list.

Those families send their wish lists to the sponsors. This is the first Christmas since the pandemic that families will get presents instead of gift cards.

The CCDBR hopes bringing back the shopping part of the program will encourage more people to become a sponsor.

So far, there are hundreds of applicants, but only 99 donors and just one month to fill those spots.

The Catholic Charities of Baton Rouge is no longer taking applicants to receive presents but they need sponsors for the families already signed up!

The deadline to sponsor a family is December 5th. Click here to become a sponsor.

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