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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Catholic Charities celebrates 30th anniversary of Christmas donation program

From left, Elizabeth Lyden and Mike Rios-Keating of Catholic Charities will don blue aprons to work at the Giving Tree booth at the Mall of America Dec. 17 and 18.
From left, Elizabeth Lyden and Mike Rios-Keating of Catholic Charities will don blue aprons to work at the Giving Tree booth at the Mall of America Dec. 17 and 18. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

The roots of Christmas giving to the less fortunate run deep for Elizabeth Lyden of Catholic Charities. The 33-year-old community engagement and partnerships manager at the nonprofit has memories of her family’s tradition dating back to early childhood.

“I went to St. John the Evangelist in Little Canada,” she said. “And, I remember every year they had a tree (with gift ideas for needy people and families written on paper ornaments). I remember my parents taking me and taking that ornament.”

Her parents shopped for the item(s) on the ornament, with Elizabeth joining them. Today, she takes part in a similar program, but on a much larger scale. It’s Catholic Charities’ annual Giving Tree drive, which takes place at the Mall of America. Lyden runs the program as its project manager, and will help celebrate Giving Tree’s 30th anniversary on Dec. 17 and 18, when visitors to the mall can stop by a booth set up at Macy’s Court, near the southwest corner of the mall, to drop off clothing, toiletries and other items that they either purchased before coming or bought at stores inside the mall. (People can also buy gifts on an app, AmazonSmile.) Catholic Charities will store the items at its distribution center in St. Paul and give them throughout the coming year to people in need, as identified by Catholic Charities staff members who work with them regularly.

“I went to St. John the Evangelist in Little Canada; my grandma was the organist,” said Lyden, who now attends Mass at St. Rose of Lima in Roseville. “I still remember one year — it’s stuck in my mind — shopping for the perfect laundry basket for somebody. Life is really busy, I think, for all of us. And I think that something like the Giving Tree … is an opportunity for us to take a moment and reflect on the things we’re grateful for and reflect on the things that mean the most to us during the Christmas season.”

Lyden noted there’s more that individuals and families can do at the Giving Tree booth besides dropping off donated items. They can help assemble care kits for residents of Catholic Charities housing facilities or write messages to clients/guests who visit Catholic Charities’ drop-in centers.

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“We’re trying to make it really inviting and accessible, in a way to learn about Catholic Charities’ mission,” said Lyden, adding that the five or six staff members who staff the booth throughout the weekend will wear blue aprons, which will help visitors to the mall spot them.

Two years ago, Giving Tree was a drive-up event because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, it was held outdoors in a parking lot across the street from the mall and was called Warming House. Working alongside Lyden this year is Mike Rios-Keating, social justice education manager at Catholic Charities, who does parish outreach for Giving Tree. In more recent years, parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have started having their own Giving Tree events and delivering the collected items to the Catholic Charities distribution center. That part of the Giving Tree program is growing, Rios-Keating said, and seems to be striking a chord with people who are looking to recapture an authentic Christmas spirit that sometimes seems swallowed up by commercialism. It also gives them a chance to start a practice that they can continue doing in the years ahead and pass on to their children and even grandchildren.

“I think people love tradition,” said Rios-Keating, 33, who said at least 10 parishes are participating this year, although it’s hard to calculate because some parishes collect items and drop them off at Catholic Charities without officially signing up for Giving Tree. “Holidays offer an opportunity for tradition. … I think that families in Minnesota are excited for that kind of thing.”

St. Nicholas in Elko New Market joined the program this year, thanks to parishioner Jennifer Ward, who found out about it on the Catholic Charities website and followed up with a phone call to Lyden, who welcomed the parish to her organization’s growing list. Ward set up a small tree in the church Thanksgiving weekend, wrote gift items on paper ornaments and placed 110 of them on the tree for people to take and go shopping. She also provided a gift list of other items that are needed.

“I’m excited to do this because it’s the season of giving,” said Ward, 55, who belongs to St. Nicholas with her husband, Mark. “A lot of us are so blessed. It’s more fun for me to be able to give to other people and make that opportunity available for others to do the same.”

The Giving Tree will be open the entire time that the mall is open, from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., on Dec. 17 (Saturday) and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 18 (Sunday). Lyden and Rios-Keating plan to be there the entire time, and Rios-Keating will bring in his wife, Cat, and their 18-month-old son, Terin, for a brief visit before he starts working. He is hoping this will begin a tradition for his own family.

“It offers something that is close to my heart because I’ve met many of these clients (who will receive the Giving Tree items),” said Rios-Keating, who attends Mass with his wife and son at St. Thomas More in St. Paul. “To be able to share that with my wife and son — I’m excited to go and experience it.”

He also is hoping an experience like this will have a deeper and long-lasting effect on those who participate. To that end, he will offer a Zoom event next month in which he will discuss housing instability and Catholic social teaching. It’s called “No Room at the Inn” and will take place 6:30-8 p.m. Jan. 5. Free registration is available at cctwincities.org/our-organization/events/no-room-at-the-inn.

Lyden and Rios-Keating noted that not only does Giving Tree connect with the real meaning of Christmas, but also to the recent pastoral letter released by Archbishop Bernard Hebda, titled “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent from the Upper Room.” The letter outlines the archbishop’s pastoral plan for the next three years, based on prayer and information gathering across the archdiocese in a three-year Archdiocesan Synod.

“Specifically, it’s got kind of a Pentecost theme,” Rios-Keating said of the pastoral letter. “Catholic Charities is mentioned in the section on the washing of the feet. Archbishop calls out that there are some models for how we can do this.

“And certainly, Catholic Charities is a place that physically has feet washing as one of the services at our Opportunity Centers. But I think that metaphorically, spiritually, as we think about that idea of how are we washing the feet of others and participating in that practice, I think that Giving Tree is an example of that. … We’ve been talking about the letter, and I think that it just ties in really nicely.”

To learn more about Giving Tree and see a list of most-needed items, visit cctwincities.org/our-organization/events/giving-tree.

 


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