Our Story
Hello,
Our names are Simon and Debbie. We have three wonderful children and seven amazing grandchildren. We also have several "adopted" children and grandchildren that we consider family. Simon works full time for a RV manufacturer and Debbie has a web site design company and works for a non-denominational youth ministry. This is our story:
This all started because of a child. In 1997 while doing some Christmas shopping, a toddler pointed and said "Look mom, it's Santa". The excitement in his eyes really touched our hearts. That year we bought candy canes, put on our Santa hats and went to the malls and passed them out to all the children we seen. In 1999 we bought our first Santa and Elf outfit and started going to non-profit and handicapped adult organizations to make appearances. In 2005, we bought our first Mrs. Claus outfit and added area schools and hospitals to our list of places that we went. We now go to several non-profit organizations, schools, and hospitals to visit children. We've been asked why we do this and why we do it for free. Well if you ever looked into the eyes of a child while their looking at Santa and saw that magical feeling, love and happiness coming from them you’d understand. I guess in a way, it is our way of showing God’s love for others.
In 2007 we did some volunteer work at Guidance Ministries during their Christmas Outreach Program. During this program they help families with toys for their children and also give food from their food pantry. While we were there, we heard their stories. It's not just your "typical stereotype" that goes for help. We met single mothers, people new to our community who had not got established yet, men who had been laid off work. Many that were embarrassed to ask for help but had no other choice. Honestly, it is our opinion that unless you are very fortunate, everyone needs a little help sometimes.
One gentleman that we met there really touched our hearts. He had been laid off work. He was embarrassed to ask for help. At the time that he found the courage to ask for help, the pantry had run out of food and we had to turn him away. With tears in his eyes, he very polietly left. But I couldn't get his face out of my head. I just kept thinking, we have to do something. How could a city that has been known to have one of the highest "millionaires per capita" ratios in the USA, have to turn people away that are hungry? No one should have to go hungry, especially at Christmas. And so in January 2008, we started Santa's Pantry.
We had been told of many children that have never had their pictures taken with Santa at the malls because of the high costs. We realized that this was a way to help families, offer pictures for free. Then we thought of the hungry in our community and decided we would ask for food donations in exchange for the pictures. If everyone brought peanut butter or mac & cheese it would still be alot less then pictures at the malls and now these families would be helping others as well. While starting to promote this, we realized that alot of local businesses were struggling as well because of the economy. This could have a negative effect on our community and we realized they needed some help also. Now businesses are involved by donating coupons or coloring pages for Santas coloring book to help promote their business and bring customers to them. So now, businesses are helping Santa's Pantry and we are helping them.
It is hard for one or two people to make a big difference in their community. But now, through Santa's Pantry, the Elkhart community is working together, helping each other, and together we will ALL make a big difference! Our dream is that someday Santa's Pantry will be a household name and all over the nation. Imagine if people were helping people, "Paying it Forward" all over the nation, how many people would be helped!
