Operation Blessing tries to assure happy holidays

By Pete Kendall/reporter@trcle.com

Operation Blessing director Gloria Jones gets through each day on a wing and a prayer.

More than most Cleburne residents, she meets and greets the down-and-out of Johnson County, people who have lost jobs or had salaries reduced and are trying to hang onto a little hope while the world passes them by.

At Operation Blessing, 105 George St., clients congregate for food, counseling, clothing, furniture and help with medical and financial needs.

Lately, many have been wondering whether Santa Claus will be part of their lives this Christmas.

The answer is yes.

Thanks to a toy drive, a joint venture with Goodfellows, and the benevolence of individuals and businesses, each child under the Operation Blessing umbrella is almost assured a toy.

For a month of Tuesdays, ending Dec. 8, Operation Blessing will accept applications from families with children needing gifts. When all is said and done, that number could surpass 1,000.

“Diane Lanman and Alan Reed are coordinating that for us,” Jones said. “They’re doing a beautiful job.”

“We want to make sure that every child has a new toy,” said Lanman, volunteer coordinator. “In years past, we’ve been able to give out one big gift and two little ones to each child along with stocking stuffers. If we’re able to give out more than one thing this year, that will be wonderful. I think everybody pretty much understands the situation. We’ve had so many people come to us for help who’ve never asked for help before. They’re embarrassed that they have to ask for help. We try to make them feel at ease.”

The Goodfellows toy drive should help, Lanman said.

“But so many families that used to go to Goodfellows are now coming to us,” she said. “That’s the way it is with the economy.”

Operation Blessing at one time served a Thanksgiving meal. That practice ended some five years ago.

“When we first moved to this location, we did Thanksgiving dinner in the [food pantry] building,” Jones said. “We had the room all decorated. Different churches were involved. It worked out really well. Some of the clients were homebound, and we delivered the dinners to them. Some clients picked up the dinner to take home. It was fully cooked. We served Thanksgiving dinner in the East Cleburne Community Center for several years, but we got where we had over 100 volunteers and not that many clients show up. The last year, we ended up with a lot of cooked food and no place for it to go. Today, we might have more clients come.”

Crossroads Church and American Legion are serving a Thanksgiving meal this week.

Operation Blessing is distributing various foodstuffs, including bread.

“We’ll be giving out food Monday and Tuesday, just not turkeys,” Jones said.

Other agencies are cranking up for Christmas season.

“A gentleman from the Elks Lodge wants us to refer 50 families to them for Christmas dinner,” Lanman said. “They’ve done bicycles in the past, but they’re going to do food this year because of the economy. That’s really helpful to be able to refer families to them.”

Operation Blessing’s parrtnership with Toys for Tots began several years ago.

“One of our board members, Randy James, was a World War II survivor,” Jones said. “He arranged for us to be in Toys for Tots. Randy has gone home to be with the Lord. Toys for Tots has continued.”

Nov. 17 was a typical holiday season Tuesday at Operation Blessing. Clients and would-be clients were lined up down the block when the door opened.

“We’re giving out the gifts Dec. 21,” Jones said. “We’ll be working on the room in the food building for three or four days to get everything ready. We’ll get the food moved over and the shelves organized for toys. They’ll be in groups for boys and girls and for age groups, depending on what we have. On the 21st, people will be lined up out there. Sometimes, they start coming at 2 a.m., thinking we put out all the good gifts first. We don’t. We keep restocking the shelves. Alan organizes that. Diane coordinates the sign-up sheet and names.”

At Operation Blessing, the requests for help never wane.

“There’s the usual demand for food,” Jones said. “We’ve been helping 60 to 70 families a day and have been all year. If we keep going at this rate, we’re estimating we’ll serve over 30,000 individuals this year. Food is our priority. Some of our grants have dried up. We’ve done more than we’ve ever done before this year, and we’ve done it on less. God has blessed us.”