This is the second year Alderman Silvana Tabares (23rd) has participated in Christmas in the Wards, an organization that has provided Christmas gifts for underprivileged families for 29 years.
It was founded almost three decades ago to give disadvantaged Chicago families the full Christmas experience by Larry Huggins, a Chicago businessman and CEO of Riteway-Huggins Constructions.
Originally called the Englewood Foundation, the organization has since grown over the years, with minority businessman Everett Rand, CEO of Wholesalers, joining with Huggins and wanting to invest in more Chicagoland families.
In 2011, the foundation adopted Christmas in the 8th and 34th wards and became a 502c3 nonprofit organization. It primarily served black Chicagoans in underprivileged neighborhoods, but in 2014, Huggins and his partners renamed it Christmas in the Wards. The change made it possible to reach more diverse and underrepresented Chicago communities.
Huggins partnered with 49 sponsors, including Amazon, Walmart, Uber Eats, Comcast, ComEd, Target, and WGN. Each ward can also fundraise to create a bigger budget for Christmas shopping. The additional toys received from their sponsors were divided among the wards, providing extra gifts to families.
23rd Ward families were selected for Christmas in the Ward in mid-November. The 23rd Ward team reached out to local schools to find families that met the applicable criteria and needed a little help this holiday season. Ward staffers worked with the families to find out the children’s hobbies and interests to tailor their shopping experiences and ensure that the children received gifts they wanted.
Ward full-time staffers spent Monday, December 10, shopping at the Walmart on North Avenue in Chicago with a budget of $2,000 for all of their families. Earlier in the week, staffers Ro, Ann, Emma, and Jason were each given two to three families to shop for and they used every bit of the budget.
On Dec. 12, 23rd Ward staffers received their shipment of selected toys and began wrapping them. Wrapping lasted from 6:45 to 10:30 p.m. alongside workers from 36 other wards and organizations, including the Huggins Families, CHA families, City College of Chicago families, City Clerk Anna Valencia and Melissa Conyear-Evrins, and In His Hands.
The atmosphere was vibrant as staffers and volunteers alike hauled in their pallets of Christmas gifts, worked to unload them, and wrapped, bagged, and sealed gifts for each of their families. Many of the staffers decorated their tables with festive trees and Santas and played holiday music to pass the time and boost morale.
It was all hands-on-deck as the full-time staffers created a system to tackle the unwrapped gifts and ensure that each family received an equal amount of gifts.
Tables were lined up in a U shape in the McCormick Center’s ballroom, where families gathered the following morning to receive their gifts hand-picked and wrapped by their alderman’s office. One lucky family received an additional donated gift, such as laptops and bikes. Families not selected for the laptops or bikes would receive raffle tickets for a chance to win a big prize such as flat screen TVs, dirtbikes, kids’ electric cars, scooters, and more.