Bowling Green has never fallen short of giving gifts to families during the Christmas holiday. However, through interaction with these families, we have learned that many of them do not want a hand-out and actually find it very hard to receive hand-outs year after year. Families struggle with being reminded that they cannot provide gifts for their children, often evoking feelings of failure and shame.

So on December 7th & 8th, Hope House hosted the Affordable Christmas Program for 225 families  at Parker Bennett, Warren and Dishman-McGinnis Elementary Schools.  This event empowered families to provide a fun Christmas for their children all the while gaining dignity and value.

Hope House received over 1200 gifts from the community along with another $5000 in cash to buy presents. We were able to help parents get gifts for 334 children! Parents came and shopped for their children (at 1/10 of the retail price) and then spent time wrapping the gifts with our volunteers. The event was a huge success. We are humbled to be used by God to break the cycles of poverty, even with something as small as Christmas gifts.

Here are some photo’s from the event: