Volunteers show a little heart with Valentine’s Day gift boxes

Heather Rawlyk

Friday, Feb. 13, 2004 | 4:31 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

Feb. 14 - 15, 2004

Volunteers at the Saint Therese Center began spreading the Valentine's Day spirit Friday by giving their clients love-inspired gift boxes, straight from the heart.

This is the first year the center has given gift boxes on Valentine's Day, according to the Rev. Joseph O'Brien, of the Saint Therese Center. In the past, the center has given gift baskets to its clients for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and the fourth of July.

The Saint Therese Center, located at 67 E. Lake Mead Parkway, across from St. Rose Dominican Hospital de Lima campus, is a Catholic ministry that serves people of all faiths and extends its help to people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.

Ten of the center's volunteers worked for hours Wednesday and Thursday, putting together 165 boxes packed with frozen chicken, potatoes, onions, vegetables, diced tomatoes, stuffing mix, Jello, cake mix and frosting, cookies, juice, cans of fruit, cereal, pancake mix, laundry soap, and Party Time nut trays, to name a few items.

O'Brien said the gift boxes are expected to help 800 people.

"Each box costs $175," he said. "The boxes are designed to feed two people, but if there's a family, we will give them more than one box."

Gift box contents are mainly provided by food drives held through local churches, O'Brien said.

"We're officially Catholic, but other churches are very supportive," he said. "A lot of them are reaching out to the HIV and AIDS community and families. The local public and Catholic schools are phenomenal, and Century 21 also does a food drive for us."

O'Brien said making Valentine's Day boxes is a good way to stock the centers' food shelves during a usually bare season.

"Everyone is so generous during Christmas," he said. "But by the end of January, we are in need again. The idea is, let's push a Valentine's Day box idea and see if the community responds. It responded well, and we replenished our shelves and made these boxes."

Ed Brighton, a volunteer at Saint Therese Center, says giving Valentine's Day boxes is a way to show the center cares about its clients.

"It shows we care about them and it helps them to get back their dignity," he said. "Once you get this disease, people turn their back and we're here as a helping hand and a support for them."

Brighton said the baskets will give clients "a little bit of extra love" on Valentine's Day.

"You can see in the clients, their appreciation when we give them these boxes," he said. "They are always looking forward to holidays and the boxes."

Clients learn from volunteers and by word-of-mouth when the next box giveaway will be, he said.

"When it gets to be around the holidays, they come in and say 'What's in the box this time?' " he said. "It's something they look forward to. They're great boxes and we make them full."

To personalize the boxes and give them a loving touch, students grades 3-8 at St. Francis de Sales School made valentines to tape on each box.

"It's just creative and really nice and makes the boxes a little extra special," O'Brien said. "It's Valentine's Day, and everyone wants to get a valentine's card."

The Henderson Salvation Army also added a personal touch by donating the boxes.

"We are always in desperate need of boxes and they gave us all the boxes we needed," O'Brien said. "The boxes say Salvation Army on them, which is a great touch because we are community partners and we do work with each other."

Saint Therese Center is always looking for donations, O'Brien added. For more information about the Saint Therese Center or to donate or volunteer, contact O'Brien between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at 564-4224.

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