Spirit of giving

By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -

MIAMI| Cancer, unemployment and eviction notices. These are not words typically associated with the vocabulary of Christmas.  

For some families, these are words that threaten them year round, but they especially take a toll during the holiday season. If there is not enough money to pay an overdue electric bill, how can parents buy toys for their children? How does an adult choose between paying for their personal and much needed insulin or food for their family of four?  

This holiday season, the Heart of Christmas program donated 100 MasterCard gift cards to 100 individuals and families who are significantly in need throughout the Archdiocese of Miami. While the money may not pay all of their bills, the Heart of Christmas can help with holiday expenses, allowing those who are in need to buy food, clothing, and maybe even toys. 

Katie Blanco-Crocquet, chief development officer and president of the archdiocese’s Development Corporation, marveled at how the program has grown since it began three years ago.  

“It started with 40 $500 gift cards. Last year we distributed 55 $500 gift cards. And this year we will be giving out 50 $500 and 50 $250 gift cards, due to the overwhelming need,” said Blanco-Crocquet.  

Over 100 applications for help were submitted this year. The individuals and families receiving the gift cards were nominated by pastors and archdiocesan program directors of organizations like Catholic Charities, who work with the poor year-round. Once the applications are in, Archbishop Thomas Wenski reviews them along with a team from the Development Office. 

The individuals’ and families’ stories are heartbreaking: “a single mother with a sick child that needs repeated surgeries … a widower who lost his wife to cancer and is raising his three children… a mother seeking to pay for a Catholic education for her daughter, in spite of financial stress… a wife with eight children whose husband has been unemployed and unable to find work over the last six months… a quadriplegic and his wife who are both unemployed because she needs to care for him at all times and cannot afford help… a family who lost their daughter to a rare organ-attacking disease and discovered that their oldest child has the same disease… a pregnant wife, whose husband is a deployed Marine, who has miscarried numerous times and fears for her current pregnancy as well as her financial needs…” 

All problems that cannot be solved by gift cards, but a little bit does help. The funding for the gift cards comes from the archbishop’s personal charity fund, which is replenished throughout the year. MasterCard also waived the activation fee for each of the cards. 

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to help everyone because the need is always greater than the resources available,” said Blanco-Croquet. “However, it is my hope that we were able to impact and touch the lives of many families this Christmas season.” 

The gift cards made a significant difference in the holidays of two families from Centro Hispano Catolico Child Development Center in Miami, a service of Catholic Charities.

Margarita Molina, a case manager at Centro Hispano, presented the families with the gift cards on behalf of Archbishop Wenski.  

“Both families are very grateful,” said Molina. “We are very thankful for the help and support that were provided for these families.”  

While Christmas remains a season of giving and receiving, Archbishop Wenski, in this year’s Christmas message, reminds us “to approach the child who awaits in the manger. His hands are stretched forth, reaching out to us, seeking our embrace. He reaches out not to take anything from us but to give to us. To believe in him we lose nothing. On the contrary, we gain everything.”