MONROE - As the season of giving approaches, a Monroe holiday tradition will no longer be able to give to everyone.

The Monroe Woman's Club Christmas Stocking program provides families in need with food boxes, and winter coats, boots and toys for children, and more. But this year, an increase in need has forced the program to cut back the scope of its operations.

"We decided that we could no longer support middle school to high school students," Stocking organizer Mary Deininger said.

Deininger said more than 500 families have been referred to the program this year, a sharp increase from about 350 last year.

"We have a lot more young kids from birth to fifth grade," said toy drive coordinator Pam Drafall. "We don't have the kind of resources to deal with all of them."

Deininger said the parents of teenage children were understanding about the cut, and that one mother was amazed the program had provided for teenagers for so long.

Drafall said in previous years middle school and high school students received coupons for a pair of jeans or a sweatshirt - "so they could pick them out themselves."

Despite the change in service, Christmas Stocking will still provide for about 900 children this year, Deininger said. The program will also receive support from 303 volunteers who buy items and put together packages for families.

"Our clientele has gotten larger, but it's gotten more defined, too," Drafall said.

Although the program continues to grow, Deininger said she knows there are still more families in Monroe who should receive help but don't.

"There was one mom who refused to take her food box," Deininger said. "She said there were others who needed it more and that they could survive on food stamps."

Despite this, every year sees a great outpouring of support for the program, which helps as the program reaches more and more people by the year, Drafall said.

"It's phenomenal that there's a community ready to help everyone," Drafall said, adding that dozens of Monroe businesses offer their services each year as toy drive donation sites.

Of course, the program can always use additional support, Deininger said. For example, volunteers are welcome to help pack and deliver food boxes on Dec. 21 and 22.

"The toy drive is wonderful," Drafall said, "but people also get coupons for boots, coats and snowpants and we still need money for these."

Deininger said the Stocking program has been lucky in past years to always receive enough donations to offset operation costs. Many of the donations come in through the envelope fundraising drive: A pre-addressed envelope is included inside today's edition for the convenience of donors.

"Monroe is the most spirited and loving community I've ever been involved in," Deininger said.



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Numerous groups and businesses help support the Christmas Stocking effort each year by hosting toy drives to collect new items as gifts for children in need.

Donated items are set up at a special "shoppers" room at the Behring Senior Center where volunteers can select appropriate gifts for the children they've been assigned to shop for.

The toy drives help stretch donated funds even further, organizers said.

Toys that are donated later in the Christmas season are carefully stored until the next year so that the Woman's Club has a fresh supply of gift items ready.

Toy collection sites are located throughout the city. Among the sites is The Monroe Times, which has a Christmas Stocking toy collection box in its lobby at 1065 4th Ave. West.