Utah Valley Christmas Box Club Bringing Comfort to Children During Difficult Times

Wendy Harn (left) and Betty Quinn (right) at the Utah Valley Christmas Box Club donation center. 

As shoppers scan fliers for Black Friday sales, local humanitarians hope they will consider picking up a few extra items for Utah's neediest children. Charitable programs are bracing for an unusually high number of people needing help this season, notes one such humanitarian, Betty Quinn.

Quinn should know. As president of the Utah Valley Christmas Box Club, she comes face-to-face with the growing need in Utah Valley year round. It is the added stress that is typical of the holiday season, she said, and deep economic strife that comes with the times that are lead causes of the increasing crises among Utah families.

The Christmas Box

“The Utah Valley #ChristmasBox Club was founded by #RichardPaulEvans,” Quinn said regarding her involvement in assuaging pain during troubled times. “They support abused, abandoned, and neglected children o f Utah Valley.” The club is a function of the Christmas Box International organization in Salt Lake City, according to Quinn, established also by Evans.

The programs were modeled after the message conveyed in Mr. Evans' popular novel, The Christmas Box. Christmas Box International contacted Quinn four years ago, she said, and asked if she would oversee a Utah Valley club. Her agreement was met with her signing on other civic-minded friends to join her in the cause. Today, twelve volunteers make up the Utah Valley Christmas Box Club (UVCBC). With Quinn as its president, she is joined in leadership by fellow Paysonites, Lois Knuteson as Vice-President and Wendy Harn as UVCBC Secretary.

The Club, which meets monthly throughout the year, operates out of a 2,000-square-foot office space, located at 426 South Main Street, in Spanish Fork. Each year a business donates an office space for the donation center. Items were beginning to flow into the building last week, as Quinn and Harn began setting up tables and boxes before the assembling begins. They expect to have things labeled and ready to go by December 10.

The Utah Valley Christmas Box Club has received an astounding response from the community, Quinn added. Clubs and organizations have signed on, businesses have responded by collecting or contributing from their own stock, and local citizens have stepped up to give. UVCBC members expect their entire donation center to become filled--wall-to-wall--with donations in the weeks to come.

Needed items include clothing, baby care items, hygiene products, blankets, school supplies, and toys to cheer sad faces. The items are sorted by size and packed in convenient, labeled baggies by Christmas Club volunteers, then turned transported to the Christmas Box Room, located at the Provo Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The work is ceaseless for local volunteers, as they aim to help keep the Room well stocked with necessities for the neglected and abused youngsters who arrive with very little.

“They are so traumatized when they first come in,” Quinn said. What awaits them inside the Christmas Box room provides comfort as much as fulfills a basic need.

Aside from the Christmas Box Room donations, Quinn and associates engage in similar projects in the local community. The Grand Families Program provides gifts to children who are being raised by their grandparents. “We are reaching out to the grand-families, grandparents raising their grown children's [kids],” she said. In Utah, “83,000 grandparents are raising their grandchildren.” Substance abuse is high among reasons, according to Quinn.

“Three items are provided to the family's children,” Quinn explained, noting that the local club has found thirty-three sponsors to provide for families residing in Utah Valley.

Through the Giving Tree project, organizations and groups receive twenty-five card stock ornaments, all hand-decorated and marked with an item needed, the handiwork of local school children and LDS Young Womanhood groups, for which they set out to fulfill.

Giving trees are located at businesses all throughout the Valley. Though the gift requests vary, from toys to clothes, Quinn notes that gift cards are especially helpful, as they enable the organizations to buy the right size of clothing, especially for the older recipients whose requirements are more varied.

The Santa Helper is a program that provides an entire Christmas for children. Donors receive an ornament with the needs of child in the amount of between $70-$75. Quinn notes that this program has received substantial support from families, civic groups, and individuals.

“At any given time 22,000 children at risk in state of Utah,” said Quinn. “Sad to say, abuse is all-year-round.

Quinn adds that, “At the present time, the Utah Valley Christmas Club is looking for a permanent donated office space for their operational needs throughout the year.” For more information about the Utah Valley Christmas Box Club or to find out how you can help, contact Betty Quinn at 801-465-3645 or bettyquinn15@yahoo.com, Lois Knuteson at 801-465-3703, or Wendy Harn at 801-465-7728 or wharn@q.com.