Homeless Veterans Enjoy Special Christmas Event

COLTON>> With a warm turkey dinner, clothes to take home and a night of community, many homeless veterans, or veterans who were recently homeless and their families had the chance to celebrate a special Christmas event Wednesday, Dec. 21, at the VFW Post 6476 in Colton, California. Hosted by the Ladies Auxiliary of Post 6476, Aubrianne Kester, coordinator of the event, said she had the idea in September to do something different for this year’s Christmas party by reaching out to the community, veterans and their families who are in distress or need. Kester, along with the other women of the auxiliary, helped coordinate the party including donating and cooking a traditional turkey dinner, setting up a sugar cookie decorating station and holding a clothing drive where many family members and friends donated clothes for individuals to take with them. Kester also shopped for toys for the children and Santa made a special appearance to hand them out to the children. “If there is anything I can take from this day, my biggest goal was to be able to make an impact or difference in someone’s life, even if it’s just for one day or a few hours,” Kester said. “Everybody deserves that love.” During one of the Ladies Auxiliary monthly meeting, Kester brought the idea and Evangeline Moyeda, vice president of the auxiliary, helped get in contact with Karen Young-Lowe, President and CEO of Lighthouse Social Service Centers. Lighthouse Social Service Centers is a corporation dedicated to enhancing lives and meeting the diverse needs of individuals, families and communities. Through the utilization of comprehensive integrated social service systems, LightHouse Social Service Centers supports clients in breaking the cycles of addiction and homelessness, works to keep families together and strives to build strong healthy communities. The corporation has many housing services which include a transitional living program for homeless vets, a Rapid Re-Housing Family Program, a Hope for Heroes Permanent Supportive Housing Program for disabled vets and their families and more. “It means so much to us as a social service provider when the community extends themselves to us and says ‘here we are opening our doors, please bring your clients in and we will do something special for them,’” Young-Lowe said. “It’s important for the children to feel special and also important for our veterans and their families to feel special.” Kester and Young-Lowe worked together to help bring the Christmas spirit into the lives of those in attendance. “This means the world to them because many of them didn’t have a Christmas like this last year and didn’t have a home to take these thing to so that makes it extra special,” Young-Lowe said. Kester said the event provided an opportunity for the veterans to meet with one another, mingle and share their stories. “We all came in here as strangers, but we will all be friends when we leave and these doors will always be open to us,” Kester said.