Operation Joy is a yearly tradition that exists to provide gifts to families in need who are connected to Woodland or one of our partner organizations. 2018 was our 14th year of Operation Joy!
With your help, we were able to provide gifts to 36 families who were nominated by Close to My Heart child care, our Congolese church partners, and by Woodland’s Care ministries. Along with gifts, each family received a gift card to Cub to use toward a holiday meal.
In addition, we doubled our giving to The Lift with 40 gifts! The Lift is an organization that invests in the youth of St. Paul’s East Side, and their offices are in our building. One of the programs The Lift offers is a Christmas store where children and parents can shop for gifts for each other at minimal cost. The kids used tickets that they had earned in the program to buy gifts for their parents.
Altogether, Operation Joy gave away 315 gifts—a big success!
Thank you to all who gave, and to our volunteers for their work in organizing and prepping the gifts.
