After the holidays the Greater Manchester AIDS Project (GMAP) in Manchester, NH wrote to the members of the Miracle Providers. Here is their letter.
Greater Manchester AIDS Project · 170 Lowell Street, Manchester, NH 03104 · 603-623-0710
May 31, 2013
Dear Members of the Miracle Providers,
Happy Spring!
On behalf of the staff and clients of the Greater Manchester AIDS Project, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for your commitment and support to our agency! In partnership with you, we continue to meet the needs of children within our community that would have otherwise gone unmet due to lack of traditional funding sources.
Community organizations depend greatly upon the support of the communities they serve. The Miracle Providers and its members collaborated with the Greater Manchester AIDS Project to enhance services to our community by ensuring that agency children had gifts for the holidays. This relationship has developed into a commendable example of businesses and individuals coming together to make a difference in the lives of children affected/infected with HIV/AIDS. By your willingness to partner with GMAP we were able to provide a positive experience to children who so urgently need and richly deserve to enjoy the holiday season. We currently have 130 families facing the devastating impact of this disease. Children in these families may be coping with the terminal illness of a family member, the death of one or both parents, or their own HIV/AIDS infection.
Because of your commitment, support and thoughtful consideration, agency children had a very merry Christmas. You provided a first time American Christmas experience for children from Uruguay, Liberia, Congo, Rwanda, Bhutan, Nigeria, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada and the USA, of course! Warm clothes, bedding and toys delighted all family members. It exceeded their expectations. All were very grateful for the kindness given to them by a stranger.
- A very special thank you to those of you who shopped for our teenagers. I am very happy to report that one of our boys made the basketball team for the first time in his life. He actually called to say thank you and has new sneakers for the team! His mother is just as pleased as he is!
- Another one of our teenagers attempted suicide two weeks before Christmas. It was a very painful and difficult time both for her and her mother who is a single parent. Upon receipt of her Christmas presents, this young lady cried and cried. When asked why she was crying, she replied “because there is someone out there who caresâ€. An act of kindness changes lives. Let’s hope for the best, thank you.
- “Muchas Gracias†for taking care of our grandmothers who have custody of their grandchildren. One of our grandmothers came into the office to express her heartfelt gratitude for the beautiful gifts purchased for her five year old granddaughter. This grandmother has a daughter whose health is diminishing because of AIDS and is no longer able to take care of her child. She turned over custody of her five year old daughter last year. Despite the fact that grandma is on a very fixed income, this family had a wonderful holiday. The whole family is still trying to figure out how Grandma pulled this off… (Elves at work).
- For those of you who shopped for young children, great job! From “Dora†to “Tommy the Trainâ€, the kids got what they asked for. You can just imagine the smiles on parents’ faces when they came to pick up their gifts. (The majority of our single parents work, however, the median income for a family of four is less than $1000.00 per month.)
- I had a very special experience this week with a young man who is now eighteen years old. I was at a local restaurant with friends when I was approached by this young man. He wanted to thank me for helping his parents during the holidays. He told me that his experience at the age of 14 was his first Christmas. He went on to say that he would never forget his American Christmas. I felt like crying.
I don’t think that I can do an adequate job capturing the emotions of everything that occurred over the past season but I can assure you that this Christmas was a very special one. Once again, thank you all for your dedication, enthusiasm, and remarkable capacity for caring. Your support and contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS have been invaluable to us.
In the human service spirit,
Lillye Ramos Spooner
Director, Greater Manchester AIDS Project
Thank you to every volunteer, shopper and donor who made these gifts possible. Read about our Holiday Wish Program or see all our beneficiary agencies.