If you don’t already know what the Portland Press Herald Toy Fund is, let me give you a quick rundown.
The newspaper raises money from readers and uses it to buy Christmas gifts, toys and books – purchased through locally owned Maine businesses and nonprofits, to boot! – for children whose families wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise. The fund has been operating every year since 1949. I started writing for the paper in 2017, and every year I’ve written a December column about the Toy Fund and donated my earnings from that column to the fund.
It’ll be harder to do that this year than it’s been in years past. The price of everything seems to keep going up, and it’s harder to make ends meet on $19.50 per hour, which is what I make at my day job. And sometimes the ends don’t meet. I’ve accidentally overdrawn my checking account several times this year already. Basically, I can just about make it by comfortably if absolutely nothing goes wrong … and of course, life happens.
Last month, I had two big, unexpected expenses: a new car battery ($250) and my cat’s final veterinary bill ($600). Christmas presents are probably going on a credit card this year. And in many ways, I’m lucky. I own my own house; it’s in a (relatively, for now, I guess) affordable part of the state. I can’t be kicked out at the whim of a landlord wanting to turn it into condos. And, for better or for worse, I don’t have kids yet. If I was a single parent right now, I would absolutely be visiting the food bank and applying to the Toy Fund too.
I’m still going to donate this paycheck. I think it’s important to be generous, even when it’s difficult. Especially when it’s difficult. You can take the girl out of Catholic school, but you can’t delete thirteen years of religious education. I think of the parable of the widow and her two copper coins; how Jesus says that even though wealthy men are giving more money to the temple, her gift is worth more because it’s all she had.
I wish I could give more; I would if I were rich, but then I wouldn’t be rich for very long. We live in a culture that looks down on poverty, but the vast majority of us here in America, and certainly in Maine, are a heck of a lot closer to homelessness than we are to private jets. There should be no shame in poverty, or just barely staying above water, or having enough for necessities but not enough for extra gifts for your children. The shame should be with those who hoard more wealth than they could ever possibly spend, who have so much when others don’t have the basics. But the ghosts will come for the Scrooges another day. And I will throw in my two mites.
I’ve sat through dozens of Christmas pageants in my life and participated in several of them – primarily and appropriately as the herald angel and a pageant narrator. I could recite the facts of the nativity tale from a fairly young age, but like most things taught in churches, I didn’t really understand how meaningful it all was until I was older.
When Jesus came into this world, he wasn’t born into the halls of wealth and power. He was born in the first-century equivalent of a motel, and from there had to leave his homeland and cross borders as a refugee from persecution and violence. His parents didn’t have money for gifts; the three wise men came through with them.
The families sleeping in overflow spaces because the shelters are full and it’s cold outside? Yeah, that’s where he’d be. Jesus would have been a Toy Fund kid. Yes, I know technically Christmas as a concept hadn’t been invented yet, but don’t stop me when I’m rolling with a metaphor. And yeah, he was God in the flesh, but Jesus was also just a kid born into a tough situation that wasn’t his fault.
And why was he given gifts? To celebrate him; to show that he was sacred and special, even though he was literally born in a barn. That’s why the Press Herald Toy Fund exists: to show each kid in Maine, regardless of their circumstances, is sacred and special and worth celebrating.
Victoria Hugo-Vidal is a Maine millennial. She can be contacted at:
themainemillennial@gmail.com
Twitter: @mainemillennial
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