Holiday Sharing Head Program Directors Carol Cho and Alie Gibson
The Holiday Sharing Program (HOLS) is one of Madison House’s oldest student-led programs and has long provided local families with food and personalized gifts for the holidays, creating a remarkable impact and providing invaluable support to families in the Charlottesville area. This year HOLS partnered with the Hope House Program to serve unhoused parents with minor children in their physical custody. Under the leadership and dedication of Student Head Program Directors Alie Gibson and Carol Cho, enough money was raised to serve 53 families.
Each of these families went through a thoughtful and personalized process. After signing up, parents shared a wish list detailing their children’s needs and holiday wishes. Madison House volunteers used these lists as a guide to select and purchase gifts tailored for each individual child, all thanks to 95 generous donors! Leigh-Ann Webb, one such donor, notes, “The HOLS program is valued by the Charlottesville community because it provides essential support to those in need, fostering a sense of solidarity and compassion during the festive season.”
On December 2, 2023, Madison House welcomed all supported families for distribution day, where the house was filled with music, games, food, and holiday treats.
Holiday Program Directors Carol (left) and Alie (right) with Nancy Kidd, Director of Hope House (center)
“The atmosphere was warm and welcoming with smiles all around,” reflects Nancy Kidd, the Director of Hope House. “The entire experience was inspiring. Provision of breakfast and lunch foods, as well as sugar cookies with all the decorations a person could ever want were available in abundance. The Madison House students and staff were friendly and interactive. They even tried some of the fancy dance moves with a third-grade boy! He remains super proud of that!”
Nancy emphasizes the positive impact of adding festivities to distribution day, explaining, “Family homelessness is a dire problem with little opportunity to escape the stress of what happens next. It was a breath of fresh air to leave all that behind and just have fun for a few hours.”
HOLS volunteers prepare the house for a festive holiday party
UVA student attendees agree that the event was lighthearted and fun. “I loved the holiday party this year! The kids taught me how to ‘griddy’ and we played board games together for hours,” reflects Alie.
In years past, instead of a holiday party, distribution day was simply an opportunity to pick up gifts. Clearly, both staff and Charlottesville families were excited for the more lively change.
“What made this distribution day so special is that we were able to bring together the community in a way that we haven’t done before,” explains Program Director Sophie Reale. “Many of the families knew of each other through local groups, but none of them had really met in person. By making the event more of a holiday party than just an opportunity to pick up gifts, it allowed the families to meet and bond with each other and with our volunteers at Madison House.”
This is the second year that UVA’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy joined forces with Madison House.
“In 2021, [Batten] learned from Madison House that there was a need to help with the Holiday Sharing program. We immediately worked with both our Batten Undergraduate Council and Batten Graduate Council to devise a plan to help,” explains Shawn Anderson, UVA Associate Director of Student Services and Community Engagement.
Frank S. Batten School of Public Policy volunteers prepare bags of food for distribution
Batten students and staff helped the Holiday Sharing event by dropping off approximately 60 pounds of food and by providing monetary donations. In fact, the Batten community raised over $1,000 in only 24 hours. Shawn particularly enjoyed watching the students come together to give back to the community in this light. “Honestly, my favorite memory was watching Batten students come together as a community to help gather and pack meal kits for families,” he says.
Sydnee Pottebaum, a Masters in Public Policy candidate at Batten, points out that Batten operates from the premise that “public service is an expectation”. She adds, “Partnering with Holiday Sharing to serve the Charlottesville community helps us achieve that value while getting to help so many people.” Shawn agrees, saying, “We had been working to advance our service efforts in the community, and this opportunity really resonated with many of our public policy and leadership students.”
Simply put, Batten allows the HOLS event to give more than just presents. “Being able to partner with Batten to provide the families with a non-perishable holiday dinner has been so valuable,” says Alie. “I spoke with a couple of moms this year who emphasized that a burden was lifted by not having to worry about feeding their kids healthy and filling meals during the holidays.”
And, hopefully this partnership will expand in the future. “I have been developing plans to find more ways we can connect and work together,” says Shawn. “Madison House, having so many meaningful connections within the community, brings a lot of expertise to the UVA community. Specifically, I am working on ways we can get our graduate students more involved in Madison House efforts.”
Sophie underscores the importance of coming together to support programs like Holiday Sharing, summarizing, “This program helps bring holiday magic to people in the community who might be struggling during this time. It’s a great way to help students connect with local families and redefine what it means to give back.”
By Lily Bernstein & Cecilia Murphy
