Shopping therapy proved to be just the ticket for St. Paul Abilities Network’s DAC clients, who embraced the opportunity to buy and give something to those in need over the Christmas holidays.
DAC, which stands for Distinctive Arts and Crafts, is a day program for individuals with disabilities that helps bolster community inclusion through leisure and recreation activities, such as picnics, barbecues and bingos, and volunteer placements. For Christmas, the DAC clients decided “to enjoy the gift of giving,” according to team leader Fern Pelech.
The clients pooled their weekly bingo winnings, and 10 clients each with $12 in hand, along with SPAN staff, went shopping on Dec. 16 for two worthy causes: the animal shelter and a local family in need. Clients went to town, picking out diapers and clothes for the children in the family, and toys and treats for the animals at the shelter, and more.
“They had a blast,” said Pelech, noting that for days afterwards, the clients spoke about how much they enjoyed the Dec. 16 shopping excursion. Even now, Michelle de la Salle, a DAC client, sounds enthusiastic when talking about how she picked out baby clothes and other items for a family in need, adding she thought the donations would make the family feel “good.”
The family was found through de la Salle’s involvement as a volunteer with St. Paul’s Parent Link, which chooses a family to support every Christmas. Parent Link programmer Sheila Parks recalled that the little girl in the family had told her mom, “I don’t really think Christmas is going to be all that fun this year. I know Santa’s not going to be able to bring us much.”
But instead, the generosity of Parent Link families and DAC came flowing through with gifts, a Christmas tree and decorations and food. Parks was expecting the DAC contributions to be smaller, but their truck delivery of gifts filled her car. The single, hard-working mother of the family could hardly believe it either, said Parks. “It really made Christmas for the family, knowing that they had the support of the community, and that they weren’t alone.”
The activity also helped many of the DAC clients involved realize there were people in the world that had greater needs than them, noted Pelech. The staff working with DAC have been talking about keeping the goodwill flowing, perhaps by doing some shopping for the local food bank in the upcoming year.
Getting involved clients in the community is good for them and good for community members, since clients come to see the importance of giving back, while people in the wider community get to interact with and embrace SPAN clients, said Pelech, who wrote of the experience, “Understanding we all have blessings in our life, reaching out to others in the community enriches us further.”
