2024 Christmas Bureau Wrap Up
We didn't quite have the final report finished before last month's newsletter, but we wanted to make sure we shared this year's Christmas Bureau "by the numbers." And while Christmas Bureau is about so much more than data, we do look for trends over time to help plan for next year. It was another interesting post-pandemic year. The number of households that applied and qualified for help was up 68 from last year, and the total number of people served was up by 131.The number of adopters fell again in 2024, and what isn't really captured in the report tables is the dramatic decline in large adopters, groups that might shop for 25-50 households.
As of December 13, 139 households, representing more than 400 people, had not been adopted. With 12 days before Christmas, UWKV had to make a tough decision to purchase gift cards for families that had not already been shopped for. The sheer number of hours that would have been needed to shop, wrap and deliver far outstripped the staff and volunteer capacity in the moment. Thankfully the community rallied to the cause, donating the funds to make sure that we were able to provide some sort of assistance for everyone who qualified.
This year's wrap-up would not be complete with out an enormous thank you to Advisors Excel for rebuilding our Christmas Bureau data base from the ground up, giving us a stable, easy-to-navigate, secure platform and hours of incredible technical support. All the groundwork they laid this time should make things even smoother in 2025. We were especially pleased that their system allowed adopters to choose a family right away instead of having to wait for us to match them.
Thank you to everyone who supported our neighbors in need during the 2024 holiday season. Whether you donated, volunteered, shared our posts, adopted a family on your own or with friends, you made someone's holiday much happier than it would otherwise have been. And we hope it made your holiday brighter too. We'll be back in late October, ready to go again.
