This Christmas, if your financial situation is strong and you are looking for a way to share the joy, Northern Rivers Community Gateway (NRCG) can help you bring a ray of sunshine to a family in need.

NRCG do a lot of good in the community, and this project spreads love and cheer throughout for people in need, for those that take on that mantle of giving for a good cause and for the dedicated workers at Gateway.

One day a year, the Gateway office becomes the very images you see of Santa’s workshop. On the days leading up to Christmas, there will be wrapping, sorting, and popping surprises into Santa Sacks heading for special families that may not otherwise see a celebration at Christmas.

Twenty families are up for adoption, and 90 others will receive hampers from the community via Gateway.

The team at Gateway work with many families throughout the year, and they know who is struggling the most. Jenni Beetson-Mortimer, the CEO of NRCG, says the process of selecting the 20 families is not simple, “We try to limit it to those who work with our whole team.”

Not any family is eligible, “We all look at the families that we're working with, and then, based around an assessment criteria, some names and families are put forward.

“The people in most need are getting them.”

There is a team at NRCG that leads this project. Kristin Torrance and Sarah Muston work together with Jenni.  

Jenni says these families “Are very vulnerable, families who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, also impacted by the cost of living. They're impacted by a whole range of issues, which might be homelessness, domestic violence, and families whose parents have died, so they're impacted by lots of things that affect their lives.

“Christmas can become an added stress. They can't celebrate Christmas because they can't afford to buy their kids gifts. They can't afford food. We're finding that it's growing every year - we’ve got a greater number of families that are impacted by the stress of Christmas and that are really in need of support.”

Many are primary caregivers looking after their own family and, sometimes, others. The cost and rarity of daycare does not make finding work an option.

Kristin says, “I see people that don't have two incomes; how hard it is on those people. We've got people who are taking care of not only their own but others as their parents aren't there for any number of reasons.

“It's really quite sad to see around Christmas. What we want to do is relieve a little bit of that, relieve a bit of the financial burden, and give some happiness to them over Christmas.”

The system is completely anonymous. The family the donations go to, who provides the donations. However, some businesses do provide vouchers, which is a valued item, as it gives the parent the ability to provide some input to what the family gets.  

Last year, Brad's Fitness generously provided a $50 voucher to go into every hamper, which was very well received.

Kristin adds, “We allow the parents to decide who the gifts come from. They can say it's from Santa, or if they want to say it's from them, or if they want to say it's from their friends in the community, then they can do that as well. But I think that that's really important, that we allow the parents to decide who the gift is from.”

All the gifts go into a Santa Sack to be received by the family. Kristen's mother makes all the Santa Sacks - and sews them up herself. The material order for this year's Santa Sacks was placed on the day of the interview, bringing excitement to their cause.  

Sarah talks about the day all the gifts, food, sacks and hampers are prepared for distribution, “Our staff come together as a team building exercise. And we wrap most of it and sort them - for a boy 13 years of age, or a girl seven years of age.

“We get a lot of staff who are working across different programs. We're all downstairs, wrapping, sorting, and a lot of the families that have been nominated have travelled through several programs within the Gateway because we have a really good wraparound support system.”

That might include emergency relief, financial counselling, loan schemes or trauma counselling or maybe the sexual health clinic.

“A lot of us will be aware that a family has been through so many programs here, and now they get to come and collect this hamper of goodies for the kids. It's a really fun day to end the year on. Very Christmassy.

“We try and include something for everyone, so the mum or dad or carer in that family also receives a gift, but predominantly, it's trying to brighten up the children's Christmas morning.”

Jenni admits, “To be honest with you, we could probably add more to the list. Our caseload has at least trebled since the flood.” Jenni’s team try and keep it to the most dire cases.

To get involved, you can either, select a family from the list below, but they are already being nominated, so you may not get the family you select. Email or call NRCG to formalise your adoption.

Email: hub@nrcg.org.au

Phone 02 6621 7397

Jenni says, “Some local businesses are doing it as part of their charity drive for Christmas.

“We find that the Northern Rivers community is actually quite generous, and so local businesses, as well as families in the past, adopted a family.”

The donations are up to the adoptees, but Jenni says they usually give at least one clothes or laundry basket full of food for Christmas, and they give gifts for the nominated children. 

You can also donate gifts straight to NRGC, and they will ensure they go into one of the 90 hampers to be distributed to needy families.

Please ensure any donations are received at the NRCG hub at 76 Carrington St by Wednesday 4th December.

Below is the list of families to adopt:

Also below are some statistics from the NRCG: