LCAC Makes Christmas Happen For Hundreds of Lorton Families

The distributed a record amount of donated gifts to nearly 300 Lorton families on Sunday evening. 

For about two cold hours, a long line of children and parents snaked around the Woodbridge Moose Lodge #583. Santa Claus greeted them inside with stuffed animals, and before leaving, the families exchanged warm handshakes with LCAC volunteers and took with them Christmas gifts concealed inside trash bags. 

Tough Season For Giving

It's Christina Vance's first year living at Fort Belvoir with her husband and six children. Vance and her family received donated gifts from the LCAC on Sunday night. "We are very appreciative of all of them at the LCAC," she said. "These people give us more than we could ever hope to expect. They take extreme care of us, get to know us and it's nice to know there are people in the community to help us with this."  

The LCAC collected three times more gifts over last year. "This is way more than we've ever had before. The guy with the Moose Lodge was shocked," said Linda Patterson, the LCAC's interim-Executive Director.   

The 663 Lorton-area kids also left the Moose Lodge with knitted caps and winter gloves or mittens 

"For some of these kids, these are the only gifts they'll get this Christmas," said Kathy Noone, LCAC Director of Human Resources. "I love this day. This is the best." 

Gwen Owen, a music teacher at William Halle Elementary School, has volunteered with the LCAC for three years. "To meet the needs of people at a time when the economy is so bad, and to see their faces when they come in and for them to know someone cares - there's no greater joy," she said.