Brandon Twp.- This Christmas, there will be presents under the tree for one local family that had none last year.

“I wish I would have asked for help last year,” says Melissa, a 46-year-old township resident and mother of five children ages 20 to 9-years-old. “We were scraping by and I was embarrassed and we didn’t ask.”
Her voice breaks and her eyes fill with tears as she continued, “We didn’t have anything for them… We went a whole year without any birthday gifts. We talked about it a lot. I told them that at least there was still a roof over their heads and that the house was their Christmas present.”

They may not have the house next year. Nearly two years after her husband’s business failed, this month marked the first time they have missed their mortgage payment. The $1,200 bill just can’t be managed on the salary Melissa earns as a full-time church secretary and the part-time minimum wage job her husband recently took with the Salvation Army.

The future is uncertain, but one thing is assured: thanks to the kindness of strangers and the Ortonville Community Emergency Fund, there will be gifts under the Christmas tree for Melissa’s family this year, bringing joy in an otherwise dark time in their lives.

“It means a lot to have OCEF help us,” said Melissa as she stood in line at the OCEF food and gift distribution Dec. 13 at St. Anne Church, 825 S. Ortonville Road. “I love these people a lot. I wish I could be helping, too. What would people do if OCEF wasn’t here? They’d just suffer. We try so hard to get by and it just doesn’t seem fair. What they are doing makes it a little more fair.”

Dozens of Brandon School District residents who had signed up for assistance braved frigid temperatures and treacherous roads on Monday to pick up food and gifts donated by a community seeking to help their less fortunate neighbors. OCEF volunteers also fought the weather to get to the church and make it all happen.

“This Christmas distribution will be challenging today because of the weather, but we’ve worked under worse conditions and gotten it done,” said OCEF President Karyn Milligan. “Santa’s sleigh will get through… We are once again able to do this through the generosity of the community and take care of the families. Volunteers are the heart of OCEF, but it’s the community’s heart that keeps us going.”

OCEF helped 194 families and a total of 843 individuals this holiday season. Among them were Loucinda Wier, a 33-year-old mother of two sons, 16 and 12, who has received help from OCEF for the past four years. Wier has multiple sclerosis and is unable to work.

“I come here for food when I need it,” she said while waiting in line at the distribution. “They make my Christmas brighter.”

Tiffany Flores, 29, feels the same. The mother of three children, ages 8, 4, and 2, has been out of work for the past two years. Her boyfriend was injured on the job at nearly the same time as she was laid off from GM. She expects the unemployment checks to be cut off in January.

“We’ve gone through rough times, hopefully at the end of the day it will all work out,” she said. “I don’t know what I would do without OCEF, especially right now during the holidays. They make Christmas. Without them, there would be no gifts.”

Some of those gifts will come from the Community Christmas Toy Store. On Dec. 11, the toy store, set up at St. Anne Church, opened for struggling parents to come in and shop a free selection of hundreds of donated toys, books, games, dolls, stocking stuffers, hats, gloves and more for their children up to age 12. About 250 children in the community will receive gifts from the CCTS, including 200 pillows in handmade pillowcases donated by customers of Mabelena’s Quilting Supplies and Comforts, 470 Mill St. Each child will receive at least three gifts.

CCTS President Betty Stewart was worried when the toy store became a separate non-profit organization from OCEF last year, but is relieved that the community never faltered in their support.

“I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the community more than ever,” she said. “The Ortonville community is just incredible.”

Melissa believes her children will be very, very surprised Christmas morning.

After last year, I don’t think they’re expecting anything,” she said. “Thank God for OCEF and the volunteers and the people who give.”