This was going to be a dismal Christmas for the Adkins family. They recently moved to Chula Vista from El Centro for a better life. For now, though, the mother was struggling to support her four children, whose ages range from one to 12. She earns barely enough to put food on the table and pay the rent. Christmas presents were a luxury that she could simply not afford.
Early in November that changed.
A Coronado woman who we’ll call Marnin, as she asked that her real name not be used, offered to be the children’s secret Santa. Her generosity is striking, but it isn’t new. She’s been helping out local families for years.
Marnin, which means giver of joy in Hebrew, got the idea from her grandmother. “People in her church donate Christmas boxes to needed families,” she said. “They called it Christmas in a Box.” Through a friend, Marnin learned that there were similar programs in San Diego run by the Good Neighbor Center.
The idea of direct people-to-people giving appealed to her. It was a way to have a real, direct impact on someone’s life.
But then she realized that she could give on a larger scale. If she could raise more money, she could give to more children, maybe even help out whole families.
Emails sent to friends netted $9,000. To this she added $1,000 of her own money and was able to give ten families gifts and gift cards worth $1000.
“I made up a tree of boxes, the smallest one on top had chocolate and a $500 gift certificate in it,” Marnin remembers.
That was seven years ago. With the exception of brief hiatus after her daughter was born, she has been raising money for needy families ever since.
From the beginning she established firm rules for her charitable giving. She always gives gifts or gift cards, never cash. Every penny goes to help people directly. She always sends the people who contributed a list of every gift and every gift card she buys, so they know where their money is going.
To makes sure people get value for their donations, she always shops for bargains, going from store to store to find the best price. This year, for example, she found a touch screen laptop at one store for $600, but later found the exact same model at a competing store for $324. She bought the lower priced version.
She finds families who could benefit from her generosity through her family and friends. “It’s always word of month, always from locals,” she said.
She had been hearing about the Adkins struggles for the past two years from her daughter’s nanny. “She was the same age as me, with four children, and faced so much hardship,” Marnin said “I always wanted to do something for them.”
This fall she spotted a stuffed animal with a pillow and blanket attached to it at Costco and bought one for each child.
“I thought the blankets might make them smile for a bit,” she said
When Marnin asked her the nanny how the children liked their blankets, the nanny told her that the mother was so grateful for them, but was saving them for Christmas. Learning that the blankets were all the children were getting for Christmas brought tears to Marnin’s eyes. That’s when she decided to ask the mother to collect wish lists from the children.
When she read them, her heart sank a little. Their wishes were practical, simple ones – clothes, shoes, school supplies, a laptop and books. Things your average Coronado kid would consider a necessity, hardly a gift. Being kids they also asked for toys, DVDs and games.
She sent the lists out to her friends and within a week she received $2,400. With the money she was also able give the children everything they asked for, plus picture frame and a photo session with a local photographer for a family portrait.
She delivered the gifts to the mother in the parking lot of a Mission Valley shopping center on Thanksgiving morning, along with complete turkey dinner that she had received. The mother was overwhelmed.
“Your kindness has touched my soul deeply. I’m so grateful for all you’ve done for my family,” she wrote.
“This year Christmas was going to be a little hard because of lack of funds, but thanks to you, your generosity and thoughtfulness my kids’ dreams will come true.”
In large measure, Marnin’s generosity stems her belief that we as a community have to care and do for one another.
Indeed she could not be helping needy families without the people on her e-mail list who donate every year. Many, like Marnin herself, are small business owners — including some she has known since childhood.
Growing up in a Coronado, she learned that when someone hits a rough patch, friends and family rally to help. Her holiday giving is an extension of that spirit. One she hopes to inspire others to do by telling her story.
“It’s easy to write a check to a charity and be done with it,” she said. “Giving directly to a need family is so much more rewarding. You not only get to see how you’ve benefited them, but you also have the satisfaction of knowing every penny went directly to them,” she said.
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Gloria Tierney
Staff Writer
eCoronado.com
