Boone County Commissioner Jesse Brewer's Holiday Angels program was featured by local Channel 12. Holiday Angels is a program founded by Jesse Brewer that helps at-risk Boone County Families during the holiday season. You can read the original article here and watch the newscast.
CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A local landlord is spreading Christmas cheer. The Landlord Santa program is back with a new name this year — Holiday Angels.
It’s the 13th year of the program. It takes kids on a shopping spree to buy them winter essentials and toys.
Real estate owner and program founder, Jesse Brewer, says the mission feels personal. “I grew up in a single-parent household and we were on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum and couldn't afford a lot of things so I knew what it was like to have one or two Christmas gifts or no Christmas gifts at all growing up,” Brewer said.
Kids are selected from Cincy Area Properties and schools in Northern Kentucky. The program hopes to serve 75 children this year.
“More and more families are struggling. The cost of everyday necessities are going up and up and up. I mean you can't turn on the news or read an article and not hear about how prices are rising and it just squeezes families that are really struggling to make ends meet, to begin with. It just validates this more and more every day for me,” Brewer said.
Anyone can contribute to the program but one donation feels extra special this year.
Erin Kendall and her four children were helped by the program a few years ago.
“It was a huge relief to know that we would still be able to pay the bills, we would still be able to have food and just do the normal holiday things and that they would still be able to have Christmas,” Kendall said. “It wouldn't be a thing where we'd have to sit down and explain those tough things to your kids and explain why they wouldn't have a lot of presents under the tree like they normally do.”
At the time, she wrote a thank you letter to express her gratitude and her desire to pay it forward in the future. That’s exactly what her family is doing this year.
“I'm a social worker. That's what I do is help other people and give back but also being a social worker, you don't make a lot of money,” Kendall said. “But my husband and I have worked hard to be where we are and be more financially stable and so I wanted to be able to give back. I know with COVID, there's a lot of families that are struggling like we were and I wanted to make sure that I could also explain to my kids like ‘hey, remember when we did that like now we're helping other families be able to experience that too.’”
The shopping extravaganza will happen at a local Walmart on Friday, December 3rd. You can donate to the program HERE.
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