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Posted on Sun, Dec 13, 2009 : 6:34 p.m.

Warm the Children shopping trips a joy for both families and volunteers

By Paula Gardner

After I made a couple of calls recently to set up Warm the Children shopping trips, a coworker asked if I’d write a column about my experiences.

“Sure,” I said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. And it’s a great program.”

But I’m really not unique. Dozens and dozens of friends, neighbors and strangers in Washtenaw County have been Warm the Children shoppers over the years.

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Many, like me, offer to take an increasing number of families on the trips each year after realizing that our role - meeting the families at the store, making sure they buy as close to $90 as possible of clothing for their children and wishing them a happy holiday - is really one of the easiest volunteering efforts ever.
 
But it’s an important role. Families wouldn’t be able to shop if there weren’t enough of us to make the trips and keep track of the vouchers.
 
It starts with making a phone call to set up the meeting at the store. For many years, I met shoppers at Meijer stores in either Ann Arbor or Livingston County.
 
One year, a mom and I recognized each other as the most pregnant women in the store, both of us ready to give birth within the week.
 
One year I went to the wrong Meijer, then sped to the right one, where the mom and daughter were happily just finishing up and not concerned at all about my tardiness because it gave them more time together as the girl, about 10, tried on outfits.
 
It’s really just my job as a shopper to make sure the parents get as much as possible for their children, but the parents - and the kids, many of whom came along this year- know exactly what they want.
 
Over the years, I’ve seen many shopping styles. Some parents scour the clearance rack. Some buy multiples of the most rugged blue jeans, knowing how hard their boys can be on knees. Some make sure there’s something special in the cart for the child - maybe a frilly nightgown, maybe a T-shirt with favorite character on it - along with the most practical items they can find.
 
By the time we’re heading to the checkout lane, some of the parents look at the piles they’re ready to purchase and calculate whether they’re really the most-needed items on their lists. If they’re not, we stop to make adjustments.
 
But all of them put the clothing on the conveyor belt and watch the register total with some anxiety. And when the total comes in, we do one of two things.
 
We smile over how much they got.

Or we panic, realizing that we have a couple more dollars to spend, and hold up the line while someone races back to get socks or a clearance T-shirt.

That may be the only really hard part. But within seconds, even that moment of “just a minute while we get something else,” passes. No one working at the register has ever minded. And no shopper behind us has said a word, either.
 
And then it’s just about over, another Warm the Children buying trip done and my role as a volunteer over.
 
The bags go in the cart and the family says thank you. This year, I got hugs. This year there also were some tears, or some fast partings to keep either a parent or this shopper from misting up.
 
This year no one took the Warm the Children shopping for granted. And every purchase seemed more needed, and was more valued, than I can recall in previous trips.
 
This program is about fulfilling needs in our community.
 
But it’s also more than that. There’s the true joy it generates among the families who get to participate.
 
And the gratitude that the rest of us feel as we witness it.