Neighbors in need offers volunteer opportunities

Jenna Little
Staff Reporter

As the holiday season grows nearer, the Carroll County community is already preparing for their annual Neighbors In Need program. Neighbors In Need is a countywide holiday help program that is coordinated by the Human Services Program of Carroll County, a non-for-profit corporation. The program helps low-income Carroll County residents have a better holiday. In 2007, the program helped over 3,000 residents.Holly Hutchins, deputy director of HSP of Carroll County, states that “some people who use this program struggle all year long just to pay their bills and put food on the table. Others might have been unemployed for awhile or might have had an accident or illness that they didn’t figure into their ability to provide the ‘extras’ that make the holidays special.”

Local organizations and residents donate gifts which become organized and displayed in the holiday shop. Mid December, volunteers called “elves” walk around the shop with a family member and assist them in choosing holiday gifts. Donations range from the basics like socks, underwear, pajamas, and shampoo to things for children such as games, books, and stuffed animals to things for adults.

The location for the holiday shop this year will be at the Cranberry Square Shopping Center next to the Giant grocery store in Westminster. The shop will open in mid-November but will be open full-time by the start of December, Monday through Friday from 9 am to 4pm. The shop will also be open during the evenings and weekends.

Volunteers can help shop for items to donate to the holiday shop ,or they can work at the holiday shop sorting and arranging donations. Simply helping organize donations can be a major help.
Hutchins encourages people to “think about how simple things can bring such joy to a person or a family.” She welcomes and appreciates any volunteers. She says that this program is a circle and “the more people that we can bring into the circle, the bigger it will get and the more successful, and joyful, this program will be.”