Published: December 21, 2007 10:10 am         

Business gives the gift of warmth

Women at YFRC receive new coats

DANVILLE — Children come first at Christmas, of course, but many adults have needs at this time of year that go unmet.

Carrie Owens, who works in Cellular One’s billing department, heard about just such a situation.

“A friend of my mom’s forwarded an e-mail to me that she’d received,” Owens said. “It was about a group of women that could use some help.”

The e-mail talked about the women and children in Your Family Resource Connection’s residential program. It said the children living there had generously been “adopted” by two local groups and would all receive gifts for the holiday.

But the e-mail mentioned there were no gifts for their moms or any of the other women living in the residences.

YFRC provides the only shelter for homeless women, with or without children, in Vermilion County. They are housed either in the YFRC or at several units reserved for them at the New Holland apartments.

Currently, a total of 35 women live in the two locations, along with the children some of them have.

Owens shared the e-mail with her Cellular One co-workers. They were moved by it, too, and decided to take these women under their collective wings.

“We wanted to do something for them,” Cassy Carter, CEO of Cellular One, said. “The babies and the children were taken care of. We wanted the moms to get something for Christmas, too.

“YFRC provides a very valuable service to these women and children during a stressful time of transition,” Carter said.

Cellular One provides year-round support to a variety of programs in the 11 counties it serves. The company sponsors phones and service to police department cars, public school nurses, emergency response personnel and domestic violence victims.

“As a family-owned and locally operated business, (we) appreciate the support we have had from this community for nearly 17 years,” Carter said. “We feel it is important to give back.”

And give they did. It took Carter, Owens and Colleen Wright, assistant general manager, three trips to bring all the gifts Cellular One donated to these women inside YFRC.

Each gift was similar, but not identical — a brand-new winter jacket in a size that matched the residents.

Rose Karuzis, program coordinator of YFRC’s residential floor, provided that list.

Although she knew ahead of time that Cellular One would make a donation for the women in the program, she was overwhelmed when she saw the more than 35 shiny red gift bags the three employees placed under the tree in the building’s lobby.

In addition to a bag holding a coat for each resident, extra gift bags held gloves and scarves as well as cosmetics for the women.

“I was so excited, I was dumbfounded,” Karuzis said.

She wasn’t the only one. Mary Fenstermacher,a YFRC resident since October, could only grin as she looked at the display in the lobby.

The pregnant Fenstermacher said, “I’m so grateful for a place to live, for my health and for the support here. The people who work here are wonderful. This place has helped me a lot.

“And now, all this,” she said, gesturing at the gift bags.

Fenstermacher, whose baby is due right around Christmas, said she wants to return to Danville Area Community College and continue studying psychology once she gets on her own.

“So many people offered us help (this holiday),” Karuzis said. “If there’s anything else we need right now, it would be pillows. But we need those all year.”