BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
LONG BRANCH — Family & Children’s Services (FCS), sponsors a clothing and toy drive for disadvantaged families throughout the county that, according to the program director, is a tradition dating back almost a century.
“We say that Operation Sleigh Bells started back in 1909, when the agency started,” Linda Steele said. “The agency was started by a group of concerned citizens collecting gifts and food in a cart and delivering them to those in need throughout the town.”
Almost 100 years later, the FCS is still gathering donated presents and delivering the gifts to less fortunate families during the holiday season.
“We are just continuing the tradition,” Steele said. “We help people who are working hard on minimum wage {jobs} who have a hard time with the holidays.”
FCS is a nonprofit agency that assists Monmouth County residents with services from prenatal to hospice. The agency’s nurses, home aids, therapists and social workers help more than 10,000 people a year, she said.
FCS, located at 191 Bath Ave., also operates a food pantry on Union Avenue and at its Bath Avenue headquarters.
Among the 24 programs offered by FCS, Operation Sleigh Bells is one of the most rewarding programs, Steele said.
“The families we assist are beyond grateful,” she said. “No mother wants their children to wake up on Christmas morning or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa without presents.
“We get beautiful thank-you notes and all the families are very appreciative.”
This year FCS, with the help of the community, is adopting close to 450 families, according to Steele.
“Most of our families are referred to us,” she said.
The referrals come from schools, county agencies and almost everywhere else, Steele said.
“We then talk to all the moms about their situation, their children’s ages, sizes and what they want for the holidays,” Steele said. “We have situations from single moms and fathers to a grandparent who need help.”
“We still have 250 families on a waiting list,” she said. “This year we are in need of sponsors.”
There are several ways that individuals, families and businesses can participate in Operation Sleigh Bells, Steele said.
One way is through the anonymous gift giving program in which the donor or donors adopt a family, she explained. FCS provides the ages, sizes and wishes of each child in the family.
Some sponsors in the past also provided gifts and a basket of non perishable food for the caregivers, Steele added.
Gifts are dropped off at FCS headquarters in Long Branch by the sponsors and distributed to the caregivers to give to their children.
Another way to get involved is to donate new, unwrapped toys, clothes and nonperishable food, Steel said.
FCS also accepts gift certificates or monetary donations used by the agency’s staff members who go shopping for the families.
To donate gifts, to become a sponsor or for more information, contact FCS at (732) 222-9111.

