Page 28 - December 2015

n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
gram from attorney and one-time at-risk kid, Tom Tuohy, the pur- veyor of the FOP Benefits Program. In 1989, Tuohy, Nolan, several other Lodge members, Touhy’s mom and sister along with newborn niece Heather, who has been to all previous 25 days of hope, piled gifts and food into a bunch of cars, donned a bunch of Santa’s hats and brought the hope to Clara’s House, a shelter for homeless kids in Englewood.
Each child gets to take home a gift bag.
A Day of Hope
Lodge 7 contributes to an amazing holiday event
The Dreams For Kids Holiday For Hope Christmas party extraor- dinaire brings together more than 1,500 misfortunate, homeless, at- risk kids and 300 volunteers–many of whom are Lodge 7 members–for a day of giving and believing like no other. The event advocates replacing handouts with handoffs, charity with opportu- nity and being the first day of hope for a coming year of accomplish- ing anything by paying it forward.
CPD Officer Dennis McNamara dressed up as Santa, and what they saw when Clara opened the door showed how powerful - and necessary - this gift of giving could be.
Explaining, let alone understanding, what gives on this day at the Broadway Armory (scheduled for Dec. 19 this year) is no easy task. Our beloved Past President Bill Nolan has been a part of every Holi- day for Hope since it began on Christmas Eve 1989, but even he can’t quite explain the joy of giving that takes place.
“There were more than 50 kids doubled up in beds and sleeping on the floor,” Tuohy reveals. “Clara pulled me aside to say thank you. When I told her it was the least we can do, she said, “You don’t under- stand. If you didn’t show up, these kids would have never known it was Christmas. You brought them Christmas.’”
“It’s hard to say how it makes you feel; you’ve got to be there to wit- ness it,” Nolan submits. “When you’re all done, you can’t believe what you did and you can’t wait for next year. And every year, you want to do more.”
Holiday for Hope brought Christmas back to Clara’s House the fol- lowing year and then visited a second shelter. The next year, a third was added. The fourth year, Holiday for Hope moved to its first home, Our Lady of Sorrows on the City’s West Side where another
Dreams for Kids and Holiday for Hope are the pay-it-forward pro-
28 CHICAGO LODGE 7 n DECEMBER 2015
that brings Dreams for Kids