A GOOD CLAUSE.
Operation Santa Claus Chair Lisa Hopkins, an optometrist in Naples, is organizing the adoption of needy families this month. Rotary Club members and the community can participate.

The Rotary Club of Long Beach is no stranger to making charitable contributions in the community, and this holiday season the club’s members are upholding a 10-year tradition of delivering gifts to local needy families at Christmastime. Dubbed Operation Santa Claus, the program was launched in 2000 by Rotarian Joe Castro, vice president of Dougherty Insurance Company in Signal Hill.

What started as 15 families receiving clothes, necessities, and toys for their children at Christmas has now expanded to more than 60 families this year. Lisa Hopkins, Operation Santa Claus chair, is an optometrist in Naples who has been organizing the event for the past three years. Hopkins said the Rotary Club has received a list of families in need from contacts in the Long Beach Unified School District (in particular Edison Elementary School this year), Long Beach Day Nursery and Operation Jump Start. “The names of the children and parents, their clothing sizes, and their wants and needs are listed,” Hopkins said. “Then a Rotarian will volunteer to adopt a family and go shopping for them, although you don’t need to be a member of Rotary to participate or adopt a family.” Hopkins and California State University, Long Beach, student volunteers who are members of the Rotary’s Rotaract Club usually go shopping with cash and gift card donations to the program the first weekend in December, Hopkins said.

The group usually shops for between five and seven families that weekend and then wraps the gifts to be delivered. Castro, who adopts a family every year, participates with his wife and children. Castro said the idea for Operation Santa Claus was born in 1998 when his mother asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he couldn’t think of anything he didn’t already have. “I had everything I already needed, so I asked my mom to adopt a family instead,” Castro recalled. “I adopted some families too that year. As my kids have become involved, it’s been a reality check for them to see what they have. It’s fantastic that the program has been opened up to community members outside Rotary. “It would be a dream come true if 100 families could have the Christmases they wanted.” Randy Gordon, Long Beach Chamber of Commerce CEO and a member of Long Beach’s Rotary Club for 15 years, said he has adopted a family each year since the inception of the program. “What interested me about it was giving back to a needy family,” Gordon said. “To see the joy in children’s faces is something that you never forget. I never want to stop doing this.” Gordon and his fiancée usually adopt families with at least four children and Gordon said he tries to find the exact toy that a child asks for on the family’s list. Appointments are arranged with each adopted family for gift delivery individually, but Gordon said he likes to deliver gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, just like a real-life Santa Claus. “We want the children to be there when we arrive with the gifts,” Gordon said. “It’s been a wonderful opportunity. We always leave saying we wish we had given more. It always makes me so happy to do it.”

Patrice Wong, executive director of the Long Beach Day Nursery, has been a Rotarian for six years and has recommended 10 of the families for Operation Santa Claus this year. This will be the nursery’s first year participating. “We serve over 300 children from 6 weeks to 6 years old,” Wong said. “All of the families will be from our West Branch this year. Some of the families have below the median income, but don’t have enough to receive government subsidies (for childcare). We know how much Christmas means to these families, so it’s a great partnership.” To volunteer for gift delivery or to adopt a family, call Lisa Hopkins at 434-7775. To donate by check, make checks payable to The Long Beach Rotary Charitable Foundation, and they must be received by Dec. 4. Checks can be mailed to the Rotary Executive Offices, 1119 Queens Highway, Suite 103, Long Beach, CA 90802. For more information about Rotary, call 436-8181.

—Gazette photo by Darcy Leigh Richardson By Darcy Leigh Richardson Staff Writer Published: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 3:06 PM PST