The story behind a ‘Christmas Storie’

The plain community room at Baldwin Park was transformed last month into a Christmas wonderland to benefit eight needy families.

Baldwin activist Heather Cameron and her team of “elves” spent a December evening altering the room to befit a visit from Santa and a roomful of families.

Among the treats provided the families: a full Christmas dinner, plus enough goodies and gift baskets to take home, gift cards, gifts of clothes and toys, dessert and cookie-decorating stations, children’s entertainment.

Also parents were secretly given gifts and wrapping paper to take home, so that their children would be surprised Christmas morning. “The kids feel like they’re coming for a holiday party, they don’t realize that this is how and where they get their Christmas,” Cameron said. “They don’t need to know that.”

Cameron has been operating a “Christmas Storie” for six years. Each year a number of families are selected as “adoptees,” based on recommendations from social services, domestic violence shelters and word of mouth from Cameron’s own circle.

Residents from Baldwin and neighboring communities participate by “adopting” a family and working to provide each family with a memorable Christmas. This year, Nassau County Legislator Laura Curran and State Assemblyman Brian Curran each adopted a family, Cameron said, while Delicious Moments catering of Baldwin provided food.

Cameron named the event Christmas Storie, after her 8-year-old daughter “in honor of the love she’s brought into my life.

“We’re thanking God for our blessings,” Cameron said, adding that her daughter, Storie, “loves to do this. We made centerpieces ourselves for the families, so she takes a lot of pride in this.”

Cameron said her former profession as a social worker initially inspired her. “There’s a lot of clients at holiday time. [People have to] stand on long lines [for services]. It’s a degrading experience. Even though it’s meant to be helpful, it’s degrading.”

People, she added, “shouldn’t be made to stand on line to get some chintzy toy. There’s a better way of helping people and making it feel more like a loving kind of help.”

This year, the families included two single fathers, one with two children, the other with four, Cameron said. “You don’t have that as much. I have two single moms with two kids each.”

In addition, there were two families with two-parent homes, but where neither parent was working. Each of those families had three children. Of all the families, four were from Baldwin, two from Oceanside and one each from Freeport and Hempstead, Cameron said.