Longboat Key church makes holiday bright for families

Though the Reading Buddies of Christ Church of Longboat Key haven’t met with the kids of Bradenton's 13th Avenue Dream Center since before the pandemic, they still did their best to make sure Christmas was merry. 

Usually, the members of the reading program host a Christmas party at the church where Santa meets the children of the program, and the children are given books. That couldn’t happen this year, so the organizers decided to raise money for the families instead. Reading Buddies program organizer Beverly Sutton said the church set a goal of $8,500 to buy turkey and ham dinners for 64 families, plus a gift for every child. 

In the end, they quadrupled their goal, Sutton said. 

“It was Christ Church members and family members of Christ Church members and neighbors of Christ Church members who I think … recognize that, yes, COVID has been a terrible inconvenience for many, but it has been devastating for some, and everybody has that need to reach out,” Sutton said. “When we set up our goals for what we were doing, we never dreamed that we would accomplish what we did."

With the extra money, the church expanded their donation packages. Each of the 64 families received a “take-it-and-make-it” holiday dinner package, a gift and a book for each child and a $200 gift card. The church also paid the Dream Center tuition of each child through the end of the school year. 

“(One) child who was in the program for four years, his mom, when we came and delivered all of these goodies, his mom said to me, ‘Everything about the COVID has been so hard. But the hardest thing right now is not to hug you,’” Sutton said. “That really is what it was like the day we distributed.”

Christ Church of Longboat Key has run the reading program for 13 years, when late Christ Church member Jack Hunkele approached the Dream Center about mission work. It began with just a few members reading to the children after school. Now, the church funds the whole program, including the salaries of a teacher and a teaching assistant, as well as the program’s materials. Before the pandemic, the Reading Buddies visited every other week. 

“They'll enjoy the food and the kids will read the books and play with the toys, but really our mission there is to teach,” Sutton said. “Because reading changes lives.”

Despite the pandemic, the Reading Buddies hope to find a way to meet with the children before the end of the school year, as they haven’t seen them since early 2020. The members are eager to reconnect with the children, Sutton said. 

“When they come to the center, they just fall in love with children, and every reading buddy says to me, ‘Really, you gave me the best child in the whole program,’” Sutton said. “And everybody thinks they have the best child in the whole program.”