Extended Families King Center Program Lets People Adopt Entire Families For The Yule Holidays

Lissa Rubalcaba knows what it’s like to wonder if Santa Claus will remember to visit her family.

A couple of years ago, when she thought there would be no Christmas, the 21-year-old mother painted pine cones and drew pictures, wrapping them in newspaper with pretty red ribbons. They were gifts for her 2-year-old daughter, Jezzyka.

That was all she and her husband, Carmelo, 23, had to give.

“How do you tell your kids there will be no Santa this year?” Rubalcaba said, sitting in her apartment where a sparsely decorated Christmas tree - the family’s first - stands in a corner.

This year, the Rubalcabas will have more for Jezzyka than pine cones, thanks to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center’s Adopt-A-Family program. It matches needy families with other families and organizations. Adopters usually provide food and gifts such as clothes and toys for needy families.

But the program that is helping spread the Christmas cheer also needs help this year.

With just seven days until Christmas, 76 of the 196 families who applied still need to be adopted.

Organizers say the slow economy is partially to blame for the general decline in donations.

“Giving across the board has been slow,” said Valerie Marshall, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. “People are more reluctant to give this year.”

When Adopt-A-Family started in 1991, only nine of the 99 families who applied did not get placed. The program has grown since then.

Because the center didn’t have the money to help those families, the staff appealed to a group of people who could.

“We had so many families in need,” Marshall said. “We just called on families in the community to help, and we’ve been doing that ever since.”

Last year, the telephone lines were flooded with people who wanted to adopt.

This year, the telephones are busy again, only the callers this year are asking for help.

In addition to a slow economy, larger families are in need, said Linda Brown, who coordinates the program. Many have six to 12 members.

Larger families tend to have a harder time getting adopted because people think it will cost them more, Brown said. That’s not always the case.

Donors can give whatever they want, Marshall said. The most common requests are for socks, coats and toys. The items don’t have to be new and expensive, organizers say. Many families and organizations donate used items.

More families are requesting Christmas trees and lights. Some adopters have paid the family’s electric bill.

What’s more, the program is a more personal way of helping out. Rather than writing a check and sending it off in the mail, donors get to see exactly where their gifts are going, Brown said.

“If families make their delivery, they get to see how the family is living,” Brown said. “Seeing the need firsthand helps.”

Reaching those in need directly is part of the reason why Debbie and Ken Dieter have adopted families for the past three years.

“When you see them it makes you feel fortunate for what you have” Debbie Dieter said, adding, “You realize your problems aren’t so bad.”

The Dieters, who adopted the Rubalcaba family this year, say the program involves more than just giving. In return for their gifts, the Dieters get something that has no price.

“It feels good deep inside when we get a family like this that can really use the help,” Ken Dieter said. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: HELP WANTED The following programs still need help this holiday season: Adopt-A-Family. A service offered by the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, the program matches needy families in the community with families and organizations that adopt them. Adopters provide various things, including gifts and food. For information, call 455-8722, or stop by the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, at 845 S. Sherman. The Ronald McDonald House. The organization, which provides services and shelter for families who have children in the hospital, needs about 30 new toys, including trucks and dolls for kids ages 1-12. For information, call 624-0500. Searchlight Association. The nonprofit group is looking for donations to help pay for its dinner baskets to the needy. Baskets will be distributed Dec. 21-23. For information, call 324-2099.