This one is for Nana.
For the past 20 years, the precious lady sent a holiday card thanking everybody for the “Basket of Joyfulness and Love.”
What we knew was she was elderly, lived alone in Denver and, “When the family brings the basket of fruit and visits for a while, it is my happiest day.”
She always closed with “Joyfulness and Love to All, Nana.”
There will be no card from Nana in the 21st year.
Her neighbor left a voice mail. “Nana has passed. Recently she gave me 20 baskets and a $5 donation for the Basket of Joy.”
Here’s my annual holiday begfest:
With your help, the annual Season to Share program can soar over the $25 million mark in contributions since its founding in 1992 by The Denver Post. These days are difficult for most Coloradans, but even more difficult for so many young boys and girls, elderly women and men, disabled or disadvantaged, unhealthy or unwanted, hungry and homeless.
If you despise my predictions, detest my opinions and are disgusted by my very existence, protest by charging a $5 donation on your credit card. Make it $5,000, and I’ll come to your house and apologize. The first $50,000 contributor can write my column for a day.
The Post’s Season to Share is a McCormick Foundation Fund recipient, which means that 50 percent of your donation is matched. A $5 contribution magically becomes $7.50.
STS has no administrative costs, so 100 percent of the money is spread among 74 Denver-area charities and nonprofits. My family has been associated with 18 of the organizations; your families probably have been involved with more.
The Ronald McDonald House, Warren Village, the Bal Swan Children’s Center, SafeHouse Denver, the Colorado Chapter of the MS Society, Doctors Care, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, the Anchor Center for Blind Children and Big Brothers-Big Sisters are only a few of the worthy causes STS supports.
The National Sports Center for the Disabled provides scholarships for low-income kids with disabilities, allowing them to participate in sports and recreational activities.
Contributions are tax deductible, and your name will be acknowledged in The Post. The major reason for donating is you will feel good for doing something so great.
Go to the website to check out the charities, the poignant stories about the beneficiaries and how to donate. There’s also a contribution coupon that appears regularly in The Post.
My personal project is the Basket of Joy.
In 1987 two sisters, retired teachers, were bilked out of their entire savings and their house and possessions by a crooked stock investor they trusted. They ended up in a nursing home. With assistance from Dan Sutton, produce procurement manager for Albertsons, I took the women two giant fruit baskets and thousands of holiday cards mailed in by readers — to tell them we care.
The other residents of the retirement center seemed to enjoy the fruit, the cards and the festivities. I met with Sutton and Linda Dee, of the Volunteers of America, to figure out if we could distribute baskets before Christmas to practically every lonely senior citizen in the area. Naive, I am.
I committed to raise the money (or write a bad check) and ask for volunteers to assemble and distribute the basket, and elementary school students to hand-make holiday cards; Linda agreed to get the names and handle all the logistics, and Dan procured the apples, oranges, pears and bananas, the chocolate candy, the colorful cellophane wrapping and big bows, and a free warehouse from a generous company.
Somehow, with your financial support, we pulled it off in 1988 — and every year since. Over a 20-year period more than 125,000 baskets full of fruit and joy have been delivered by kind men, women and kids. The Post, Albertsons and Volunteers of America, churches, retirement centers, neighborhood groups, schools and corporations became our partners.
(Interestingly, the basket and its contents cost about $5 then, $6.60 now.)
Linda is retired now, and Dan lives in Boise, Idaho, but they always return to do the job while I just get in the way.
On Dec. 12 — with hundreds of volunteers (including scores of 20-year veterans) at the assembly-line tables and in their cars and trucks by the loading docks — the Basket of Joy will happen again, and more than 5,000 seniors will receive a surprise visit, a special gift basket and thanks from a grateful Denver.
My mother, who will be 83 on Pearl Harbor Day, moved to Denver two years ago and can’t wait to assemble and deliver again. She is finally proud that a disobedient son got one thing right.
Basket of Joy led to Season to Share.
You help a whole lot of young, old and in-between folks, and you honor the memory of one. Love and Joyfulness from All, Nana.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
