By Dylan Struwe (they/them/theirs)
Dylan Struwe
I was only ten years old when I first walked through the doors of a Haven Housing program. My church, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, has a long history of partnering with St. Anne’s Place. We have provided meals, books, gifts, volunteers, and more for nearly two decades. My church's biggest St. Anne’s event of the year is Santa Night. Santa Night is an annual event where families meet Santa, create winter-themed crafts, and the children pick out gifts for their mothers. It is a time for joy for the shelter guests at St. Anne’s.
My mom organized Santa Night for about ten years, coordinating the crafts and the volunteers. My mom always had extraordinary enthusiasm for this event and formed close relationships with the St. Anne’s staff, even watching their kids grow up.
I still remember my first impressions of the magic of Santa Night; I was just a child myself. It was so exciting when Santa walked through the door, and all of the kids just lit up. They were delighted that Santa found them while they were guests at St. Anne’s and that he wanted to know what gifts they would like for the holidays. The children decorated a picture frame that their photo with Santa would go into so that these memories could last forever.
Though Santa’s presence is amazing–he’s played by Haven Housing Program Director Sesany Fennie-Jones’ husband–I believe that the most magical part of Santa Night is the children picking out gifts for their mothers. Each mother writes down items that she needs or wants, and then volunteers travel with the children up to the top floor of the shelter to pick out gifts for them. The children handpick kitchen supplies, fuzzy socks, robes, beauty products, purses, and more for their mothers. The volunteers and children then carry these items down to the basement for wrapping. The children often cannot keep their gift choices a secret from their moms because they are just so excited.
I volunteered at Santa Night for so many years that it became a natural part of my holiday season. Santa Night fell on my birthday twice during this time, and I enjoyed coming to witness the magic on my birthday.
After around a decade of organizing Santa Night, my mom decided to pass the responsibility onto me. I was weeks away from graduating from college, and COVID-19 had changed everything about the event as we knew it. I logged onto an online meeting with my mom and Dena Swanson from Haven Housing to discuss how we would go about the event. I had no idea that Dena would eventually become my supervisor.
There were moments when I thought that we would be able to have in-person volunteers, but it just wasn’t possible with the November 2020 surge in COVID-19 cases. Members of my congregation, including kids, put together craft kits for the St. Anne’s families to do on Santa Night and Santa came virtually.
At some point, I asked St. Anne’s staff if they had any open positions at Haven Housing. I was encouraged to apply for an Advocate position at the Ascension Place program a couple of weeks before I graduated from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with a degree in Family Social Science. I was offered the position and started working for Haven Housing less than two weeks after Santa Night 2020. I never expected that an event that my mother organized when I was a child would lead to my first job out of college, but it has been such a blessing.
This year, I took on the role of coordinating Santa Night again. I have the advantage of knowing all of the staff I’m working with personally, and am more informed on St. Anne’s programming and what their shelter guests want out of the event.
My church put together craft bags once again, with frames, stickers, and scratch-off crafts. We ordered Cookie Cart holiday decorating kits so that the families could decorate holiday cookies together. My church also sponsored a few families, and I had the privilege of dropping off all of the supplies and gifts that we collected.
I am hopeful that we will be able to have in-person volunteers for Santa Night next year. I look forward to assisting the kids with crafts and shopping for their moms. But for now, I am grateful for the St. Anne’s Place staff who work to keep the magic alive, and who support these mothers and their children through their crisis or transition.
