During the holiday season, the Bucks County Courier Times and the Levittown-Bristol Kiwanis Club partner to collect and distribute monetary donations to assist struggling local families.

The 2021 holiday season marks the 64th year of the Give A Christmas fund. Over the years, the Courier Times readers have contributed a total of more than $4.7 million to help their neighbors in need purchase a gift for a child or food for a holiday meal.

In the 2019 holiday season, donors contributed $125,481.30 with approximately 2,250 families helped. This year’s fund goal is $132,000.

The money collected is distributed primarily as $25 vouchers for children in struggling families in Lower Bucks County. The vouchers are redeemable at participating local supermarkets and other stores.

Merchants participating in the program are:

• Acme Market locations:
  New Falls Road, Levittown
  Bristol Road, Bensalem
  Second Street Pike, Richboro
• Barnes & Noble:
  Neshaminy Mall, Bensalem
• Burlington locations:
  Burlington Store 197, 1563 Franklin Mills Circle, Philadelphia, PA
  Burlington Store 1042, 2375 East Lincoln Highway, Langhorne, PA
• Redner’s Market locations:
  Knights Road, Bensalem
  1361 Lincoln Highway, Langhorne
  Richland Mall, Quakertown
• Selecto Market:
  Pond Street, Bristol

With help from educators in Lower Bucks County's schools, request letters from families in need are provided to the Kiwanis Club for the distribution of vouchers. Other agencies that deal with children, neighbors, friends and needy families also provide names of people in need. Senior citizens in need may also receive vouchers after the requests from families with children have been met.

The program is called Give A Christmas in the spirit of giving, but help is available to all persons in need regardless of religious background. A portion of the money raised and not needed to satisfy holiday requests may be used at other times in the year by the Kiwanis Club to assist with food insecurity and emergency needs of families in Lower Bucks county.

TO GET HELP: Submit names, addresses and circumstances of those in need in writing. Please print the child's full name, parent/guardian's full name, age, grade and school district. Send to: Give A Christmas, P.O. Box 841, Levittown, PA 19058.

TO GIVE HELP: Send donations to  Give A Christmas, P.O. Box 862, Levittown, PA 19058.

Make checks payable to Give A Christmas and please include the donation form found in print in the daily newspaper or available for download at BucksCountyCourierTimes.com/GiveaChristmas. If you don’t have the form, please send a note with your donation that includes you name, town, phone number (not for publication), donation amount and any message you wish to have published with your gift. Also indicate how you wish your name to be listed or if your donation is anonymous. A link to make a secure online donation can be found at BucksCountyCourierTimes.com/GiveaChristmas.

QUESTIONS: To contact the Levittown-Bristol Kiwanis Club with an inquiry about Give A Christmas help, email lbk@levittownbristolkiwanis.com.

To contact the newspaper for a question about publication of a donation, contact the Enterprise News Director Crissa Shoemaker at cshoemaker@theintell.com.