THE HOLIDAY PROJECT--People Being with People

Each year, many of the more than two rnillion people confined
to hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons, are alone and
forgotten during the holiday season. At the same tine, many
individuals in communities across the country feel the same
wdy, often searching for opportunities to make their holiday
seasons more meaningful.

The Holiday Project is such an opportunity.

The Holiday Project began in L97l-, when eight people in San

Francisco joined together to visit patients in a loca1
hospital on Christmas Day and share Christmas dinner. The
project grew, over the years, to include Chanukah as well as
Christmas, and visits to prisons, nursing homes, psychiatric
facilities, shelters for battered wives and children, ds well
as to hospitals. Since its forrnal incorporation in L980, The
Holiday Project has expanded to rnore than l-00 communities.
In the l-986 holiday season, 22,000 participants visited
nearly 2OO,000 people in 2,000 institutions--an
accomplishment made possible by a corps of 2,7OO management
volunteers.

Participation in The Holiday Project takes many forms. In

addition to visiting and serving on a managlement team, people
make gifts, attend gift-wrap parties, provide entertainment.
Individuals nake direct cash donations, or monthly pledges
through rrFriends of The Holiday Projectrrr while corporations,
in addition to making generous cash donations, contribute
through matchinq gift programs and by donating merchandise
for gifts.

Each year The Holiday Project receives recognition and

acclaim from local governments and state legislatures. In
December of l-985 it received such recognition from President
Ronald Reagan.

1388 Sutter Street #500, SanFrancisco,CA94109 (415) 474-7285

The Holiday Project is incorporated in California as a
not-for-profit charitable corporation gualifying for tax
exemption under Section 50L(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue
code. It is rnanaged by local committees, regional teams, by
a national committee (also all volunteers), by the Executive
Director, Dr. Elizabeth Russell, and by the Board of
Directors.

The purpose of The Holiday Project is to provide the

opportunity for people to contribute, and be contributed to,
by being with others while visiting in institutions during \
the Christmas and Chanukah holiday season, and by
participating in activities that support such visits. The
relationship created between those visited and those who
visit is at the heart of The Holiday Project. Visited and
visitors alike receive the gift of giving, in the true spirit
of the holiday season.
trWe gave gifts and sang songs, but it was as if the sonqs
and the gifts were just the excuse we used to be close
to each other. Now f have only to remember that day to
have rny hotiday be the way I always wanted it to be. rl

A Holiday Project Volunteer