By Rita McInerney

Helping another family is "a very important part of Christmas" for Gay and Joseph Crawford. For the Marietta couple, members of St. Ann's Church, Marietta, it is one way their three young children discover not everyone lives in an affluent neighborhood.

The Crawfords carry on a tradition of Joe's parents in West Point, GA. "They did it for many years, as far back as I can remember," he said. It was a rural area; the senior Crawford was in the insurance business and knew the people who needed help. The younger couple began "adopting" families for Christmas "13 of 14 years ago," before they married, with other young friends.

For several years they have been among the St. Ann families who request names of families for Christmas sharing for the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society. "We do the 'family' before we do our own family," Gay Crawford said in explaining how it has become such an important part of the season.

This year their Christmas family includes a mother and three children, a girl, 11 and boys, six and five. "I knew exactly what they wanted," she said looking at her own three, Casi, 11, Christy, eight and Joe, six. For the girl she bought a radio tape recorder and a jacket, and for the boys "GI Joe" toys, a racing set and warm-up suits. She bought a lot of clothes and gift-wrapped them. Along with all the new gifts, there were used clothes collected in the neighborhood and a Christmas dinner cooked by a friend.

Best of all, the children contribute to the giving. Casi gave the girl her age some of her favorite books and Joe gave the boys some "GI Joe" pieces.

While the great bulk of the gifts contributed by 150 St. Ann families are taken by truckload to areas in the north Georgia mountains and to downtown Atlanta, the Crawfords prefer to deliver their gifts personally. Then the children see another world than their own pleasant environment of comfortable homes set among green lawns and tall pines where children play touch football and dogs chase squirrels.

In the other world, children can be strangers in a new land, or dispossessed by fire and living in a shack down a back road, or facing eviction for a low-rent apartment in the city. These are realities Gay and Joe Crawford want their children to be aware of. "We are very fortunate in having what we do and we like the children to grow up sharing," Gay said. "You always wish you could do more," her husband added. This year they did. He came home with the names of three children from an office list of over 250 names.

Sometimes there are bonuses. A special friendship has grown between the family and an Hispanic mother and her three children "adopted" two years ago. A washing machine was among the Crawford gifts to the family that year. Later they helped her move into an apartment. She has a job now and "sends our children gifts," an appreciative Gay Crawford said. "She gets a lot from her faith."

There are memories, some haunting. Wan faces of little children peering out from windows of a shack that became their shelter after their own home burned down. Bringing Christmas to this desolate scene made all the spending and wrapping meaningful.

Last year the 19-inch television set they purchased for an Atlanta mother couldn't be delivered. The woman and her three children were being evicted. They delivered the children's gifts to a relative's home. Over the year, Gay Crawford heard from the woman often, has paid electric bills for her but refused her request to deliver the TV set to the apartment of her boyfriend.

Gay Crawford accepts the fact that not every experience is heartwarming. She doesn't get turned off because there "are so many people out there who are really needy to be helped all year round."

She admits "adopting" a family doesn't get away from the materialism that surrounds Christmas in today's age. "But you're buying for somebody else and putting in a lot of time. God will notice." And she sees her children are responding to the true spirit of Christmas.

The first shipment of gifts and clothing given by St. Ann families went off Saturday, Dec. 12 to 45 families in the mountains of north Georgia. Thirty names were submitted by Sister Catherine Concannon, SSND, who works among the rural poor in Banks and Jackson counties. Gifts for 15 families in Bean Creek were delivered to Covenant House in Sautee.

Another truckload was delivered Saturday, Dec. 19. Along with recipients in the mountain areas, lists of the needy families are requested from Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Anthony and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception parishes. Cobb County Senior Services also gave a list of 30 couples and individual senior citizens in need of some Christmas sharing.

In addition, according to Sally Chrow, president of the parish SVDP, "tons of toys" were collected from the children in CCD classes, a coat collection was taken, and a food drive was held from mid-November until after Christmas.