ATLANTA – The Particular Council of the St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) collected Christmas gifts for 400 children affected by the floods in South Georgia.

George Thomas, SVDP truck driver, and Carolina Antonini, manager of SVDP’s Clairmont Road thrift store, traveled to Albany to deliver the gifts for distribution Friday, Dec. 16.

SVDP is working with St. Clare’s Neighbors in Need Ministry, an outreach of the Savannah Diocese in a collaborative effort.

St. Clare’s, whose soup kitchen, food pantry and thrift store were flooded this summer, is working out of a Catholic school gym while their center is being rebuilt. Realizing their financial, personnel and space limitations St. Clare’s asked SVDP to assist them to supply flood victims with holiday gifts. Christmas gifts were donated by parishes from the Archdiocese of Atlanta and many who responded to a story in The Georgia Bulletin which explained SVDP’s commitment to working with the flood victims in South Georgia throughout the holiday season.