Yes you C.A.N.

Group accepting donations for annual Children's Christmas Shopping Trip

Andrew Heiserman
Posted 11/15/19

Rochelle’s Community Action Network is helping out families in need this holiday season by taking kids on their very own shopping trip.

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Yes you C.A.N.

Group accepting donations for annual Children's Christmas Shopping Trip

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ROCHELLE – Rochelle’s Community Action Network is helping out families in need this holiday season by taking kids on their very own shopping trip.

The shopping trip itself is put on by the Community Action Network, but they coordinate with the First Presbyterian church to host their event in their venue hall, the L.O.T.S. transportation system who brings the kids and adult shoppers to and from the store, and LULAC of Rochelle who will be providing a spaghetti dinner to everyone in attendance.

The kids are referred for the shopping trip by their school’s counselors, then the kids are paired up with an adult that will accompany them on the shopping trip. After each of the kids have been paired up with an adult, their parents then fill out a shopping list for the adults to take along with them on the trip.

C.A.N. then provides the adults with gift cards to pay for the gifts.

“The kids shop with an adult shopper that takes the kids to Walmart to shop for clothes and one toy, with no restrictions on what kind of clothes or toys they can get,” explained Michelle Pease, CAN project leader.

The kids who are referred for the shopping trip are from families in the community who need the help the most.

This is a tradition that has been taking place for over 20 years in the community. This year the event will be taking place on December 12, at the First Presbyterian Church here in Rochelle. Along with the shopping trip and spaghetti dinner will be Santa Claus to take photos with, cookies, C.A.N. elves and books written in both English and Spanish being given away.

This event has a maximum of 225 kids that it can help and the amount of the gift card provided for the shopping trip varies with the amount of donations that C.A.N. receives that year. Anyone who would like to donate can do so by sending a check to PO Box 432, Rochelle, or in person by dropping a check off to either Michelle Pease with the Community Action Network or Pat Burch with Roy’s Transfer.

This event is very important to everyone involved in putting it together and they would like to thank the community for always being so giving to people in need.

“One of the things that is most significant to me about this program is that the Rochelle community is so giving, and they have always been that way.” Added Pease. “It is cool that people who have enough are willing to help out and give to those people who aren’t quite able to make ends meet.”