SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The holiday season is wrapping up, but the spirit of giving is still alive in Sioux Falls. A group of volunteers gathered near the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House Saturday morning to hand out drawstring bags, breakfast sandwiches and water.
Inside each bag were winter gear essentials like hats and hand warmers.
“We assembled 120 drawstring bags this year. In our first year, we started with 40. That kept climbing to 100 last year and then, you know, you can’t go backwards, so you have to keep going forward,” Brent Bartels said.
What started as an idea between friends, has grown into a mission to help others. Eric Pauli and Brent Bartels have been organizing the Christmas Drive for three years.
“Three years ago, we were posing the question to each other, ‘Okay, how can we make this a reality and find a group that would be able to use our help that we can provide?’ And so this is how it all began,” Eric Pauli said.
Volunteers helped pack bags Friday evening and distribute them in the morning. For them, the bags represent more than just physical comfort. They represent messages of hope.
“If you see a brother or sister in need without clothes and food, that rather than just offering them your prayers and thoughts or saying a good word to actually go out and to fill that need, to help put clothes on their back and food in their stomachs,” Pauli said.
The bags were filled with small comforts, but for many recipients, the true gift was feeling seen and cared for.
“Everybody can kind of do something like this too. It doesn’t even have to be through us or through, you know, another organization. It could just be going out and doing something nice for somebody,” Bartels said. “Hopefully, the goal is to spread the message of Jesus.”
