'Tis the season for giving and helping families in need in the Bay Area.
This Saturday, a holiday celebration in San Francisco's Chinatown will bring lots of cheer to children.
'BeChinatown Christmas,' now in its third year, doesn't happen without the generosity of so many, including the volunteers, who give back to a community who has given them so much.
Volunteer elves were busy unloading gifts and packing bags for the event.
“This Saturday, Dec. 17, we're going to be helping out at ‘BeChinatown Christmas’ on Waverly,” said Jonathan Sit of the Chinatown Volunteer Coalition.
The Chinatown Volunteer Coalition or CVC is one of the several local organizations working to put on the event and helping families in need.
“These families typically are underserved and they're part of the multiple Chinatown organizations. Most of them lived in near impoverished conditions,” Sit said. “We may not be able to change the system and the way that they're living, but at the very least, we can give them a nice Christmas.”
Julia Quon said that she connected with CVC because she wanted to give back to a community, she calls home.
“This volunteering is really important because I see it as a pay it forward,” she said. “It really takes a lot of the community to come together to make sure that Chinatown is a wonderful, thriving place for everyone to live.”
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Some 3,000 gifts will be distributed during the event.
More than 1,000 toys were donated from the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program.
In addition to the toys, there will be lion dancers, interactive games, prizes, and Santa.
The free event will take place this Saturday, Dec. 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the 100 block of Waverly Place.
