Clickmas Christmas food drive family in Crystal Lake asks public to stop by, drop off food – Shaw Local

Last year Jacci Richards-Click and her husband Dan Click assembled two pickup trucks full of food for the Family Health Partnership Clinic.

Not a single box of food was delivered to Clickmas’ Christmas illumination display at 401 W. Woodstock St. in Crystal Lake this season.

For reasons unknown, the parade of cars that have driven past our homes to see the holiday lights for the past 30 years or so has disappeared this year. According to Richards-Crick, the food donations they began asking for two years ago have also not been made.

In the Last Name playoffs, they refer to their displays and corresponding donation drives as “Clickmass.”

“With about 50,000 to 70,000 lights, it’s hard for people to slow down and take a look,” she said.

Lights illuminate a 17-foot tall Santa, a sleigh, all the reindeer including Rudolph, and a host of other holiday characters.

According to Richards-Crick, it’s not uncommon for 100 or more cars to drive past your home on a weeknight to view the displays.

Until this year.

“There’s probably 50 groups walking around since Thanksgiving,” take a look at the display. She said it means there are fewer people to entrust their goods to.

As of Tuesday, there were only 20 items in the driveway donation box since Thanksgiving.

Lack of snow this year may have kept people away, said Richards Crick. Or maybe it’s the gas bill.

“If you think about it, gas prices are insane. Are you going to drive an hour or two through Crystal Lake and McHenry County? Otherwise it’s an expense for someone who doesn’t want to drive,” she said. said.

There was one bright spot in the donation. Another tenant in the building where her nonprofit is housed heard about her food drive and delivered food.

Nabil Merza is an insurance adjuster for DGB Adjuster Inc. and works for a roofing company. The landlord told him about what Richards-Click and her volunteer group, her Fisher Outreach Group Inc., are doing in the community.

Earlier this year, he bought $500 gift cards to Walmart, Target, and Walgreens to help seniors pay for prescription drugs as part of an adoption program. This week, he and his wife bought groceries for the clinic’s food drive and delivered them to Fisher’s outreach group.

“I’ve been where these people are,” Melza said, struggling to make ends meet. “Now I have a good job and a roof over my head.”

He plans to include the Fisher Outreach Group in future charitable giving while continuing to donate to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

The Cricks plan to keep the lights on in their home from 4:30 pm to 10:30 pm until New Year’s Eve. We will also put out a donation box for preserved food.

Fisher Outreach Group has not yet received nonprofit status from the IRS, so Richards Crick said he is not seeking cash donations.