LJWorld.com

The Internet is bringing the Lawrence community closer together this holiday season to serve the hundreds of families who need assistance.

Larryville.com, an online community, and Facebook.com, a social networking site, are serving as avenues for groups of people to connect and help strangers.

"I guess it's kind of ironic," said Pat Johnston, of Lawrence. "Everybody says the Internet is drawing people back into their homes and not getting the face-to-face, that people aren't helping each other. But that's not the case."

Johnston and friend Jeff Pierce are helping carry on a Larryville.com tradition started by a former Kansas University student Case Bruyr. Bruyr started "Santa Case" on the Web site to find families in need and then collect donations and items around the city to deliver.

Johnston said numerous families post their needs or family friends make a suggestion for them.

"Some of them are heart-wrenching," he said. "One young girl is waiting on a liver transplant."

Because Bruyr is in China this year, Johnston and Pierce decided to fill in for "Santa Case." Johnston said plenty of people are willing to donate and offer their time.

Nearly 100 families still need to be adopted through Lawrence nonprofit organizations such as Ballard Community Center, 708 Elm St., and Penn House, 1035 Pa. There is a higher need this year, said Linda Lassen, director of programming at Penn House.

"We need adopters bad," she said.

One Lawrence business decided to extend its holiday budget to adopt two single-parent families.

Jacinta Langford, spokeswoman for Absorbent, Ink., 1310 Wakarusa Drive, said the business helped two other programs such as Adopt a Haskell Rascal and weren't planning on doing more.

"It's sad to hear there are 100 families left to be adopted," Langford said. "That's hard to hear, so we decided to take on two."

To recruit even more help, Langford started a Facebook.com page called Adopt-A-Family of Lawrence, KS, to encourage her friends in the community to extend generosity together. She said she knows it can be difficult financially for individuals.

"It's Christmas, and it's just hard to imagine these families, especially the children, without presents to open up," she said. "With my family, it's great to get together and open presents. As a child, there's nothing better than Christmas. Just to provide that, it meant a lot."

Many smaller-sized families remain on the list for adoption, Lassen said. If people want to make monetary donations she will accept them until Friday, she said. She also encouraged people to consider purchasing items for teenagers or adopting families with teens because sometimes they are overlooked, she said.

Paul Hunt, human services director of Ballard Community Center, said people should call the center to arrange a time to help if they cannot make the Wednesday deadline.

"We want to get them all adopted," he said.