photo by: Kathy Hanks

The Ballard Center, 708 Elm St. in North Lawrence, is pictured in February 2019.

Several families in North Lawrence can thank their neighborhood businesses for providing them with financial help this holiday season.

Since October, the North Lawrence Improvement Association has collected thousands of dollars in donations from North Lawrence businesses and individuals to provide gift cards to the neighborhood’s low-income families and to buy supplies for the Elizabeth Ballard Community Center.

NLIA President Ted Boyle said the neighborhood association’s Christmas fund is a longtime tradition, and that the fund has been able to increase the number of families it helps in recent years thanks to the donations.

“What we do is we go down North Second Street from Johnny’s (Tavern) to the city limits and businesses out there, and then back up the other side,” Boyle said.

Once the businesses on North Second and North Third streets had all been visited, Boyle said the neighborhood association had gathered about $5,000 in donations. An announcement about the campaign listed 16 North Lawrence businesses and a handful of individuals as contributors.

Boyle said the businesses donated about 90% of the money, but that some neighborhood residents also provided donations toward the Christmas fund at the neighborhood association’s meetings.

More than a dozen families will benefit from the donations. Boyle said six families in North Lawrence each received $500 in gift cards — $250 to Walmart and $250 to Dillons. Those gifts were distributed by the Ballard Center, 708 Elm St.

In addition, Boyle said $50 cash gift cards were handed out to 15 neighborhood families. He said the $50 gift cards’ recipients were chosen based on word-of-mouth suggestions.

Boyle noted that some families still have financial hardships even with both parents working.

“A $50 gift card that they can either buy groceries, gasoline or whatever doesn’t sound like much sometimes,” Boyle said. “But you know, $50 makes a difference sometimes in whether the lights stay on or whether you can get to work or not.”

The rest of the donations went toward items for the Ballard Center, Boyle said. He said the association bought several hundred dollars worth of diapers and personal hygiene products, items that many people don’t think to donate to the center’s community pantry but that are regularly needed.

Boyle said the neighborhood association has been collecting donations for its Christmas fund for the past 15 years or so. He said some of the business owners saw him coming up to their doors and greeted him with their checkbooks at the ready. Some even make donations to the neighborhood association throughout the year to support neighborhood improvements, he said.

“We are fortunate that we have (businesses) like that that participate in this,” Boyle said.