It all started in December 2004 with an article written by Mitch Albom (more notorious for writing Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet In Heaven) in "Parade" Magazine. Albom wrote about his experiences as part of a volunteer group that visits the Salvation Army shelter in downtown Detroit. He said they do something he didn't always know was possible: make Christmas.

Buffalo's Christmas party

Camille Seweryniak, an employee in the Buffalo field office's Multi-Family division, took the article to heart and started on a year-long mission to replicate the Detroit experience in Buffalo. She enlisted a cadre of volunteers to help in the campaign to create Christmas and found a willing and enthusiastic group.

Fund-raising efforts were undertaken, away from the office on personal time, to generate the funds that were the fuel for the creation.

Buffalo's Christmas party

On Saturday, December 10, Camille and her nineteen volunteers created Christmas in a Buffalo restaurant for 43 kids from a shelter for battered women and the Salvation Army shelter. Dressed up in Santa hats and reindeer ears, Christmas sweaters and sweatshirts, the HUD "elves" greeted the kids who arrived at various stages of acceptance. Some cautious, some wearing smiles, but all being there for the same reason, to hopefully experience some kind of joy and happiness that might not otherwise be there. And happiness is what they got. It first came in the sweet taste of the cookies a few of the ladies made. It with pizza and Buffalo's ubiquitous delicacy, chicken wings, and included a magician. That happiness continued with games and some arts and crafts work that occupied more than a little time of the mothers as well as the kids.

Buffalo's Christmas party

A Christmas party would be incomplete without Santa Claus. Santa arrived looking a lot like the Buffalo field office director but who nonetheless created such a stir among the kids that they literally couldn't sit still. Each child received a bag of gifts ranging from toys to warm clothes. The elves and Santa all got a little misty-eyed to see the utter joy generated by their collective kindness. The kids sat with Santa and received pictures as souvenirs of their visit from St. Nick. After Santa departed, the kids enjoyed a little face painting. One youngster went to literally every volunteer to show off his Spiderman face.

It is often said that we live temporarily in what we take from this earth but live forever in what we give back. Everyone in the Buffalo office, whether, they participated in the fund-raising or were elves for this deserving kids, earned a little piece of eternity with the kindness and generosity they displayed this Christmas.