BOSTON, MA – Just before noon on December 7th, a wave of cheer swept through the terrace at Prudential Center as Santa Claus landed in true Boston fashion: via Duck Boat.
A holiday season kickoff where all were welcome, the Prudential Holiday Wonderland served warm hot cocoa, local performances, a photo booth, and specialty craft ales from Tree House brewing. To close the celebration was the iconic lighting of the Pru, where the top tower was set in rainbow colors to support Catching Joy, a well-loved Boston organization on their 16th anniversary. “Seeing the joy on the children’s faces, Santa, and just riding around – it was invigorating. It puts the holiday in you, you know? Gets you going,” says long-time supporter Gwendolyn, a member of the AME Church Community. A beneficiary of the organization, Gwendolyn spoke on behalf of AME Church as just one of over a hundred organizations Catching Joy’s 100,000 supporters have worked to support. “Catching Joy has just embraced us, giving us blessing bags and giving us detergent, clothing.”
This year’s service project is operation sock drop, providing adults and children with warm socks this winter season. “People have been bringing in donations of socks, which are actually the number one requested item in homeless shelters.” Maxwell Surprenant, co-founder of Catching Joy alongside his mother Joy who started the organization at just 5 years old, serves as an ambassador for George HW Bush points of light and earned the Lifetime Achievement, the highest level of the President’s Volunteer Service Award signed by President Biden. Surprenant is now a junior at Harvard University. “When you introduce service to people at a young age, it stays with them and the values stay with them. Catching Joy provides that vehicle for people. If you’re an artist, do something art related, make cards. If you play sports, find a way to integrate that into your service work. Really try to find the intersection of what you care about, and also what bothers you most.”
From ages 2-102, the non-profit offers a wide range of ways to give back – specializing in heart cards that were decorated during the event. From storytimes at the Blue Bunny where children recall making 96 heart cards to send as donations, to painting and presenting information about the non-profit in their Spanish class, memories poured in from supporters with gratitude for the opportunity to give back.
From hyperlocal to international service projects, their mission is refreshingly simple yet contagious: to spread love, light, and joy in the holiday season and beyond.
“To be able to participate for everybody, it just makes you feel good. It’s a nice, warm event.”
To learn more about Catching Joy, visit their website.
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Emmalyn Reid 