Volunteers for the Love Thy Neighborhood Joy Drive are Celeste Calderon, Raquel Freischlag, Donna Titus, Stasi McAteer and Holly Strum. (Photo courtesy of Love Thy Neighborhood)
OCEAN BEACH – From co-hosting the annual OB Holiday Parade to conducting numerous community-building events, including accepting donations to help the less fortunate, Love Thy Neighborhood supports Ocean Beach.
The nonprofit, an offshoot that has emerged out of – but is now separate from – the OB Toy and Food Drive, Love Thy Neighborhood was founded and is led by Raquel Freischlag and a board of community volunteers.
Through donations and the help of dozens of volunteers, the group transforms community contributions into a pop-up holiday shop, the Joy Drive, where needy families can “shop” with dignity at no cost. That event is from noon to 2 p.m. Dec. 13, at Resurrection Church, 2083 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.
Freischlag noted that donated items are all laid out on tables, sorted by type and appropriate age group.
“We’re providing an experience so families can shop for gifts they’d like to give their kids,” she said, adding the experience is also entertaining. “We play Christmas music and they get cookies and it’s fun and festive.”
She also pointed out Love Thy Neighborhood operates a Share Fair, a free clothing swap held periodically at Resurrection Church.
Other holiday events from Love Thy Neighborhood include the Santa Experience on three upcoming Saturdays – Dec. 6, 13, and 20 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Veterans Plaza, 1900 Ocean Front Way, and Holiday Hullabaloo on Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m., at Submerge Church, 4851 Newport Ave.
In expanding, the group has loftier goals, among them establishing a drop-in resource center serving OB’s needy based on the model established by The Compass Station in Pacific Beach.
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