The ELF (Era’s Less Fortunate) Fund is providing Christmas gifts
for more than 700 people in the Bradford area this year.

ELF Fund Chairman of the Board Art Steinhauer said Friday his
elves were filling the last of the tags, but that so far, 182
families, 189 girls, 213 boys, 109 seniors and 45 individuals from
Project Care will receive gifts through the ELF Fund this
Christmas.

“Everything went wonderfully,” Steinhauer said. “If it had gone
any better, we would have been scared … we’re in really good shape
at this point.”

Distribution of the gifts will be held starting at 9 a.m. Dec.
21 at the Office of Economic and Community Development on Russell
Boulevard.

In past years, he said, the elves have had to use money from the
ELF Fund to fill all the tags and provide gifts for the applicants,
but this year, they have had more people interested in adopting a
family, child or senior than they have applicants.

ELF Fund Senior Co-Chair Chris Minich agreed this year’s
campaign has been very successful.

“We’ve had a lot of new faces … volunteers … helping with the
organization of gifts,” Minich said. “We ran out of tags. More of
the community has stepped up to help.”

The number of gifts collected for senior citizens in particular,
she said, has been “overwhelming.” She said there are also
residents benefiting through Project Care and the Visiting Nurses
Association with Martha Dibble.

Steinhauer and Minich both attributed the ELF Fund’s success
this year to a late publication of left-over names with tags yet to
be filled. People from the community eager to help out contacted
the ELF Fund officials in droves, he said, until all the tags were
filled. As the calls continued to pour in, he said, they took their
names and contact information in case there were some stragglers
close to the end of the campaign.

Even though he was calling those folks back at the last minute,
Steinhauer said, they were still just as generous, some offering to
take all three children in a family instead of a single child, for
example.

He went on to say the applicants were also on point this year,
going to lengths to make sure they were ready with all the
necessary documentation to apply for benefits.

“These people really took responsibility to make sure their
children had Christmas,” he said, adding the registration process
went very smoothly this year.

“The best thing (the recipients) can do is to recognize the need
in October and come out and fill out an application, so that their
children’s tags are in the hands of elves long before black
Friday,” Steinhauer said, referring to the day following
Thanksgiving that marks the start of the holiday shopping
season.

He added he would like to see the “stigma” some people associate
with the ELF Fund dissipate.

“You don’t have to be destitute and on public assistance (to
benefit),” he said. “There are families with five and six children,
with both parents working but when you look at their income versus
monthly expenses, they just can’t afford Christmas. Those are the
folks we like to help the most; they’re trying hard.”

“People feel privileged to take tags,” Minich said, and they are
happy to help the ELF Fund in any way they can. Marcia Shannon and
Debbie Huston at the OECD, especially, she said, have gone “above
and beyond the call of duty,” continually taking in the supply of
gifts over the last three weeks and organizing the collection.

“Everyone has really, in all kinds of ways, stepped up to plate
to make this the most successful campaign so far,” she said.

Minich encouraged residents to come out to the University of
Pittsburgh at Bradford Sunday and “see how (the ELF Fund) treats
the senior citizens to a Christmas holiday including refreshments
and musical entertainment.”

Inmates at Federal Correctional Institution-McKean made dozens
and dozens of cookies and gingerbread houses to be enjoyed by those
attending the holiday celebration. More than 2,500 cookies were
produced over the course of two 16-hour work days, and there are 11
varieties of cookies – peppermint candy cookies, cherry
thumbprints, Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies, coconut bars,
pineapple cookies, peanut butter kiss cookies, Christmas tree
cookies, angel cookies, bell cookies, gingerbread cookies and chewy
caramel bars.