Ashland — Fourteen years ago a group of maintenance department employees at Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital decided that rather than having a Christmas Party for themselves they would use their resources to ensure local needy children had a Christmas.

That first year employees raised enough funds to buy gifts and throw a Christmas party for 21 children and their families.

“After we did the first year, it was such a success and everyone felt so good about what we were able to accomplish that the next year, of course, they wanted to do it again,” recalled David Hall, the director of plant operations at OLBH.

For the next three years, Hall said the maintenance department continued to grow the program using their unique talents and skills.

“With the facilities we have here, I’ve got a lot of guys who have a lot of talent for repairs and we get a lot of requests from staff here at the hospital,” he said.

Whenever one of the employees would perform a job for another employee after hours, any money they were paid they would put toward the children’s Christmas party, Hall said.

“In 1999, the pediatrics staff at the hospital saw what we were doing and how successful we were. They asked if they could join and add their efforts to ours. Then eventually other departments in the hospital joined in,” Hall said, “Before we knew it, it became a hospital-driven effort.”

Today, the OLBH Children’s Christmas Party is an annual hospital-wide effort. Last year, employees spent more than $14,000 and purchased gifts for nearly 200 children.

The Our Lady of Bellefonte Foundation manages the finances for the Children’s Christmas and staff volunteer to organize fundraising efforts throughout the year.

“We have bake sales, we send out letters to all our physicians who are on staff. We get a lot of support from that. We also send out letters to vendors that we purchase from throughout the year and we get a fair amount of support from them,” Hall said.

“It’s gotten to the point where after so many years they expect we’ll request support for that,” he added.

Children are mostly referred by hospital employees and staff. Hall said the project is family based and, although they try to focus on those age 15-and-under, they won’t exclude an older child in a family with younger sibilings.

“It’s a family thing,” Hall explained, “We don’t have any written or real hard written-in-stone rules. We’ve followed our hearts for the most part.”

Families from across the Tri-State from as far away as Elliott County and from both sides of the Ohio River are included each year. Many of the children are pediatric rehabilitation patients who hospital staff have come to know well.

Parents are asked to fill out a form that requests clothing sizes as well as a toy wish list, Hall said.

“We find we provide a lot of the essentials like shoes, socks, underwear and coats, but we always try to ensure we get a least one toy for that child,” he said.

A maximum dollar amount is set per child based on the year’s fundraising success and volunteers perform the shopping and wrapping.

Then there is the Christmas Party.

Each year, organizers host a party for the children. Only about half of gift recipients attend but Hall said it’s well worth it.

“It’s just a little extra that we provide for them,” he said.

One of the employees becomes Santa Claus for the evening, a role Hall relishes.

This year, the party will take place Dec. 14 at 6 p.m. in the Bellefonte Pavilion.

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.