As wonderful things often do, this rolling train of generosity started out small, unseen, and not wanting to be seen or recognized.
It was seven years ago that a family with small children who at the time were living in a camper year-round reached out asking for help with a cooked Thanksgiving meal. They didn’t have the proper amenities to cook a full Thanksgiving meal to share together.
Shannon Horal-Behrhof, without hesitation or knowing the family personally, stepped up to help. That one act snowballed into also helping them with Christmas gifts for their children that year. Seven years and many families later, Christmas was delivered to families throughout Brookhaven Town once again this year.
Shannon Horal-Behrhof works as a tenth- and twelfth-grade English teacher at East Islip High School. She commutes about thirty minutes west each morning to work in the very town and high school she grew up in. She’s also not a stranger to some struggles and lean times which she feels strongly has moved her heart to help others.
It’s become a yearly tradition now that Shannon, her children, boyfriend, sister, and other helping hands from several communities help throw some Christmas joy around. These helping hands are made up of family, friends, colleagues, and Facebook friends – all who have decided to spend time each Christmas being a channel of blessing and goodness. True service to a neighbor isn’t about you having it all together in order to help. It can be done out of an old car, small house, and possibly even having faced some of the same struggles as the receivers. It’s simply helping regardless because it’s Christmas.
“After we collect the gifts, I stage them in my classroom, and I have a community service club that I run called the STARS Club come in at night to help me wrap, organize, and bag the gifts,” says Horal-Behrhof. “This usually takes several nights, and then my children, my boyfriend, and my sister help me bring them home and then deliver. My tiny house gets stuffed with thousands of gifts before we go house to house, day by day until they are all done
She then joyfully gets into her 2006 car with a leaky roof and loud muffler to deliver bags of well-wrapped Christmas gifts to some of the most poverty-stricken families that live on Long Island. She feels that even her old car has its place in this beautiful work of giving.
“When the families we’re delivering to see and hear my car, their guard tends to drop a little. It tells them that we’re simply helping out a neighbor and we’re all in this struggle together.”
This year was particularly hard for children in certain pockets of Brookhaven Town. Many children on the Island have experienced personal fear and anxiety surrounding food, safety, and stability. New and very real fears have risen up since last Christmas for many of our neighbors. Several of the families she helped this year have a pending eviction. Others work full-time and make enough to pay rent and necessities, but not for presents under a tree. One little boy she helped is battling with sickle cell anemia parented by a single mother. Another local grandmother that reached out in a desperate plea is raising five of her grandchildren. Others have moved their large families in with their relatives’ large families. These families are sharing a house with the goal of just covering the bills to be able to live there together.
Amongst the generosity train that starts rolling in early November now is a friend’s business. Comtech happily helps every year to purchase for an entire family. They are very generous and organized by a very dear friend of hers from high school, Jennie Lanigan.
A nonprofit organization, the Attylu Foundation, also stepped in to help this year. This organization was started by a former student turned friend that lost her baby last year and has chosen to turn her memory and her name “Attylu” (Atlantic Lucille) into something beautiful and something that uses a tragedy to help another human.
“The hugs, the tears, or even the silent drop offs have kept me grounded, focused on the importance of Christmas, and so incredibly grateful,” says Horal-Behrhof.
While she clearly doesn’t engage in this charity for any personal benefit, she does say that it’s in return taught her and family about life, people, giving, receiving, and not to judge a person or their current circumstances until you get to know them a little.
