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A Durham program creates holiday happiness for hundreds of needy children.
For several years, Dana Allen and about 100 co-workers at Duke University Health System have pooled their resources to buy Christmas gifts for dozens of families with young children. They give to Share Your Christmas, a program which is even older: Durham County's Department of Social Services began pairing sponsors such as Allen with families in need in 1975, making it one of the longest-running of dozens of such programs across North Carolina.
"Everybody always says Christmas is for kids, and I really believe that," says Allen, a customer-service team leader. "I couldn't imagine being a child and not getting something." The Triangle Nonprofit & Volunteer Leadership Center coordinates the county program. The Herald-Sun newspaper supports it by printing brief profiles of families needing sponsors, and about 200 volunteers donate more than 4,000 hours every year to make the program a success.
DSS Director Michael Becketts describes Durham as "a place where there's extreme...