NOTE: Edited to add donation link Dec. 8.
The 21st Annual Riverside County Bar Association Elves Program is set for Dec. 12.
Attorney and Head Elf Brian Pearcy expects to help around 80 impoverished families for the Christmas season by buying them gifts, grocery gift cards and gas cards.
For the first time since the pandemic, volunteers will wrap the gifts together.
Everyone can be an elf. The program needs elves who have money but no time, and elves who have time but no money.
Brian Pearcy, head elf
Community members may volunteer as shoppers or wrappers.
Shopping elves will purchase gifts from Riverside’s Walmart Supercenter at 4 p.m., Dec. 12.
GET INVOLVED
Wrapping elves will get together at the Bar’s office, 4129 Main St., Riverside, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Dec. 14 and 15.
Checks may be sent directly to the RCBA, made payable to the RCBA Foundation, with “Elves Program” in the memo section. Donations are tax deductible. The foundation’s tax identification number is 47-4971260.
People can also donate online through the RCBA website’s payment page, by writing “Elves Program” in the description block.
“(Wrapping together) is part of the bonding and socializing aspect that I always tried to bring into the Elves Program,” Pearcy said by phone Dec. 6.
“We are excited to bring our Elf Program back to our pre-COVID programming of getting together, to meet and socialize, as we give back to our community,” he said.
Volunteers may also take gift baskets home and wrap them individually.
Everyone can be an elf. The program needs elves who have money but no time, and elves who have time but no money, Pearcy joked last year.
Volunteers for shopping, wrapping, delivery or a combination of roles may email their name and desired elf designation to either Charlene Nelson (charlene@riversidecountybar.com), Lisa Yang (lisa@riversidecountybar.com), Brian Pearcy (bpearcy@bpearcylaw.com), or Anna Gherity (agherity@bpearcylaw.com).
Pearcy has been head elf of the program since he started it in 2000 as president of the RCBA. He was inspired by a similar program in his former police department, and anticipates more than 100 volunteers each year.
Recipient families are selected through Riverside County’s Social Services Department, and gifts are directly chosen by family members, Pearcy said last year.
In addition to toys, children often request clothes or shoes, and the program makes sure to get parents gifts as well, Pearcy said. In the past, the Elves Program has given families a bunk bed, a bicycle and a wheelchair.
Pearcy expects volunteers from local high schools to also join in. He said he was excited about how far word has spread about the program. In the past, shoppers at Walmart see what they are doing, say that they’ve heard about the program before, and donate on the spot, he said.
