Editor's note: In this 12-part series that runs through Christmas Eve, The Herald-Mail highlights people and organizations who make the holidays brighter for others.
Name: Jan McCarter
Age: 46
Home: Smithsburg
Occupation: St. Mary Catholic Church Director of Religious Education
Organization: St. Mary Catholic Church
What do you do to make Christmas brighter? McCarter directs St. Mary's Christmas Giving Program, a yearly holiday gift drive for less fortunate children in Baltimore. The drive, which begins in mid-October, calls on the church's parishioners to donate gifts, money and clothes for about 200 children - ages 3 to 5 - who are enrolled in a Head Start program at St. Bernardine Church in Baltimore. The gifts will be hauled to the church on Monday.
Why do you do it? "It wouldn't be Christmas without it. It's very much part of my life, and it's the most important thing I do this season," McCarter said. She shops all year long for good deals. She bought 25 coats that she found on sale at the end of the winter season for the children, and buys wrapping paper the day after Christmas. "I try to make the money go as far as it can," she said.
