Thank you for buying out the new Mansion Aides Christmas Wish List in just a few hours. You purchased a score of Christmas toys and gifts and nearly $400 work of Amazon and Visa and Mastercard gift certificates Monday night.

Mellissa, a Mansion aide, and Nancy and Georgianna offered the first thanks this morning, along with Zinnia, who is a joy machine. It seems her therapy work is underway.

Thursday, I plan to get a group photo of as many Mansion aides as possible at the Mansion Christmas Party, they want to thank you for making their Christmas meaningful and joyous.

We’re fixing up a Break Room for them, giving each aide $50 in cash, and purchasing Christmas presents for their children and loved ones. We’ve also bought more than $100 in new LED lights and other decorations for the Christmas tree and Mansion hallways.

This is ninth or tenth Wish List I’ve supported (we supported) for RISSE, The Mansion, and Bishop Maginn High School and every one of them sold out, a testimony to the spirit and staying power of the Army Of Good.

No sunshine soldiers in this army.

I want to be humble, but I believe we are helping to revolutionize non-profit gift giving, using technology and moderation.

The wish lists give some of the power back to where it belongs – people donating their hard-earned money. They are becoming the core of this work, along with the personal support we can provide the students and Mansion residents.

The wish lists enable people to choose the items they want to donate, and the amount they want to spend. The money goes directly to the people who need it, not administrators and middle-men.

This Wish List it will give the hard-pressed Mansion aides support in their lives in a meaningful and important way.  You’ve brought them the spirit of Christmas.

Many of the aides struggle financially, they usually can’t give their children and families the presents they would love to have. This year they can, and thank you, thank you.

On a different scale, I continue to try to fill the holes in the resident’s lives – winter clothes, stamps for Sylvia, books for Tim, prizes for Bingo,  movies for Georgianna and Nancy, puzzles for Peggie and Matt, and shoes, scarves and winter clothes for everybody.

I’m focusing also on Bishop Maginn, and the needs of the refugee students and their families, one young woman from the Middle East came to the school dance Saturday in sleeveless summer clothes, she has no winter clothes.

I plan on bringing her at least $200 so she and Sue Silverstein can go shopping with her for winter clothes. Small acts of great kindness.

We can’t change people’s lives, but we can brighten them up and make them more comfortable.

I’m going to canvas the teachers again to see what they need for the Spring Semester in the way of used textbooks and materials. And we will make certain the kids who need warm shoes this winter will have them.

This week, I’m happy to focus on Christmas. If you wish to support my one-on-one work the refugee students and Mansion residents you can send a contribution via Paypal, [email protected], or by check, Jon Katz, Mansion/Refugee Fund, P.O. Box 20, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

Thank you all so much. You are a light unto the world, we are fighting back with our own weapons, love, compassion, empathy. And we can bring some joy and hope.