SCAP tends Giving Tree for clients
By MARY PERHAM THE LEADER

BATH Every year for the past three years, Bethany and her three children have been visited at Christmas time by women laden with gifts and holiday food from Steuben Churchpeople Against Poverty.

A single mother who left an abusive husband after her youngest child was born, Bethany is under a doctor's care and receives disability payments.

"Being a mom, I provide as well as I possibly can for my children," she said. "But I have limited financial resources."

Bethany asked that her last name not to be used in this story. But she is like hundreds of others in Steuben County - struggling to get by, stretching every cent, worried about rising costs and raising decent children.

She's also determined not to take things for granted or ask for a handout.

"It's overwhelming to be given to," Bethany said.

For the sake of her kids, she swallowed her pride and opened her door for SCAP's Giving Tree.

Steuben Churchpeople Against Poverty, Inc., located at 16 W. William St. in Bath, is a licensed nonprofit, nonsectarian housing agency. It was founded in 1969 by a group of local church members who served a few dozen needy residents.

The agency's purpose is to reduce homelessness, violence and substandard housing while improving the quality of life for its clients.

Some 40 years later, its outreach includes more than 1,000 residents in Steuben, Allegany and Livingston counties.

SCAP's financial support now includes the United Way of the Southern Tier, private donations and state and federal housing agencies.

The Giving Tree is a way to put holiday smiles under repaired roofs.

Donors can select from cards on the tree with a recipient's gender, age and interests, but there is no suggested price range, said coordinator Pat Cook.

Response to the program, which began in 1996, has been generous, she said.

"The community has been wonderful, despite times being tight last year," Cook said. "Times are still tight."

Left widowed several years ago with growing children, Connie Gardner, of Bath, has had more than her fair share of illness, trials and struggles. But things are better now with SCAP's help, she said.

And the Christmas donations tell her people she doesn't even know care, she said.

"It feels really good to know somebody is thinking about me," she said.

Bethany said she uses the Giving Tree gifts as an opportunity to teacher her children about ways they can give to others without using money.

"Their time, little acts," she said. "There are so many facets to giving."