FAIRHOPE, Ala. — For the third year in a row, the James P. Nix Center extended a helping hand during the holiday season to homebound elderly by collecting items for gift bags that were donated to Ecumenical Ministries Inc., which delivers them to area residents.

The Nix Center filled 20 bags for EMI and made 10 additional bags for its own delivery to Nix Center homebound members.

“We collect items beginning in November for the food bank and then begin just after Thanksgiving collecting for the bags,” said Sherry Sullivan, director of senior services at the Nix Center. “We use our December potluck luncheon as our drive for the program and let folks enter by donating items. They typically would pay one dollar, and any money we collect that day, we use to fill in for items not collected.”

The Nix Center has collection boxes on-site but also encouraged local businesses, schools and residents to donate items.

“This year, the third grade at J. Larry Newton School and Fairhope Animal Clinic were our two largest donors. Other donors included city employees and Nix Center members,” Sullivan said. “Items collected typically included canned meat and fruit, socks and slippers, Christmas candy and cookies, books, hand lotion and sanitizer, Kleenex, other toiletry items and holiday-related items such as stuffed animals and scarves.”

Sullivan said third-grade students at the Newton School studied Christmas customs and traditions from around the world, including England’s Boxing Day, which gets its name from giving gifts in boxes, especially to people having trouble during the holiday season. She said the students celebrated Boxing Day by collecting items to donate to the Nix Center to help make Christmas baskets for the homebound elderly.

“We were able to fill 20 bags for Ecumenical Ministries and then used what we had left over to make bags for the folks we deliver homebound meals to daily,” Sullivan said. “All other items were donated to EMI. This is just our way of giving back during the holidays.”