UPDATE: Less than an hour after the following website post went live, our first member pledged to take care of the Bath & Body Works items for Madison Burnett and some Barbie items for Alexia Fitzgerald. (The Barbie Food Truck remains.) So, cross those first two items off the chart!

Our annual “Adopt-a-Family” holiday drive officially got under way today.

SRC will be shopping for two needy families — a total of seven people — this year, in cooperation with Circles of Mercy which screens families for eligibility and distributes the gifts to them in time for Christmas. Bill Dowd will again coordinate our club’s share of the effort.

Our deadline for delivering individually wrapped, and recipient -labeled gifts to Circles of Mercy no later than December 14, so we are under a tight deadline.

Here’s how the project will work:

• Members are asked to review the “needs to have” and “nice to have” charts below.

• Once you decide what you would like to purchase, immediately email Bill Dowd at BillDowd4Troy@gmail.com. He will coordinate to be sure we do not duplicate presents and inadvertently skip others. And, he’ll let you know if a gift already has been reserved and let you know so you can make an alternate selection.

• When you purchase the gifts, please wrap them in festive paper and label them with the name of the individual for whom they are intended.

• Bill will be scheduling dropoff/pickup dates and locations for collecting the gifts.

That’s all there is to it. Here are the gift charts for the families: the Burnetts — mom, dad and 2 teenagers; the Fitzgeralds — mom, dad, and a daughter.