Wrapped with love
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers PREPARATIONS- Simi Valley resident Joanie Vasquez wraps up yet another of dozens of holiday gift baskets destined for local seniors without families. "Sometimes it's just the thought that someone cares," she said. Vasquez received the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Community Service Award.

Joanie Vasquez is the Godmother of Gift Baskets.

For the past seven years, Vasquez has prepared hundreds of creative collections for the community's elderly during the holiday season, a project the 57-year-old Simi Valley resident said takes 365 days to pull off.

"I've already started for next year," Vasquez said with a chuckle.

Vasquez and a group of volunteers will drop off 350 gift baskets today at Care and Share, a nonprofit organization at 5924 E. Los Angeles Ave. Most of the presents will go to residents who wouldn't receive a gift otherwise.

"I love doing it," Vazquez said. "It makes my whole year."

Although the Ogdensburg, N.Y., native also gives to children's groups- she gleaned 125 gifts for kids in need last December- Vasquez said she thinks the elderly are "actually the ones that don't get anything."

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers DEADLINE NEARS- Patty Dodge, left, Joanie Vasquez and Robin Dishon work frantically to wrap up holiday gift baskets for the elderly at Farmer s Insurance in Simi Valley, where the trio work.

Vasquez's charity started on a much smaller scale. It's turned into a second full-time job. Last year, she prepared 482 packages for Care and Share.

The mother of four daughters, Vasquez at first asked her coworkers at Farmers Insurance Group to give hotel toiletries or leftover Halloween candy. Now Farmers Insurance gives Vasquez money to spend on bigger gifts, and her colleagues continue to give.

And there's some fun in it for her: She gets to shop all year with someone else's money. She scours newspapers for sales, looking for anything that might be useful. She buys electric can openers, sets of dishes, pans, toasters, coffee pots, electric vegetable choppers, movie tickets, sparkling cider, cookies and many other items. She also makes about 10 to 12 fleece blankets.

When she's done putting together the gift baskets, no two are alike.

"It's a menagerie. They're all different," said co-worker Cynthia Binns. "Every year it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So many people out there that don't have families look forward to it.

"She's got a huge heart. When you talk with her, she would do almost anything for you."

Vasquez's employer also thinks highly of her. The company recently gave the Simi Valley woman the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Community Service Award, which is handed out to a staff worker chosen from around the country. Vasquez was given $1,000 toward the charity of her choice and a trip to a conference in Seattle.

Growing up in upstate New York, Vasquez learned the value of giving from her grandparents, who would be the first to offer a helping hand in time of need.

"They ran a little general store and would pull clothes off the shelves and bring it to people when their houses burned down," she said of her grandmother and grandfather, who lived to be 101 and 96 respectively. "When they'd go out of town, they'd bring baskets of oranges to nuns and priests."

Vasquez, who has lived in Simi Valley for the last 29 years, doesn't show her face when she drops off the packages. For Vasquez, it isn't about the reaction, but the deed itself.

"It'll filter back to me that someone got a basket and they were thrilled and that they look forward to it every year," she said. "I don't need that for me to do this. As far as I'm concerned, I want them to know that on Christmas Day there are people that care about them."