Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of St. Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025.
‘Tis the season for giving at St. Bartholomew.
Over 100 children will have their own personal Santas deliver gifts right to their door this Christmas season, all a part of St. Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church’s Giving Tree program.
Children can be sponsored by contacting the church at 812-379-9353 or by contacting Ross and Theresa Westerfeld. Their contact information is available at the church’s website at saintbartholomew.org.
Since registration opened around five weeks ago, over 161 children, or 67 families, have put their names in to be sponsored through the program. St. Bartholomew families register their children through United Way of Bartholomew County and can do so until Dec. 5.
The program sponsored 177 children last year, but Giving Tree chair Theresa Westerfeld expects to exceed that amount this year. Fellow Giving Tree chair Ross Westerfeld believes that higher number is a result of the economy, but he also believes that more people know about the programs.
“You know, through the years, people talk to each other, the friends of the families that we have, they probably talk to other people that are at their same situation…,” Ross said.
Once registered, requests are sent out to parishioners and those within the church to sponsor one or more children, and they can email Ross and Theresa if they wish to sponsor. Each child receives four gifts, consisting of two clothing items and two non-clothing items that their parent has suggested through registration.
Many times, parishioners will request to sponsor children close in age to their own children so they can help with the shopping, Theresa said. The big item they’re seeing this year, she said, are soccer balls. For teenagers, toiletries like cologne and body lotion are popular.
“… we get our ideas from the parents of the children when they register, and so I have noticed this year that several of the parents have requested hats and gloves and coats,” Theresa said.
Monetary donations are also accepted. Theresa said they usually don’t have enough sponsors for every child. Individuals they call shoppers take that money, and money donated by other parishioners, to go shopping for children who may not have gotten a sponsor.
The sponsors then deliver the gifts to the children’s homes around the second week of December. Many of the children they have are Hispanic, Ross said, and sponsors have the option to have an interpreter make arrangements for delivery.
In past years, Ross and Theresa have delivered up to 20 families that did not have a sponsor. Since they became chairs of the program in 2011, they have only seen the program grow and the amount of names double. They also switched the program to entirely online as opposed to having a physical tree in the church space.
“… I used to make individual packets for each child, and then after Mass, parishioners would choose a packet for one or more children,” Theresa said. “And then when COVID hit, we were not allowed to do that, we didn’t even go to Mass for quite a while, and so we had to move to doing it on the Internet. It’s proven to be very successful that way, so we’re continuing it.”
To Ross and Theresa, the program is all about doing the right thing, and Theresa said she knows there are many families in their church who are in need or need assistance. They have found parents to be very appreciative when they drop gifts off, receiving hugs and thank yous, but they have also found the program to be an eye opener into how many of them live.
“They might have a nice car outside, but cars are pretty much a necessity to have a job, do what you need to do,” Ross said. “That just means then they don’t have money to provide Christmas gifts and of course they have to have food too, so where are your priorities?”
