{"id":422325,"date":"2025-12-03T18:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/422325\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T18:20:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:20:17","slug":"love-thy-neighborhoods-joy-drive-helps-ob-families-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/422325\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Thy Neighborhood\u2019s Joy Drive helps OB families in need"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Love-Thy-Neighborhood-Joy-Drive.jpeg?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"628\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Love-Thy-Neighborhood-Joy-Drive.jpeg\" alt=\"Volunteers for the Love Thy Neighborhood Joy Drive are Celeste Calderon,\u00a0Raquel Freischlag,\u00a0Donna Titus,\u00a0Stasi McAteer, and\u00a0Holly Strum. (Photo courtesy of Love Thy Neighborhood)\" class=\"wp-image-356648\"  \/><\/a>Volunteers for the Love Thy Neighborhood Joy Drive are Celeste Calderon,\u00a0Raquel Freischlag,\u00a0Donna  Titus,\u00a0Stasi McAteer and\u00a0Holly Strum. (Photo courtesy of Love Thy Neighborhood)<\/p>\n<p>OCEAN BEACH \u2013 From co-hosting the annual OB Holiday Parade to conducting numerous community-building events, including accepting donations to help the less fortunate, Love Thy Neighborhood supports Ocean Beach.<\/p>\n<p>The nonprofit, an offshoot that has emerged out of \u2013 but is now separate from \u2013 the OB Toy and Food Drive, <a href=\"https:\/\/lovethyneighborhood.world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Love Thy Neighborhood<\/a> was founded and is led by Raquel Freischlag and a board of community volunteers.<\/p>\n<p>Through donations and the help of dozens of volunteers, the group transforms community contributions into a pop-up holiday shop, the Joy Drive,\u00a0where needy families can \u201cshop\u201d with dignity at no cost. That event is from noon to 2 p.m. Dec. 13, at Resurrection Church,\u00a02083 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.<\/p>\n<p>Freischlag noted that donated items are all laid out on tables, sorted by type and appropriate age group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re providing an experience so families can shop for gifts they\u2019d like to give their kids,\u201d she said, adding the experience is also entertaining. \u201cWe play Christmas music and they get cookies and it\u2019s fun and festive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also pointed out Love Thy Neighborhood operates a Share Fair, a free clothing swap held periodically at Resurrection Church. <\/p>\n<p>Other holiday events from Love Thy Neighborhood include the Santa Experience on three upcoming Saturdays \u2013 Dec. 6, 13, and 20 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Veterans Plaza,\u00a01900 Ocean Front Way, and Holiday Hullabaloo on Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m., at Submerge Church,\u00a04851 Newport Ave.<\/p>\n<p>In expanding, the group has loftier goals, among them establishing a drop-in resource center serving OB\u2019s needy based on the model established by The Compass Station in Pacific Beach.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volunteers for the Love Thy Neighborhood Joy Drive are Celeste Calderon,\u00a0Raquel Freischlag,\u00a0Donna Titus,\u00a0Stasi McAteer and\u00a0Holly Strum. (Photo courtesy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":422326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,197110,197111,197112,10086,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-422325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-joy-drive","12":"tag-love-thy-neighborhood","13":"tag-ob-holiday-parade","14":"tag-ocean-beach","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115657024362084967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}