The annual In the Nick of Time campaign, a community project designed to provide area teenagers with holiday gifts, is underway.
“It will be a little different this year because of the pandemic,” said Stacey Salsgiver, co-owner with her husband Jim of the Double Play Sports Bar and Restaurant on Oil City’s North Side. “But it is still going on because we think the need is even greater this year.”
The project, sponsored by the Salsgivers’ business, is in its 16th year.
The family teams up with Community Services of Venango County to provide area teens with Christmas presents. The response to the In the Nick of Time effort has been generous over the years, said Salsgiver.
Typically, the donations are new and unwrapped gifts as well as gift certificates that can be dropped off at the restaurant up to a week before Christmas.
As a finale, the restaurant owners hold a party for the donors.
“We are not going to do the party and the socializing with everything going on,” said Salsgiver. “We are asking people who want to donate to drop off their gifts or cash, which we use to buy presents for the teens, at Double Play between now and Dec. 17. We will then get it all to Community Services for distribution.”
Despite skipping the party aspect of the project, the Salsgivers are encouraging the community to join in the gift collection drive.
“With this pandemic going on and people losing their jobs or having their income reduced, a lot of people are struggling,” said Salsgiver. “We have lost so much this year and things have changed so drastically but we want the kids to have a good Christmas. We can’t let the pandemic stop our progress in doing something for them so we will push through.”
