Apparently Kristen Araujo of Edgartown can’t help herself when it comes to helping others.
Four years ago she and her husband Jay and sons Trey and Devin began a family tradition when they packed up their seven-passenger van with foodstuffs and gifts and drove to New York City on Christmas Eve to bring some holiday cheer to people who’d been displaced by Hurricane Sandy.
“Once my kids got older, we decided the best way to keep the magic of Christmas alive for our family was to serve other people who needed more than we did,” Ms. Araujo told The Times in a phone call Tuesday.
The Araujo family is keeping their tradition alive this year by serving up a holiday feast for Islanders in need of food or companionship, at the P.A. Club in Oak Bluffs, on Christmas Eve from 4 pm to 6 pm.
Ms. Araujo said initially she and her family wanted to serve at a soup kitchen or a church on the Island, but she didn’t find anyone who was providing Christmas dinner. She said she was cutting the hair of her friend, Missy Cournoyer, at her salon Shear Inspiration, when inspiration struck.
“I was literally at work, doing Missy’s hair, when the idea popped into my head,” she said. “These things just kind of come to me.”
Ms. Cournoyer works in the kitchen at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, and offered to help on the spot. “Missy knows how to feed a lot of people, and we decided to do it,” Ms. Araujo said. “We’ll be in the kitchen, cooking up a storm.”
Ms. Araujo and Ms. Cournoyer are splitting the cost of the food, but thanks to Islander generosity, they won’t be buying any desserts. “We have lots of people making desserts,” she said. “The response from Islanders has been wonderful. We have a lot of families who want to participate. Anytime I do something in the community, people come out. I love that about our community.”
Ms. Araujo said her sons will be doing double duty, helping with the dinner and giving rides to people who can’t get to the P.A. Club on their own. “I’ve already reached out to people on the front lines, like Community Services, and they’re giving the phone number to people who might need help,” she said.
In addition to dinner, Ms. Araujo will be handing out gift bags that include a toy for every child. She asks people who want to donate to drop off gift cards for local stores and eateries at her salon, Shear Inspiration, 12 Mariners Way in Edgartown, from 9 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Friday until Dec. 23, and from 9 am to 2 pm this Saturday. Donations of bottled water and healthy drinks are also welcome.
Once dinner is over on Christmas Eve, Ms. Araujo and her family aren’t going home to bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads. “We’ll be doing some fun anonymous things that we’ve done since the boys were younger,” she said. “But I don’t say what those are.”
A serial altruist, Ms. Araujo doesn’t serve others just at Christmas. Last January (Jan. 28, “Snow angel helped those in need”), when the first blizzard slammed the Island, she offered, with a post on Islanders Talk, a Facebook page with over 5,600 members, to make wellness checks on senior citizens.
Response was immediate.
For the next 48 hours, powered by her trusty four-wheel-drive Ford truck and countless cups of coffee, she checked on senior citizens, drove hospital employees to and from work, delivered supplies to volunteers at the Red Cross shelter at Tisbury School, and with the help of her boys, shoveled driveways of elderly residents.
“I’ve always told my kids there’s nothing like hands-on helping,” Ms. Araujo said. “It means a lot more than writing a check, and it feels a whole lot better.”