Fulfilling Wishes this Holiday Season

09 Nov Fulfilling Wishes this Holiday Season

In a typical year, the holidays mean spending time and celebrating with family and loved ones. At CHRIS 180, we love getting to celebrate the season with volunteers, staff, donors, and the clients we serve. But just like everything else in 2020, the holidays will look different because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve had to cancel and rethink many events we usually host in order to keep our youth and staff safe. Despite changes and safety concerns, CHRIS 180 will still work to make sure each youth in our foster homes and all the clients that we serve have the most magical holiday season! Because we all know the importance of having something to look forward to during this time.  

So, how can you support CHRIS 180 this holiday season while staying socially distanced and safe? One shift we’ve made is moving much of our holiday giving online! Here are 3 easy ways that you can make this holiday season special for the families we support:  

Shop Our Amazon Wish List for Toys and Presents: We offer parents in our community the opportunity to shop for presents for their children. Often during the holidays, parents stress about how they will provide a special experience for their kids while also keeping up with the normal bills and expenses. During the pandemic, that’s even more of a concern for many. Nonprofit organizations may help by donating presents to the community, but that can take away the dignity of parents getting to pick out a present themselves for their child. CHRIS 180 makes sure parents and caregivers still have that experience by allowing them to come to our Wrapping Party. They can come in and pick out gifts for their children with the help of our staff. We make sure that their presents get wrapped and topped with a bow to take away any additional stress they may be feeling! Toys and presents bought off our Amazon Wish List make this whole experience possible. Make sure you use AmazonSmile and select CHRIS 180 as your charity of choice and we will receive a percentage of your purchase back from Amazon. 

Shop the Wish Lists of our JourneyZ Youth: The youth living in our foster homes get to create their own personalized wish list for the holidays! CHRIS 180 ensures each youth wakes up on December 25 with a pile of wrapped presents with their names on each one. The items on our Amazon Wish List were specifically requested by youth in our care. Purchasing items off this list helps CHRIS 180 to make sure we create the most magical holiday for our youth!  

Shop the Wrapping Supply Wish List: CHRIS 180 wraps THOUSANDS of gifts during the holiday season. You can only imagine how many rolls of wrapping paper, bows, tape, gift tags, and scissors we go through during the holiday season! Each present that our youth and clients receive is wrapped up, labeled, and finished with a bow. This means we need a whole lot of wrapping supplies to get us through the season!   

We know this year has been difficult for many, so your support is appreciated even more. All donations are accepted and there’s no such thing as a gift or a donation that’s too small. The holidays may look different this year, but Santa will still be dropping in at CHRIS 180!  

Grace Garde is the Holiday Magic and Volunteer Coordinator at CHRIS 180. For more information on holiday giving and volunteering please email Grace at grace.garde@CHRIS180.org.