Thanks to our generous donors, we’re entering a new year and a new decade on a great foot! Hogar para niños & Aid staff statewide were busy this December working with kids, familias, and partners to ensure every child we serve had a bright holiday season.
This year in our Metro region we partnered with 39 companies and countless individual donors for our 2019 Colecta de regalos navideños. Generous donors sponsored kids and families by fulfilling wish lists submitted through schools and Children’s Home & Aid programming, que incluía salud conductual basada en la comunidad, Cuidado de los padres & Compartir, y servicios de acogida. Este año, partners including Exelon, Hyatt, Aón, ITW, William Blair y PricewaterhouseCoopers patrocinaron más 1,200 niño, hermano, y listas de deseos familiares, por un total de casi 2,000 kids plus additional gifts for parents and caregivers!
The Chicagoland Holiday Gift Drive would not be possible without the incredible volunteers who spent more than 60 horas presenciales en nuestra sede de vacaciones. Voluntarios del Cuerpo de Voluntarios de los White Sox, así como 7 de nuestros socios corporativos, incluido CDW, Ley del axioma, y Credico, helped us to move, clasificar, y envolver regalos, ensuring every child and family we serve had their needs and wishes fulfilled for the holidays. We truly could not have accomplished this massive gift delivery without their support!
For children and families who entered Children’s Home & Aid services during the holiday season, several generous partners including the Chicago Cubs, Banco BMO Harris, panel de exposición, CDW, y Strata Decision Technology también recopilaron cientos de artículos al organizar campañas de necesidades esenciales.. These items, which included everything from therapeutic toys to kitchenware, were distributed across Children’s Home & Aid programming to ensure every child and family within our care received gifts for the holidays.
The holiday fun doesn’t stop at the Holiday Gift Drive! Este año, in the Chicago area, we hosted our 29th annual Snug Hugs event, where the winter season was made warmer for the children and families the Mitzi Freidheim Child & Family Center serves thanks to our long-time partner, Esmerejón 200,000 Tiendas de millas! Merlin collected new and like-new winter items at their shop locations across Chicagoland and caravanned from Chicago’s western suburbs to the Mitzi Freidheim Child & Family Center in Chicago’s Englewood community to deliver more than 50 boxes of coats and winter clothing. Cerca de 200 families were able to shop for winter items due to the generosity of Merlin’s staff, voluntarios y clientes, así como los artículos hechos a mano donados a través de nuestra Tejer & Maratón de tejer celebrada a principios de noviembre. Thanks to everyone involved, Snug Hugs 2019 was an overwhelming success!
The Chicago White Sox also hosted children from our VIVA and Englewood home visiting programs at Guaranteed Rate Field on December 13 para almorzar y un día de diversión. En total, aproximadamente 100 niños, asistieron hermanos y padres. Los padres pudieron seleccionar un regalo para envolver a sus hijos mientras los niños hacían manualidades.. Después, todos disfrutaron de un almuerzo con los favoritos del juego de pelota, incluidos hot dogs, tiras de pollo, macarrones & quesos y postres. Después del almuerzo, los niños recibieron una nueva gorra de invierno de los Sox y luego jugaron juegos divertidos; algunos niños incluso golpearon algunas pelotas de práctica.
Los niños y sus familias conocieron a Santa en el vestuario de los Sox.. Santa tenía los regalos envueltos que fueron seleccionados anteriormente., y llamó a los niños por su nombre para que vinieran a buscar su regalo y se tomaran una foto.. Un niño pequeño estaba tan emocionado de ver a Santa que le preguntó si Santa se acordaba de él., y Santa dijo 'por supuesto que sí'!
On top of all of this fun and generosity, the Sox lit up the park with a sign welcoming Children’s Home & Aid and had everyone take a group photo with Santa before the day ended.
Thank you all for your generosity this holiday season! Both our staff and the children and families we are privileged to serve are incredibly grateful for your gifts and support.