Blog

We are thrilled to report that holiday-minded and generous people, companies and organizations have stepped up to sponsor all children identified through our Brighter Holidays program. Even better, more children were added to the program and more sponsors signed up, meaning even more children will be getting gifts.

Family & Children’s Place created the program understanding that for most, the holidays are a time of excitement and anticipation – but not for all. For children and families enduring trauma from abuse and neglect, the holidays too often bring additional stress with little joy. A little help and hope, and a gift can really help ease the stress and reduce the trauma.

The gifts are also tailored – chosen for the child. To ensure this, sponsors are given details about their gender, clothing sizes and and ideas of what the child really wants. Sponsors take that information and shop for items that will give joy and happiness, and then bring the gifts to the agency’s office to ensure before holiday delivery.

Originally, 175 children from our HANDS program, Family Stabilization Services, Child & Family Services and child advocacy centers in Kentucky and Indiana were selected to receive gifts, but with the added generosity, more than 200 children will be gifted.

We want to thank the sponsors for caring about children and for helping give them the best holiday possible, and we want to thank Shannon McRae, an agency ambassador and friend, for coordinating this year’s Brighter Holidays program. We also want to thank our Development team – JT Henderson, Micah Jorrisch, Heather Bruner, Mary Beth Kerekes and Kate Cassidy, for donning their Santa hats to make the program successful year after year.