Adopting a Family for Christmas

[Draill]

This is my first post here in the Indiana area of DU. First off, hello fellow Hoosiers. :)

I just wanted to post here about United Christmas Services (United Way of Central Indiana). This is a program in which folks can adopt a needy family for Christmas. If a person or group adopts a family they will be sent info about the family and a wish list and will be asked to buy, wrap and deliver gifts to the family for Christmas. This program also serves families other than donor families through the "Direct Assistance" program. The Direct Assistance program uses donated funds to help out families with the holidays by sending them a restricted voucher they can use to buy needed items. (No alcohol, cigarettes, etc).

Please, if you are able and interested, check out this website for info and for a copy of the Donor form. <http://www.uwci.org/ucs/index.htm>

I am currently working with this group and can tell you that the families are referred to this service through caseworkers and are in need.

Thanks for reading. Have a great holiday season.

[LisaLynne]

1. Thanks for the info and ...

:hi: Welcome to the DU Indiana Forum!

[Draill]

2. Thanks for the welcome, LisaLynne. : )

[faithfulcitizen]

3. This is the 2nd year, our family is adopting.

They tell you to plan to spend about $100 per family member, so you'll want pick a family accordingly. :) It's also a good idea for offices to become donors. Each employee can take 1 person or even 1/2 a person. :) I always ask the caseworker if the family has food stamps, because a lot of times they do, and would prefer all the money be spent on clothes or gifts.

I heard the # of donors is way down this year along with other charities due to katrina. Hopefully they will all get adopted in time. Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:

[Draill]

5. Yay!

I just knew that Indiana DUers would already be adopting families! Thanks so much for participating in this program.

You are indeed correct about the donor families being less this year. Last year all families were adopted, so far we are not as far along with donors as last year. We still have many more families that need adopted than we have donor groups.

Thank you for replying and for donating. : )

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

4. Great cause - our firm has a family!

Our law firm hosts a family each year and the response from our employees is wonderful. We make up little holiday tree ornaments with the kid's info on what they need (ex: Jim, age 12, jeans size 12), then put them on the office tree and employees can take them from the tree, buy the item (or donate cash) and turn it into our coordinators. We wrap and deliver them to the family. Last year, it took us two trucks to get all the family's gifts over to them.
Seeing the mother's reaction as we unloaded all those goodies was so touching and heart warming - makes all the effort worthwhile!
Good luck to you, Draill, and welcome to the Indiana DUers corner of the world!

[Draill]

6. Excellent!

I'm very happy to hear that your firm has a family that they adopt at Christmas. It is a very worthwhile holiday experience.

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for helping out!:pals:

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

7. It's the best feeling of the year!

Draill, today is the day our firm has the employees to bring in their gifts for the family. I am pleased to report that every item requested was purchased and every wish ornament on the tree was fulfilled! The mountain of gifts is huge; it spills out of one office and into the hallway! Our "elves" are busy wrapping and it will probably take them all day to finish.
The generosity of our staff has me near tears! You know, people spend a lot of time complaining about attorneys (believe me, I've heard ALL the shark jokes by now); I wish they could see how generous these guys and gals have been.
For my part (I'm not an attorney, just a lowly staffer), I bought the "Mom" of our family a beautiful new winter coat and a stylish three piece suit. To make sure it fits, I attached the gift receipt from the store (no amount listed) so she can return it if it doesn't fit.
It felt kinda funny browsing the store, looking for a gift for someone I've never met. But I can't begin to describe how excited and touched I am that this family will now have a wonderful holiday!
Folks, if you've never helped out like this, try it! The warm, fuzzy feeling you get is worth it!
Let's keep those good holiday feelings going throughout the year. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! And thanks again, Draill - I hope there are many more happy stories folks can share with us.

[Draill]

8. Thanks, SpeedwayDemocrat!

I adopted a single elderly woman from the program. I took her gifts to her on the 23rd. The thing that she was most happy about was the visit. She is 85 and alone, but luckily lives in a good place and has a great social worker. My boyfriend and I really enjoy older folks, so we'll be visiting her again. I'm not usually much in the Holiday mood, but after that visit, I had a much better experience at all my holiday functions.

Thanks again for helping! :hug: