BALTIMORE — Over 500 families are in need of a donor to fulfill their wish list this Christmas.
You can make that happen thanks to the St. Vincent de Paul’s adopt a family program.
“We take the time around the holidays to make sure that each one of our families, and each one of our children’s families, have an opportunity to have a merry Christmas," said Mary Helfrich.
Each year St. Vincent de Paul has the adopt a child program, but this year it has more families in need than ever, and it's worried it won't have enough donors for all of the families.
Helfrich says this is one of the most impactful programs because some kids don’t get toys for Christmas since their families can’t afford it.
She says in years past the children have been more than grateful.
“A lot of fun for them just like any child who opens up their Christmas presents," said Helfrich.
Each donor gets a wish list from the family, buys the items, then drops them off at a designated location, then from there the parents get to wrap the gifts.
“A great family opportunity, and here at Sara’s Hope we do wrapping parties and make sure that everyone is engaged in the project," said Helfrich.
Last year the program helped just over 300 families, this year more than 500 need help. We asked why the number of families is so high this year.
"With the pandemic and with housing the way it was we’ve seen an increase in the families that were serving. So we have over 400 children in our head start programs and we adopt their whole families, we adopt their siblings, we adopt their parents. So there was an increase in numbers and we have also seen an increase in the numbers of families we serve in our family shelters," said Helfrich.
Helfrich also says not everything that makes the wish list is a toy, some of the items are a bit more personal.
“The parents just want their children to have a good time so on their wish lists they put things as simple as cleaning supplies and laundry baskets and things that you and I would take for granted because we can just go to the store,” Helfrich said.
She says helping these families with their wish lists mean so much to them because they have so little.
Click here if you would like to adopt a family for Christmas.
