“Wrapping Up” Our 2020 Holiday Project

Bringing holiday cheer to families in need.

Every year, we at Champions look forward to our annual Holiday Store. We transform our Baby Bungalow house into a beautifully decorated toy store, fill it with thousands of donated toys, and welcome parents from our families who might not otherwise be able to afford holiday gifts for their kids to walk thru, “shop,” and pick out something special for their little ones. Then, they enjoy cider, cookies, and photo ops while our volunteers wrap their gifts up and send them home to enjoy for the holidays.

Like so many other things in 2020, how we help our families celebrate the holidays has had to change for now – but thanks to the creativity and generosity of our amazing community, we’ve still been able to bring holiday cheer to families in need!

This week, we are wrapping up (pun intended) our 2020 Holiday Champion Tree project. Since we weren’t able to gather in person for safety reasons, our staff worked to identify those families in our programs who had the greatest need and would not be able to afford holiday gifts for their children on their own. Due to the pandemic, there were even many cases where families who have never struggled before are experiencing significant need. Each family provided us their “wish list” for their kids, which we then matched to a holiday donor – and we have been overwhelmed by the response.

Thanks to over 70 individuals, companies, and community groups, we were able to provide meaningful holiday gifts for 226 of our client families with a total of 467 children. Oftentimes, these generous supporters went beyond what families asked for to provide additional toys, grocery store gift cards, and other items to make the season a little brighter. Many of our families shared what a special and much-needed experience it was to be able to give their children something they truly loved during this difficult time, and how valuable it was in many cases to have the gifts delivered to their homes, eliminating barriers like transportation.

Although we look forward to the time when we can celebrate the holidays with our families in person, this year has been unique and special in many of its own ways. We are so grateful to our partners and supporters in the community who have helped us to provide holiday cheer to our participants while celebrating their efforts to build stronger families with thriving children!