Adopt-a-Family

Adopt-a-Family, a community service program, has helped families in the Grand Valley for 12 years.
“It’s an initiative that’s been championed by the ambassador program,” Director of Admissions Jared Meier said.
The program aims to help families in need during the holiday season and provides each family with the type of Christmas they would like to have if money wasn’t an issue.
“The main purpose is to give families who don’t have the money to supply their family with the Christmas that they want,” Adopt-a-Family Program Coordinator Brittnee Smith said. “I want families to be able to celebrate how they would like to, even in these economic times and I want them to be happy.”
Families in need are categorized into three sizes: a small family consists of two to three people, a medium family is four to five people, and a large family consists of six or more people.
To ensure that families get the things they need, each family sends in an inventory with ages and sizes of their children. That message is then relayed to the sponsors of each family so they know what to shop for.
“They don’t have to get everything on the list,” Smith said. “Just whatever they think they should have.”
Gifts for the families depend on who the members are. For parents, gifts are generally household necessities such as food and groceries, and for the children, the gifts are usually toys and clothes.
Meier said feedback for the program has been positive.
“We have 15 to 20 organizations on campus that generally sponsor a family,” Meier said.
On-campus groups and community members can participate in the event.
“Most of the time we get enough gifts that we need at least one or two dollies for each family, which is amazing,” senior ambassador Courtney Phillipy said.
The drop-off date for sponsors to bring their gifts is Dec. 2. The pick-up date for the families is Dec. 3.
Each year, the ambassadors try to make the family pick-up day as special as possible by including games and activities.
“They’ve had fire fighters here so the kids can play on the fire truck, they’ve had a Santa Claus, they have Christmas music playing, and there’s hot chocolate and cookies,” Meier said. “It’s not an awkward feeling for them. They feel very received and they don’t have to feel ashamed and uneasy about accepting those gifts.”
When she took the position as program coordinator, Smith said she thought the hardest part of her job would be tracking down people to participate in the event.
“My favorite part is how many people have been wanting to help out, and the interest that they have,” Smith said. “I thought I’d be begging people to help, but people have been seeing little bits and pieces of information here and there, and they’ve been really interested.”
Ambassadors will be taking donations and participation forms until Nov. 7. To get involved, email Smith at brittnee.smith91@gmail.com.

acastro@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

Categorised in: News

This post was written by critedev