GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - Children’s Hope Foster Family Agency’s annual Christmas party supporting local foster children and foster families was a little different than in previous years due to COVID-19, but that did not stop local community members, businesses, and organizations from bringing Christmas cheer to the lives of local foster children. On Thursday, December 17, 2020, Children’s Hope held a drive-thru Christmas celebration in downtown Gridley allowing foster families to drive through and pick up toys, stuffed animals provided by PetSmart, stocking stuffers, bikes, and for an opportunity to take pictures with Santa and Mrs. Clause (Ron and Pat Scheyer).

Each year social workers who regularly visit the foster homes are asked to sit down and complete wish lists for each foster child. This usually happens the first week of November to provide enough time to fulfill the wish lists and get the gifts back to the foster families before Christmas day. These amazing gifts of the heart from various communities helped Children’s Hope fill over 500 wishes.

This year Children’s Hope had an abundant amount of community support from Gridley to Roseville fulfilling wishes. Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento at Fire Mountain (Wheatland) and their many teams filled approximately 200 wishes! Janyo Frozen Yogurt (Yuba City) had 100 tags on their tree that were gone in 2 days! Creative Kids (Yuba City), Headlines Salon & Spa (Yuba City), PG&E (Marysville), Bank of the West (Gridley), Orchard Hospital (Gridley), Golden Pacific Bank (Live Oak), Sierra Central Credit Union (Yuba City), Adept Solutions (Yuba City) and Ticket to Dream Foundation (Roseville), all helped fulfill wishes for our foster children.

Biggs Elementary School 4-H donated approximately 40 boxes full of toys and school supplies for foster youth. Sycamore Middle School’s A.V.I.D. classes collected toys and made festive stocking stuffer bags for the foster children. Dollar General (Gridley) had a toy collection box where customers could purchase a toy to be donated to a foster child. Countless individuals throughout the communities contributed to making it a successful Christmas season for our foster children and their foster families.

A sweet and endearing story this year came from an 8-year-old boy named Emilio from Rocklin. With the help from his parents Emilio was able to raise close to $700. Emilio’s parents wanted to teach him about being compassionate and giving back. With the $700 Emilio and his parents purchased toys and shoes for a family they adopted.  Emilio also filled some wishlist wishes in support of Children’s Hope.

The outpouring of selfless generosity was very heartwarming. With the community coming together we were able to fulfill 24 bike wishes with the help of Yuba Sutter Indo American Association and NorCal Law.

With so much generosity from the community, we had to take Santa’s Workshop to a separate location to sort all the toys. Children’s Hope would like to thank the owners of the old Bank of America building in downtown Gridley, Riz and Sam Khan, for allowing us to utilize the space to help fulfill our Christmas mission.

Children’s Hope would also like to thank every individual that donated, every business that hosted a Giving Hope Tree, and every organization that stepped forward and made sure that this Christmas season was just a little bit more magical in making wishes come true. Without your kind hearts and generosity, our mission of spreading love during the holidays would not have been made possible. Thank you for joining us in making a difference one child at a time and helping us celebrate “20 YEARS of HOPE”!  www.childrenshopeffa.org