First, The Birthday - to provide parents, unable to financially afford a traditional Christmas experience for their families, a customized Christmas dinner, Christmas stocking filled with necessities and goodies, new clothing and age appropriate toys/gifts for each child.
How do we do this? We get the names and permission to talk to the parents who have registered with Student Services of Flagler County, Florida. When we speak with the parents, we explain that this is a gift for them to give to their children. We find out what the needs and wishes of the children are. Each Child has two Wish Cards, one for clothing and one for gifts & toys. Those wish cards are put on trees throughout the community after Thanksgiving.
People are kind enough to pick the cards they want to fill, purchase and wrap the gifts, and return them to the tree. Those are all gathered and whatever has not been purchased, we then buy what we can, wrap it and organize the families gifts. We order the food that is specific to the size and family needs and, hopefully, will have plenty of dry and canned goods to add to the dinner. All is picked up several days before Christmas, by the parents when the children are in school so they don’t see it.
Since we were founded in 2009, Christmas Come True has been able to assist 383 families (962 children) at Christmas and we would hope to be able to provide even more in 2014. These families struggle with homelessness, lack of transportation to get to work, unemployment, special needs children, and many other challenging situations.
Our goal for this year is to expand our mission, by providing beneficial programs throughout the year for Flagler County residents in need. Because we are trying to expand our vision, we find that we need your assistance in order to help more families overcome the challenges they face. Christmas Come True aspires to provide assistance not only during the Christmas season, but throughout the entire year.
Some of the projects currently under way include: housing assistance, furnishings, motivational seminars, self-confidence seminars, cover letter and resume building, job search, writing and blogging seminars, and small business creation and development.
The second part of our mission is The Frame of Mind – to create a community environment for the exchange between businesses and clients, client-to-client Work, Food, Clothing, Necessities, Teaching, and Counseling. A networking of People, Work & Experience, with the Emphasis on Sharing and Giving of knowledge to bring clients a higher level of Happiness and Family Success.
