Help for Kiddos this Christmas

Dear friends,

Hard to believe that the holidays are so quickly approaching! I know that I think this every year, but this year REALLY does seem to have flown by! I love this season, though, and can't wait for the holidays to come.

I am writing to ask for your help. As some of you know, my dad started a foundation - Christ's Starfish Foundation- several years ago. They work to help meet the needs of hospitalized children and families of children who are facing hardships due to their child's illness. They specifically work with families children with non-cancer related illnesses, as that is an area of great need with limited resources. At Christmastime, though, the foundation works to provide gifts for all of the children that are hospitalized on Christmas day. The foundation is based in Jacksonville, FL, and has been providing gifts for the children there for several years.

This year, the foundation has begun to partner with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston (where I work) and at Scottish Rite. For Christmas, they have been asked to help provide gifts for about 145 children at Egleston on Christmas day.

And that is where you come in. The foundation relies on the help of the community at Christmastime to help provide gifts for the children. I am helping to coordinate gifts for the toddler age group. They have been asked to provide about 3-5 gifts for 30 toddler aged children, which means that we need about 150 gifts for this age group.

I would love for you to consider donating a gift, or perhaps sponsoring a child. If you are not available, perhaps your small group, neighborhood, or church might be interested in donating. We can use all the help we can get!

Please let me know if you are interested, or if you know of a person or group who may be interested. I can tell you firsthand as a nurse who has to work on Christmas, it is so fun to get to see our kids' faces when they realize that "Santa" comes to the hospital, too. Gifts can be brought to me, or I can arrange to have them picked up if you are interested in participating.

Thanks, friends!

Amy

Toddler gift ideas: g-rated DVDs, sound books, musical toys, light up toys, Duplo blocks, balls, cars and trucks, pop-up toys, See-N-Say toys, wooden puzzles, bubbles, coloring books, big dolls, stuffed animals