PASADENA, Calif. – You know that pride you feel when you pick out a gift that you KNOW someone is going to love? And the pure joy you experience when you see their face as they open it, and you were RIGHT?
While the holidays can revolve around excitement and fulfillment, it can also be a time of great anxiety for families with few resources. This is where Foothill Family’s Making Seasons Brighter program hopes to help, through giving that fosters gratitude, empathy that nurtures empowerment.
With your support and the partnership of the larger community – individuals as well as businesses, schools, scout troops, and other groups – Making Seasons Brighter will bring holiday gifts of clothes, toys, and necessities to local families in need.
How can you help? Here are four easy ways for you to make someone’s season brighter:
- Donate items from the wish list at www.foothillfamily.org – or even easier, find the Amazon Wish List! Search Foothill Family name under “Find a List or Registry” and ship items directly to 2500 E. Foothill Blvd., Suite 300, Pasadena, CA 91107. Find Foothill Family on Amazon Smile too for the extra generous boost!
- Donate cash. Know that you’re Making Seasons Brighter while taking advantage of year-end giving and 2017 tax deductions.
- Host a gift drive with your friends, family, or place of business. Collect items together as a reminder of giving and gratitude, empathy and empowerment.
- Volunteer your time. Making Seasons Brighter is managed by volunteers who could use extra help sorting items, staffing the boutiques, assisting at the gift-wrapping station, and more!
“Making Seasons Brighter is a program that helps to position Foothill Family clients as participants in their holiday experience, rather than observers or recipient bystanders,” said Chief Executive Officer Steve Allen. “The program brings equity to the giving and receiving while empowering parents to be the providers that they strive to be for their families.”
More than 90 percent of Foothill Family’s client children are from poverty-level or low-income families who struggle to stretch very limited resources in meeting even basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing. Each year, Foothill Family therapists and case managers identify clients with the highest need and invite them to participate in Making Seasons Brighter. Donations are collected throughout the month of November and in early December, families are invited to “shop” from these donated items, free of charge, at special boutiques set up at Foothill Family Centers. Rather than watch the holidays happen around them, families become engaged contributors in making a more memorable holiday season.
For more information about Foothill Family’s Making Seasons Brighter, including the category wish lists and other ways to participate, please visit www.foothillfamily.org/holiday.php.
In addition, make your own season brighter by taking advantage of ways to get AND give! There are two community partnerships that have joined forces with Foothill Family to unite your holiday season with the giving season! Both opportunities require purchases made from special links, so visit www.foothillfamily.org to make your holidays doubly bright!
- Thanks to the generosity of Lythgoe Family Panto, 50 tickets for the December 13 opening night show of Beauty and the Beast – A Christmas Rose have been allotted to benefit Foothill Family. Buy your tickets today before they sell out!
- LATHER online and in Pasadena will generously donate $50 for every Ultimate Spa Gift purchased. Visit the Pasadena store at 17 E. Colorado Blvd or lather.com. While supplies last.
About Foothill Family
Foothill Family was founded in 1926 and provides a range of community-based mental health and social services to at-risk populations in the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, Glendale, and Burbank. Its mission, to build brighter futures for children and families, has helped Foothill Family earn a reputation for providing high-quality services aimed at empowering families and strengthening communities. Programs include mental health and school-based services for children, early childhood development programs, family and youth services including child abuse prevention and treatment, domestic violence prevention and treatment, and services for pregnant and parenting teens. Last year, more than 24,000 children and their families benefited from Foothill Family’s life-changing programs. For more information, please call (626) 993-3000 or visit www.foothillfamily.org.