GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.- Of the nearly 13,000 children in Michigan’s foster care system, 2,500 are looking for adoptive parents to give them a home.
These children will likely spend the holidays without a family to call their own and some with no presents.
75 percent of the foster youth between the ages of 13 and 18 aren't even with a foster family; they're in residential homes.
“The holidays can be pretty hard on kids if they don’t have a family to spend it with, especially if they are not in a foster home and in a residential setting,” Lynette Lingemann with Lutheran Adoption Services said. “We try really hard to make sure they all get a birthday gift, and they all get a Christmas gift, but there’s definitely not enough to go around.”
This holiday season, FOX 17 is teaming up with Lutheran Adoption Services and viewers from across West Michigan who have asked for a way to give back. We're collecting toys for foster youth, many of whom live in "placements."
“It’s more of like a treatment facility,” Lingemann said. "They have on-site school, and it’s for the kids who don’t have identified families who may need any extra assistance in any areas of their life." That’s where those children will spend the holiday season, "with all the other youth in the center, with other staff members who are just direct care workers taking care of the youth who are on placement,” she said.
Many may not even receive a single gift on Christmas morning.
A list of approved gifts for the children in residential or group homes include:
- Board games
- DVD's
- Sporting equipment
- Books
- Teen-sized clothing
- Gift cards
Gifts can be dropped off or mailed to the Lutheran Social Services building at 207 East Fulton Street, 4th floor, Grand Rapids, MI 49503.
Presents can be dropped off Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
We will be collecting presents until Friday, Dec. 19.
You can address the presents to any of the foster youth we've introduced you to through our Forever Home Series or provide a present for another child, just please make sure the present is unwrapped.
If you have any questions about the gift collection send us an email.
