RiverTown Crossings donates $3,000 to ensure Christmas gifts for foster children

GRANDVILLE, Mich. -- RiverTown Crossings Mall is working with FOX 17 to make it a very special Christmas for some West Michigan foster youth.
The mall is donating $100 in mall gift cards to 30 foster youth, making sure these kids -- who otherwise might not get anything -- get exactly what they want this Christmas.
“Right now I'm feeling really grateful ,” 10-year-old Sativa said.
“We're thrilled to be able to help them and do this and meet them,” RiverTown Crossings marketing manager Amanda Gielczyk said. “We've seen the Forever Home program that (FOX 17 is) doing and we think it's amazing so when you guys reached out to us it was a great opportunity for us to get involved and do something really spectacular for 30 really deserving children.”
Sativa has been waiting for a family for several years.
“I want a family. I want a dad, a mom, big brothers and big sisters -- and little brothers and little sisters and pets and I want to live on a farm,” she said.
Ecstatic to get shopping, we wandered into `Justice’ -- in search of all things that sparkle, and shoes, of course.
15-year-old Tommy waited patiently outside in search of something a bit more manly.
“I've never really stayed in one home for more than a couple months,” he said.
He says he’s been in and out of the foster system since he was one month old and wanted to find something that would impress a forever family.
“Dress clothes,” he said. “Good first impression.”
He lucked out at Express with a sharp shirt and tie and also a cookbook from Barnes & Noble.
Sativa decided a fashion show would narrow her choices down.
Sativa & Tommy’s group homes also receive $100 from RiverTown Crossings for Christmas presents this year.
“We wanted to make sure no one in these homes was left out so it was important to us that we picked a location where we could help every child there,” Gielczyk said.
So as Sativa and Tommy wish and hope for a family to adopt them so they won’t have to spend next Christmas alone, they’ll hold on the memories of this Christmas -- when the folks at RiverTown Crossings showed them there are people out there who care.
Adopting any child through the Michigan Foster System comes at absolutely no cost.
If you’re interested in adopting Sativa or Tommy or any other youth from the Michigan Foster System, call Orchards Children’s Services at 855-694-7301.