This year, the Sacramento Children’s Home’s Holiday Giving Program will provide gifts to close to 3,000 local children. Additionally, the community adopted over 110 SCH families this December.
The adopted families all receive some type of service from the Sacramento Children’s Home, such as counseling, care at our Crisis Nursery, home visitations through eVIBE, or support from a Family Resource Center. These are families who our team identified as potential families who just need a little help to make the holidays extra special for the children in their care.
Arline came to our Crisis Nursery in need of support.
A grandmother of five, she was already providing care for three of her grandchildren—an 11-year-old and two 4-year-old twins—because one of her daughters was experiencing personal challenges. Sadly, Arline’s other daughter passed away unexpectedly due to childbirth complications. Arline assumed custody of her daughter’s two children, now ages three and three months old.
She very quickly assumed the responsibilities of enrolling the children in school, providing for them financially, seeking counseling for the children due to the sudden passing of their mother, and so much more. She also has multiple appointments for securing guardianship, Social Security, and more, all while planning her daughter’s funeral. Due to the suddenness of it all, the financial responsibilities, and still grieving, our Nursery staff quickly identified Arline’s family as one that could benefit from the Adopt-a-Family program.
Our Nursery staff signed her up, received the family’s wishes (many of which were needs of basic necessities) and our Philanthropy Department matched the family with a donor (in this case, an office).
On December 23, we surprised Arline and her grandchildren with the gifts:
CLICK HERE TO WATCH ARLINE’S REACTION
Thank you once again to everyone who adopted a family this year. Last year, the community adopted nearly 40 families. We just about tripled that number this year, thanks to you. Often we say we can’t do it without you. But truthfully, we would not have been able to witness this family’s reaction without the support of amazing people in our community.