Each year, CASA of Northwest Arkansas works hard to bring holiday cheer to our children in care.
With the help of Fast Lane Entertainment, local foster children and their families and group homes are treated to a remarkable day of bowling, pizza, laser tag, and more! Thanks to our friends at Unilever, Santa makes a special appearance and provides wonderful conversation and a special stocking to every child.
Beyond the holiday party, CASA also coordinates the sponsorship of holiday wish lists for children in foster care in Northwest Arkansas. This year, we gathered wish lists for 515 children in care from our region. We then coordinate donors to sponsor each wish list – shopping for the gifts and returning them to CASA. Can you imagine? It takes hundreds of individuals, civic organizations, companies, and churches to sponsor all of these wish lists. Volunteers then bag, organize, and distribute the gifts.
This is the CASA garage with gifts for 515 children and again after all of those gifts have been distributed. This undertaking simply would not be possible without the generous support of our entire community.
The foster parents caring for these special children were stunned by the generosity. Here are just a few comments we heard from them:
“This is our first year to be foster parents and participate in the CASA Christmas, and we were completely humbled by the generosity!”
“The holiday gifts are beyond our wildest imagination again this year.”
“SUCH a tremendous blessing you all are!!! Thank you to the many generous donors!”
We want to thank all who played a role in putting smiles on these children’s faces when they woke up Christmas morning. Because of you all, for just a moment, those children could forget that they are a child in foster care.
If you would like to sponsor a child for Christmas next year, please contact Shelley Hart (shelley@nwacasa.org). For planning purposes, please anticipate that it will cost ~$150 to fulfill one wish list.