Christmas Gift Sponsorship Program

Since 2014, we have been coordinating a Christmas Gift Sponsorship Program to help the children in School District 303 receive gifts from wish lists that each family personally creates. We work directly with D303 social workers who identify families who may be experiencing any of the following factors that may impact the parents’ ability to provide gifts during the holiday season: 

• Single parent
• Illness or death in the immediate family
• Loss of income or low-income
• Homelessness
• Home destroyed by fire
• Other circumstances determined at the discretion of the social worker.

The parents provide D303 social workers with “wish lists” and are comprised of a few toy ideas as well as clothing and shoe sizes. Many of these lists include basic items like coats, warm clothing, winter boots and gloves.  Big Hearts of Fox Valley reaches out to the community to find shoppers to buy gifts from the wish lists.  When shopping for a child(who remains anonymous), we ask that you purchase at least 5 items from their wish list.  Since this, in many cases, will be the only gifts they receive you can expect to spend around $75 for each child. 

Our program is different from many other holiday assistance programs because the sponsor has the chance to feel a special connection with their “adopted” child as the sponsor receives a personalized wish list for the child.

We encourage individuals, families, neighborhoods, PTOs, businesses, teams, churches and other local organizations to partner with us to help us achieve our goal. We hope you will join us in our efforts to make the lives of the children around us a little brighter.