Payless Shoes 4 Kids Donates 100 Shoes to Los Angeles Charity
(PASADENA, CA) – Selected as a partner in the Payless Shoes 4 Kids program, Hillsides received one hundred $15 gift certificates for shoes to give to families living in Los Angeles County that are in crisis and have financial hardship.
“Each Holiday season, Hillsides provides support, relief and safe places for children and youth,” said John Hitchcock, the foster care children’s charity executive director. “Through the support of our friends and donors, Hillsides is able to help our low income and at-risk families have a meaningful holiday season.”
The community holiday assistance that the children’s charity provides makes a measurable impact on parents who would normally be unable to provide gifts for their children, food and the simple pleasures of holiday decorations. This year, families are experiencing greater financial difficulties and are having trouble providing even the basic needs for their family.
Families who look to the Los Angeles charity for counseling and parenting assistance are often victims of extreme poverty. Hillsides programs help needy families by addressing both emotional and physical needs during the holidays. Each year through Hillsides’ Holiday “Adopt-A-Family” program, nearly a hundred families are “adopted.”
“These are families that we have treated and counseled all year long, and are indeed families in need and the downturn has hit our families particularly hard. The majority of our families depend on the local industry of contracting like housekeeping and food business to survive, however many have experienced reduced hours or have lost their jobs entirely,” said Hitchcock, adding that at the same time, Hillsides is experiencing a dramatic short fall of private donors.
When we think of the holiday season, holiday meals, gifts and good times come to mind. At Hillsides, these priceless moments will become a reality for many families through the help and generosity of community support such as the Payless Shoes 4 kids program.
For one of the families, who received Payless Shoes gift certificates for their three children, this was an answered prayer. Tragically, the father was violently attacked a few months ago, after cashing his paycheck at a check cashing business in South Los Angeles. He was ruthlessly beaten; his wallet was stolen and never recovered.
This money was desperately needed to pay the family’s rent, utilities and basic necessities. Two weeks later, his wife became ill with bronchitis, her condition worsened, turning to pneumonia. Unable to work for three weeks, this traumatized family became two months late on their rent, was behind on utility payments, they had no money for groceries, let alone anything for Christmas. Hillsides stepped in and provided money for rental and utility assistance, food vouchers, and some clothing and Christmas gifts for each of the three children, including Payless Shoes gift certificates.
When the Los Angeles children’s charity’s staff delivered the gifts and clothes last week, 15-year-old *Emily said she had been praying that someone would help her family this Christmas. With a big smile and laughter in her voice, she asked the charity’s social worker to tell those wonderful friends at Hillsides “thank you for hearing my prayers.”
For many more children like Emily, answered prayers come in the form of charities in the community doing good deeds and striving to continue with the mission, in particular, creating safe places for children in Los Angeles County.
To learn more about the foster care charity serving foster care children and families living in Los Angeles County, visit: www.hillsides.org.
