BEAUMONT, Texas — Child Protective Services is asking the community to bring Christmas to nearly 500 children in foster care this holiday season.
CPS needs your help this year to share Christmas magic with a child in need and make sure no child goes without a gift under the tree, spokesperson Shari Pulliam said. Several of these children are displaced from the only home they knew for the first time this year.
Although the Christmas countdown clock has already started, amid the hardships of 2020, the need is greater than ever. In 2019, the Child Protective Services' Santa Store helped about 2,000 children.
Between the COVID-19 pandemic and two hurricanes, it's been a difficult year for many in Southeast Texas. For some children, their life has taken a drastic turn.
"They've been taken away from the only thing they knew," Pulliam said. "Even though it was not a good environment, it was the environment they knew."
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is asking for toy and monetary donations for kids in foster care since the agency's Santa Store is looking bare as of early December.
"We're here in our Santa's workshop and it's empty right now," she said.
But the community can change that.
"People want to help in this community," Pulliam said. "They've always been very helpful, they just don't know where to help."
For those who want to help but are unsure about what to give, here are some ideas:
- Baby dolls
- Toy trucks
- Remote control car
- Popular electronics
- Makeup
- Nail polish
- Gift cards to movie theaters or restaurants
Just anything you would buy your child to put under the tree, our children that we care for would like the same type of gifts," Pulliam said.
Anyone can drop off toys at any Beaumont fire station, The Courtyard in Groves, the BMW of Beaumont dealership and Headlines Hair Studio in Port Neches.
Beaumont Hard Riders is hosting its annual holiday toy drive Saturday, Dec. 5 at Cowboy Harley Davidson in Beaumont on Interstate-10 starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 3 p.m.
"Right now, we are asking for your help to fill this Santa's workshop to make sure that all the children that we become involved with and are involved with have something to open under the tree Christmas morning," Pulliam said.
CPS will be accepting donations until Dec. 21 so they will have time to get toys to the good boys and girls in time for Christmas.