Helping Hands, a division of Northreach Society is holding their 11th annual Adopt-a-Family initiative.
This year they are supporting around 230 families in the community with presents and food for Christmas.
They are still looking for people and organizations that would be interested in adopting one of these families.
Dylan Lambert, Community Engagement Coordinator with Northreach Society says, “People can choose the family they would like to adopt, and with a direct sponsorship, you would go out, shop for your family and then drop it off to us and your family would come and pick it up.”
There is also the option to adopt a family indirectly through a donation where volunteers would go and shop for your family for you.
Helping Hands has put together another initiative which is new this year called “Little Elf Shop”. This special holiday program allows parents who are going through financial struggles to come pick out gifts for their children at no cost. The Little Elf Shop also includes a free Christmas dinner for families.
People can contact Helping Hands directly to drop off donations.
Lambert says, “We do see a lot of donations coming in for the younger kids and not so much for kids a little bit older. Some great gift ideas for older kids could include hygiene supplies, different beauty products for females. We're looking for maybe gift cards to the mall, pajamas, different things like that.”
If you would like to get involved with either of these initiatives to help local families in our community, visit helpinghandsgp.ca, or get more details on the Helping Hands Grande Prairie Facebook page.