This is the third story in GOOD Morning Wilton’s ‘Season of Giving’ series. Please keep these worthy organizations we feature in mind as we enjoy the riches of this holiday season.
Leave it to moms to get the job done–efficiently, quickly and with a heck of a lot of compassion.
CT-Moms,an online community of over 10,000 women in the local area, sponsors a unique way for local moms to help make holiday wishes come true for needy children in Fairfield County. Six years ago they started a gift drive to bestow holiday presents to needy children in the local foster system through DCF–the Department of Children and Families.
Medha Thomas, the founder and director of CT-Moms wanted to accomplish two things when she created the gift drive: help as many kids as possible while also find a way to make it as easy as possible for the moms who were members.
“The gift drive was born out of a need for our moms to give back in ways that are easy, fun and virtual. A lot of our moms don’t have the time to go to meetings and pick out kids on a wish list but they really want to help. We created a virtual wish list for social workers to go right on and put their [child clients’] wishes on, and then for the moms to go on and pluck them off. It alleviates the middle man, of needing to coordinate and put together a gift tree. It brings the wishes directly to the people who want to purchase. We try to work with the social workers who work directly with these kids–often they know the child needs something that the child doesn’t even know. They know best,” explained Thomas.
There were certainly many needy children when the drive started six years ago, and there still continues to be a great need. According to the webpage for the gift drive, “with hundreds of social workers in our local area alone, and each of them having a workload of at least 20 or 30 foster children, the need is unimaginable. We were able to provide thousands of dollars worth of gifts to over 800 kids last year, and this year our goal is to help over 1,000 kids know that they are important and valued.”
Even though the sponsoring group is called CT-Moms, you don’t have to be a member or a mom, for that matter, to take part. Anyone can visit the virtual wish list via the CT-Moms website, and sign up to purchase the gift of a child or children. Once a gift has been purchased, there are local coordinators in each participating town who volunteer to be the drop-off contact for the gifts. “Email the coordinator for their town, and the coordinator works with them to connect and get the gifts,” Thomas said.
Deb DeFeo is the Wilton mom volunteering to be the coordinator for this town and she can be reached by email at deb@ctmomsonline.com. She says that seeing the kinds of toys and wishes these kids have brings home the fact that they’re kids, very much like our own.
“Just look at the names and the ages, and what these kids are asking for,” DeFeo urges. “They’re asking for things that our kids might take for granted. This is their one Christmas wish or holiday wish. I felt drawn to the kids who are my kids ages–you have a connection there. You think, ‘If this were my kid, I would hope someone would be doing this for him.’”
But with today’s busy schedules and the crush of holiday time, even purchasing a gift in a store and arranging to drop it off somewhere may be too much for some people who still want to help. “We find that when people’s time is running low and deadlines are near, we do have a PayPal link, and we also take checks and credit cards. So if people prefer to donate money instead, we have a team of elves that are really great discount shoppers, and they’ll shop for these gifts if the donors don’t have time,” Thomas explains.
There’s another, easy third option that CT-Moms has: “We also try to make it really easy with an Amazon wish list, for people who can’t get to Toys-R-Us or go pick out the gifts, they can go to the Amazon wish list, purchase something and the gift is delivered directly to the coordinator.
The children who are the recipients of the generosity of the CT-Moms’ drive come from Stamford, Bridgeport, Danbury and Norwalk, for the most part. They are equal numbers of boys and girls, across all age spans. Thomas makes a plea for people to consider gifting teens on the list. “The teenagers really want gift cards, and we know that’s not always the most glamorous gift to give, lots of people like to shop for toys, but gift cards are things that teens really want. Barbies are fun to buy, but gift cards are really needed.” She suggests gift cards from places where kids like to shop–the Gap, Justice or Best Buy.
The deadline for gifts is December 15th.