Coast Guard Family And Friends Holiday Stockings For Homeless Children

Coast Guard Family and Friends Holiday Stockings for Homeless Children's mission is to provide and deliver handmade Holiday Stockings filled with new small basic needs items; hats, gloves, socks, hygiene and educational items, gifts and toys for homeless children, ages infant through teen years, living in over 120 homeless shelters in the greater Puget Sound area. We are an all-volunteer nonprofit 501c3 organization now in our 28th year of operation. We began as a Coast Guard spouses group making and stuffing 200 stocking for a few Seattle shelters. Each year we found more shelters and more children. As we saw the need to grow we were able to secure our 501c3 status. We expanded to include volunteers and donors from Coast Guard Auxiliary, foundations, businesses, civic organizations, churches, schools, Boy and Girl Scouts as well as individual friends of homeless children. Over the past 27 years with the help of our community partners we have stuffed stocking for 70,673 children. In 2022 we delivered stocking to 5,060 children and our goal for 2023 is to reach over 5,000 children. We invite you find out more about us and join us as a donor or volunteer to bring smiles to the faces of children in need in our shared community. Please go to our website at www.holidaystockings.org and join with us.

The Holiday Stocking for Homeless Children is an all-volunteer 501c3 organization. Our six member Board of Directors oversees the planning, management and budgeting for all of the charity's activities. We work closely with homeless shelter directors' recommendations to select the new gifts we purchase and request donated as in-kind. For planning purposes we divide the children into 9 age groups, each with a Table Captain. We have over 100 additional volunteer who work year around on sewing stockings, baby bibs, burp clothes, tag blankets, knit/crochet hats, scarves and various other projects. Over 700 volunteers will come to help us at our annual Stocking Stuffing Event held the first weekend of December at the Coast Guard Base in Seattle. VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED: REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR ALL VOLUNTEERS Registration begins on September 1, 2023 by email to Bobette@holidaystockings.org or call 206-232-9854 for one or both days. Registration ends on December 1, 2023 or until we reach our limits.

VOLUNTEER

FRIDAY, December 8, 2023

SATURDAY, December. 9TH, 2023 

ANOTHER WAY YOU CAN HELP NOW:  Funding necessary to purchase the gifts for the children, we request donations and grants from foundations, businesses, civic groups, organizations and individuals. The donated funds are used carefully to get the best quality gift at the best price. We also ask donations of new small gifts and toys in-kind that are suitable to fill a child's stocking. A full 97% of all donations go directly to the children. Some examples of needed items are; hats, gloves, scarves, socks, baby items, teethers, rattles, tooth brushes and travel size paste, brushes, hair accessories, lip balm/gloss, deodorant, lotions, nail care kits/clippers, emery boards, hand sized games, jewelry, small art/craft kits, crayons, color/activity books, colored pencils, pens, highlighters, educational supplies, word puzzles, hand sized books, healthy snacks, hand & foot warmers, or other small gifts that would fit into a stocking to delight a child from infant through teen years. Gift items can be mailed to us: (Holiday Stocking, P.O.Box 6392, Bellevue, WA 98008 or taken to drop sites in the Seattle and East side areas.) DONATIONS NEED TO BE IN BY WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6, 2023. For drop sites and information contact: Bobette@holidaystockings.com. Go to our website for a broader list of needed donation gift items. The shelters give the Holiday Stockings to the children usually at a holiday party. Many parents and the children themselves send us heartfelt and heartwarming thank you notes. The shelters tell us the children often hang their stocking on their beds to remember the special day. Small portable gifts are emphasized because they can go with the children if they need to change shelters. We know our child centered gifts gently touch these children giving them a sense of community care and hope. To find out more about us and our impact on homelessness go to our website. www.holidaystockings.org

TO SUMMARIZE HOW YOU CAN HELP HOMELESS CHILDREN NOW:

MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO OUR CHARITY. CHECKS MADE TO: Holiday Stockings for Homeless Children MAIL TO: Holiday Stockings for Homeless Children, P.O. Box 6392, Bellevue, WA 98008-0392. 97% goes to the homeless children

YOU CAN DO A DROP BOX: Put out and tend a donation drop box where you live or work. We have Holiday Stockings posters we can email to you to put on your drop box. Let us know where your drop box is located so we can direct others in your area to drop off their donations through our website. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!