Limestone County DHR’s foster children will once again have plenty of gifts under the Christmas tree this year thanks to Kids to Love’s Christmas for the Kids program. There are currently 88 children in DHR foster care and each child had their wishlist fulfilled by the Madison based non-profit.

Limestone County DHR foster care case workers joined the Kids to Love volunteers Friday morning to load trucks provided by Scott Basil with Tyonek Manufacturing Group. Despite the pouring rain, the spirits were high knowing foster children will not be forgotten this holiday season.

Founder/CEO of Kids to Love Lee Marshall said, “Our organization meets the immediate needs of children in foster care, and Christmas is one of our largest outreach programs that we have every year. Today we have 1,887 Christmas wish lists being picked up to serve children in foster care across North Alabama and Southern Tennessee.”

Each child filled out a wish list and answered questions such as clothing sizes, favorite colors, sports teams, and other personal favorites. The Kids to Love team then got to work to personalize each child’s Christmas requests.

“Kids to Love started this several years ago for foster kids. This is just another way to help the foster parents provide Christmas for our foster kids in Limestone County and other counties. We appreciate the support from Kids to Love and are grateful for their hard work each year. We would also like to thank Scott Basil and Tyonek Manufacturing Group in Huntsville for transporting the gifts to Limestone County DHR,” DHR Social Service Supervisor Jennifer Sampieri said.

This is the 18th year for the Kids to Love Christmas for the Kids program. Marshall has seen it get bigger over the years.

She said, “Our community supports in amazing ways. To see the generosity and how people come out to really embrace kids in foster care is heartwarming. I think kids in foster care are sometimes forgotten victims in our community, so this is a fantastic way to bring awareness to the need in foster care, hopefully recruit more foster families, and also for people to have a chance to give back and help our kids every Christmas. We have needs all year long, and I think Christmas is a time where people have a soft spot in their heart to help. There are ways to get involved year round.”

Kids to Love has foster parenting classes starting in January, and their website, kidstolove.org, has information regarding the many ways people can get involved.