Come Celebrate Christmas With New Moms!

This Christmas Season, we have the opportunity to make the holiday very special for the group of 13-21 year old homeless mothers and children served by New Moms, Inc.  On Saturday, December 13th, we celebrated the holidays with our annual Christmas Gala, which provided many opportunities for people like you to share their time, talents, and gifts. The Gala also marked the kickoff of our annual Christmas Store, a week-long shopping experience for participants, to buy presents for their children.

The Christmas Store:

The Christmas Store is one way that we reward our participants for being responsible throughout the year.  They earn “points” by keeping appointments, making sure their children are up to date with immunizations, attending parent support group meetings, and re-enrolling in school, among other ways.  The Christmas store allows participants to cash in up to 60 points per child, to buy new toys and clothing for their children.  We always have a great need for new, age-appropriate, non gift-wrapped toys and clothing, and we would love any help you might be able to provide. 

The children we serve range in age from newborn through age 5, and are pretty evenly split between boys and girls.  Collecting toys is always one of the most difficult tasks surrounding Christmas, but the toys provide great joy for our young families.  Not only are the children thrilled to receive new toys, but their young mothers are also proud that they were able to earn the gifts. 

The Christmas Store is open from 9-12 am and 1-4 pm from December 15th through December 20th, and we need volunteers to help us throughout that week. 

Toy donations must arrive by December 10th at the latest.

Christmas Gala:

During the Gala this year, we had professional photographs taken of each family, something our participants could not otherwise afford.  We also hosted a Christmas Carnival in our on-site gymnasium, and provided attendees a catered dinner.  We wraped up our celebration with a church service which many families attended.

To view an article published in the 12-14-2008 Chicago Tribune featuring our Christmas Gala, please CLICK HERE.

For more information about how you can help, by volunteering or donating toys please contact Brian Genzink at 773.252.3253 ext. 33, or send an email to bgenzink@newmomsinc.org.