Family Giving
As part of the year-end gift-giving season, the staff at Landaas & Company provided holiday presents to a family of 10 through the Next Door Foundation’s Adopt A Family program.
The initiative by the children-focused Milwaukee agency connected about 50 sponsors with 75 local families needing assistance.
The particular family adopted by Landaas & Company includes a mother, a father and eight children ranging in age from 2 to 16. Landaas employees shopped for items suggested by the family’s wish lists, which included winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, snow boots, a school backpack, a fishing pole and cosmetics.
Landaas & Company associate Diana Sarandos said, “We deal with a lot of people who have money, and here is a great way to help a family that doesn’t even have the means to buy coats or basic needs for their family.”
Adopt A Family provided Landaas employees with a convenient way to contribute to the community, Diana said. Staff chose items from the lists, shopped for them and brought the gifts to the office for wrapping and delivery to Next Door. Diana said the simplicity of the wish lists was endearing.
“This was something special because the needs were coats and gloves and hats and things like that,” Diana said.
Beverly Bivens-Watkins, marketing and recruitment director at Next Door, said the gift-giving is not part of the organization’s mission, but it helps families bond with the agency and the services it can provide.
“We find out there is so much more hardship going on than we ever could imagine,” Beverly said. “The goal for the program is simply to see people have a great holiday.”
initially posted Dec. 20, 2011
Landaas newsletter subscribers return to the newsletter via e-mail.