
Donation Helps Create Holiday Cheer
The transition to foster care is difficult at best and the holidays are a particularly challenging time for many children in the system. Team HCL® stepped up again this year to spread Christmas cheer to youth who receive assistance through A New Leaf, a Circleville-based organization that provides foster care services throughout central Ohio.
In addition to the items collected during our annual toy drive, we collected $1,610 in cash through employee contributions and auctions. A New Leaf will use the donation to purchase teen gifts, which are not typically collected during toy drives. In all, about 240 children will receive Christmas presents along with a party to celebrate the season.
Valerie Drake, HCL® Vice President of Finance and long-time volunteer for the organization, said children who enter foster care often come in with just the clothes on their backs. Donations like these help ease the process.
“Each child is given a stuffy or some kind of comfort toy in order to make the transition a little easier,” she said, “and to have something they can call their very own.”