The Christmas Smiles Drive
The Need
The holidays are usually a time of peace, joy, and celebration, but they can be tough on many individuals and families, particularly those fleeing abusive homes. Leaving behind everything you know and being forced to find shelter elsewhere is hard enough for adults, but the emotional toll can be even harder on children.
Through our Christmas Smiles Drive, we aim to make the holiday season a more joyous time for children and families in transition. To meet this need, we're proud to have partnered with the Durham Crisis Response Center (DCRC), the leading provider of support for domestic violence (DV) survivors in Durham, and InterAct of Wake County, the primary DV advocacy agency in Raleigh, to collect gifts for the children and families staying in emergency shelters on Christmas morning.
The Impact
To date, we've distributed hundreds of toys, books, games, and other donations, thanks to our community partners and individuals who have contributed to our collection efforts. For our 2019 drive, we're excited to announce we collected enough gifts to give out more than 25 toys per child in the shelters on Christmas morning!
We look forward to an even bigger, more impactful drive in 2020.
How You Can Help
Gift Buying
To make it easier to support our collection efforts, this year we've compiled an Amazon Wish List! Filled with more than 100 different toys, books, games, and other fun gifts, our list has lots of great items for kids from ages 2 to 16!
Please feel free to purchase as many items on the list as you'd like! Once we receive the gifts you've purchased, we'll give them to the staff at the Durham Crisis Response Center and InterAct, who'll make sure the kids there get them on Christmas morning. To help them in their organizational efforts, please make your purchase(s) by no later than Saturday, December 5th.
To view our wish list, please click the link below:
Christmas Smiles Drive Amazon Wish List
Thanks for your support!
Sponsorship
We're pleased to partner with businesses large and small, as well as individuals throughout the community, who share our vision for helping the children and families affected by DV. With your help, we can put smiles on the faces of as many families as possible each Christmas.
Donate
Want to donate instead of buying a gift? Not a problem! Please feel free to make a financial donation to the drive through our secure online payment button below. Your payment info will be encrypted and protected through PayPal, the world's most trusted online merchant vendor, and the funds from your donation will be used specifically for the Christmas Smiles Drive.
