Opinion: HomeFront extends heartfelt thanks for keeping sense of wonder and hope alive this Christmas

    Thanks to our wonderful community for donating more than 2,600 specially chosen gifts to HomeFront’s annual Christmas Wishes Drive. The pandemic didn’t slow Santa down or stop him from keeping his appointment with each HomeFront child who was waiting for him with a heart full of hope.

        If you saw the thousands of gifts arriving on the HomeFront dock for our kids during our annual Christmas Wishes Drive, you too would believe in Santa Claus. These gifts chosen with each child’s special wishes in mind delight and entertain children who would otherwise have gotten nothing on Christmas morning. But most importantly, they also keep a sense of wonder and belief alive in many of them who live chaotic and scary lives.

       As with so many other things this year, the Christmas Wishes Drive of 2020 took on a much deeper meaning for our HomeFront kids. For our older kids the gifts were like a hug from someone out there in a year of social isolation. They were a reminder that they, and Christmas, were not forgotten – that they were still “seen” in a pretty dark time. For our little ones those gifts reaffirmed their belief – in Santa Claus, in an end to “the sickness”, in a better future for their family, in hope and in the fact that they are loved- all the things that help them stay mentally healthy and resilient.