1,075 people in Shawnee County are still facing a bleak Christmas due to lower-than-expected adopter response to United Way of Kaw Valley’s Christmas Bureau holiday program.
Dec. 6, 2024, Topeka, KS— As of today, 1,075 people in 382 Shawnee County households were still in limbo, hoping to hear that someone cares enough to help them with holiday gifts and food. And while monetary donations to United Way’s Christmas Bureau are welcomed and useful, it’s adopters who make the program sing.
“If we say an adopter spends an average of three hours shopping for gifts and food, wrapping presents and then delivering to the family, it would take our staff and volunteers more than 1,100 hours to take care of the remaining households,” said Jessica Lehnherr, UWKV CEO. “We really struggle to give these families the experience they deserve when we have so many left.”
Covering the cost of serving that many households would also require doubling what has been donated so far this year. It would take $46,510 to purchase all the gifts and food.
Ideally, Lehnherr said, people come together to adopt households, taking on the time and money commitment. When the effort is spread all across the county, among individuals and organizations, the lift is so easy. But without those many, many hands, the work is anything but light.
This will be the second year in a row that Topekan Lissa Staley and her children are working with friends and family to adopt several individuals from the Christmas Bureau. Last year, she said, they were pleasantly surprised how many people they could care for when their impromptu troop of collaborators chipped in where they could. Some had money but not time or transportation. Some had time but no extra cash. Some had wrapping supplies to share.
They started out adopting three families, but as more folks joined their “Christmas collective” they were able to keep adopting more. A chance encounter and a Christmas Bureau conversation even led to an unexpected windfall of grocery gift cards that further increased their capacity to help.
As someone who is relatively introverted, Staley sets aside some of her natural hesitation when it comes to Christmas Bureau. In one of her social media updates last year, she posted, “Is the HARDEST PART about adopting a Christmas Bureau family calling a stranger on the telephone? Yes. Yes, it is.” But that very same day she also shared, “I CANNOT BELIEVE that I forgot that the way to have Christmas Spirit is to MAKE IT, THROUGH JOYOUS AND GENEROUS AND THOUGHTFUL action. But I’m glad I remembered now.”
Lehnherr emphasized that UWKV has built adopter support into the system. In addition to a new online self-matching adoption portal (which eliminates waiting to receive adoptee information), UWKV also provides an adopter FAQ sheet that explains the entire process from contacting the adoptee to find out about food preferences and schedule a delivery date, to what items are excluded from wish lists, to how to handle a breakdown in communication. And experienced staff can lend a hand or answer a question when needed.
“Committing to helping an individual or family in person might feel out of your comfort zone at first,” Lehnherr said. “But time after time, our adopters tell us how grateful they are that they made the effort to connect with someone who also calls Shawnee County home. It often ends up meaning as much to an adopter as it does to an adoptee.”
As of Friday, here is the breakdown of households still waiting for an adopter. To adopt or donate, please go to https://www.uwkawvalley.org/christmasbureau-adopt.
Households of 1: 162
Cost to adopt: $95
Households of 2: 32
Cost to adopt: $135
Households of 3: 31
Cost to adopt: $185
Households of 4: 54
Cost to adopt: $235
Households of 5: 78
Cost to adopt: $285
Households of 6: 25
Cost to adopt: $335