Help Local Children this Season

The holiday season is a time to give back to those who are less fortunate. If you want to contribute to a wonderful cause, consider donating items for Realities for Children Santa’s Workshop. Christmas should be a magical time for children. Sadly, more children than ever are in need of help this holiday season. Each year Realities for Children donates new toys, food, clothing, gift cards and warm winter gear (new or gently used) to more than 2,000 local children who have faced abuse, neglect or are at-risk. This year, make a child’s Christmas bright with your donation, which can be made at our office!

Realities for Children Charity

Realities for Children is a charity that started as an unsolicited movement by individuals, businesses, neighborhoods and schools that wanted to support children in the community. The goal is to support and fund the unmet needs of children in Larimer County who have been abused, neglected, or who are at-risk. The original effort began in 1996, and has now blossomed into a country-wide distribution of toys and winter gear for children.

Realities for Children is comprised by 34 Partner Youth Agencies who help children throughout the community with emergency funding, youth activities, distribution of much-needed goods and collaboration resources to meet children’s needs. More than 200 businesses are involved with the charity to help make their reach that much wider. They believe that no child should be forgotten, especially during the holidays.

Originally started by a child protection case manager, they saw children that would fall through the cracks of current systems in place to help community youth. To make sure no child slipped through those cracks in the future, Realities for Children was created. They partnered with 200+ businesses and organizations that could provide a wider reach to find those children in need. As a privately-supported charity that works by donations and private backers, businesses and organizations work together to meet children’s needs instead of competing.

The organization was built on 3 essential ideas that include:

1. Meeting the immediate or emergency needs of youth.
2. Support services and events to help the healing process.
3. Provision of services to support, equip and provide resources to children so they can break out of the cycle of abuse.

Realities for Children Santa’s Workshop is just one way they accomplish these goals.

How You Can Get Involved

We want to help provide children with gifts, clothing and other new accessories to help brighten their life. Realities for Charities annually provides item needed for children in the community such as:

• New toys
• Food and clothing
• Gift cards
• New or gently-used warm winter gear

You can help us by donating these items during the collection time at the red bin at our office. Toys that are donated should be new and unwrapped (meaning without wrapping paper). You can help make the holidays magical for a local child who has faced abuse, neglect or is at-risk!

Key Dates to Remember

We are collecting donations on key dates that you want to be aware of. Those include:

• November 15, 2018 – December 14, 2018
  We will be taking donations from anyone who wants to donate to Realities for Children at our office. Our normal business hours are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 7:30 am – 5:00 pm and Thursdays from 7:30 am – 3:00 pm.
• December 17, 2018; 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
  All red bins and collected items will be taken to Realities for Children. Make sure your donations are received by this time. If you want to make additional donations, contact Realities for Children directly.

• December 19, 2018 – December 24, 2018; 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm (Wed. – Sun.)

Santa’s Workshop will open in Fort Collins, located in Old Town Square near the stage. This is a free even where children can visit Santa and have their pictures taken with him. The public is encouraged to visit early in the season when lines are smaller. Santa’s Workshop closes at 4:00 pm on Christmas Eve.

The holiday season is a time to give back to those who are less fortunate, especially in our local community. If you want to help a great cause this season, consider donating to Realities for Children Santa’s Workshop. It’s a great way to get kids involved in helping others that live where they live, and a wonderful way to bring families closer together during the holidays. If you have questions about this charity and how else you can get involved, call Family & Cosmetic Dentistry of the Rockies today at (970) 267-0993!