Nevada DCFS in Carson City delivers Christmas wishes with Angel Tree

The Christmas season can be difficult for children in foster care. For some, it may be the first Christmas not spent with their families. For others, it is just one more Christmas in the child welfare system.

Either way, the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services tries to ease the pain of family separation at Christmas by hosting an Angel Tree for foster children in Carson City and rural communities.

The Angel Tree program couldn't be more appropriate this time of year, said DCFS Angel Tree Coordinator Kaylee Krupp. Child welfare staff and foster children alike experience increased stressors during the holiday season.

"This is the most stressful time of the year for our staff here at DCFS, but it has become the absolute favorite part of my job," Krupp said. "I love to see the generosity of our community and the love that everyone shows for our foster children."

Krupp said the Angel Tree has been a tradition upheld by DCFS for a number years, successfully bringing holiday joy to a population of children struggling to celebrate the season.

"It is wonderful to be able to fulfill the wishes of these kids and the happiness it brings them every year," she said. "I think the DCFS staff look forward to bringing joy to the kids they work so closely with.

The concept is simple, Krupp said, beginning with the wishes that each child in foster care has placed on the Angel Tree. Donors throughout the region then go out and purchase the items on the wish lists.

Those items are then delivered as Christmas gifts to area foster homes, so that every child in care has something under their tree from Santa Claus on Christmas morning.

Currently, the DCFS District Office in Carson City has about 200 children placed in foster care. More than 900 donor ornaments were distributed out into the community this fall, Krupp said.

Since then, the office has received close to 1,000 gifts and gift cards from generous donors, she said.

Gifts donated to the wish lists on the Angel Tree vary depending on the age and interests of each child, Krupp said, ranging from Jumparoos to learning toys, Exersaucers, Legos, Baby Alive Dolls, footballs and basketballs.

About $5,000 worth of gift cards were also donated to foster children this year to vendors such as Target, Van’s, Amazon and Forever 21.

Each foster child receives about 4-5 gift cards each, Krupp said.

As in Christmas seasons past, Krupp said the district office worked again this year with Starbucks to provide teens in foster care with gift cards, travel mugs, ornaments and tumblers.

The generosity of the community is typically overflowing, she said, resulting more than enough resources to fulfill the Christmas wishes of area foster children. Extra items received ensure that children placed right at Christmas will also experience its magic in spite of their circumstances.

"We always have an abundance of extra donated gifts so we are able to gather extra gifts for any children that come into care at the last minute as well," Krupp said. "Our system works very well and we ensure no child gets left out."

The Angel Tree serves another purpose for DCFS, said Foster Parent Recruiter Lori Nichols, LSW, and that is to remind the community of the continued need for support of children in foster care.

"Children of all age ranges, cultures, ethnicities and backgrounds come into care with very different types of needs," she said.

The most critical of these needs is for a safe, stable and loving home that can nurture a child and help them heal from their trauma, Nichols said.

Having a sufficient number of foster homes, though, has long been a continuous challenge for DCFS to overcome in rural Nevada, she said.

"There is a significant need for foster homes in Carson City, as well as all of Rural Nevada," she said.

It's the one item that seems to top the DCFS Christmas wish list year after year.

The following vendors donated items to this year's Angel Tree:

A Finer Image
Gold Dust West
DMV Director’s Office
LifePoint Church
Ron Wood Family Resource Center
Airport Road Church of Christ
Child, Family, and Community Wellness
DPS Records, Communication and Compliance Division
Division of Health Care Financing and Policy
DCFS Family Programs Office
Starbucks
NV Division of Environmental Protection
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Seeliger Elementary School
Casino Fandango
Reno Rodeo
Dr. Merritt Dunlap’s Office
Carson City Fleet Services
Brookfield School of Reno
Kaia FIT Carson City
SSA Disability Determination Services
Nevada State Elks Association