This holiday season, foster children of all ages across Los Angeles County will receive more than 2,000 gifts from U.S. Postal Service (USPS) workers in a tradition that dates back nearly 40 years.
Participating USPS employees delivered the multitude of presents – which are donated by the workers themselves – to the Van Nuys office of the LA County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) on Dec. 10.
California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers escorted some of the workers while en route to drop off the gifts. Last year, the CHP joined the USPS to help to add to the number of gifts for DCFS foster youth, making holiday wishes “come true for even more kids – from age 0 to our nonminor dependents up to age 21,” said Candice Price, children services administrator for DCFS.
“The kids always get very excited, especially because these are toys and gifts that they actually requested, so it’s like Santa is fulfilling their requests for Christmas.” The kids fill out tags listing their gift wishes, which can include traditional toys, like dolls, Hot Wheels and board games, as well as bicycles, electronics, sports jerseys, fragrances and gift cards.
Quillan Chambers, customer relations coordinator for USPS, said they accept the gift request tags from DCFS and distribute them to “as many of our USPS stations that want to participate.”
“This year I had stations from as far as Santa Barbara participating to help make sure that as many kids as possible are able to get the gifts they’re looking for,” explained Chambers, adding that USPS workers in a variety of positions take part in the yearly collaboration with DCFS, including postal clerks, mail carriers, maintenance technicians and upper management staff.
For USPS workers – which Chambers described as “the only people that show up at your door nearly every single day of the year” – participating in events like the DCFS holiday gift drive for foster kids is an “opportunity to help and give back to the communities they’re walking around every day. It’s a way to be more a part of the local communities that we serve.”
As the USPS workers rolled up, DCFS accepted their gifts, which were placed around a large Christmas tree. Social workers will later deliver the gifts to the foster youth, which include kids with open DCFS cases throughout LA County.
Price said what makes the annual collaboration with USPS and more recently with the CHP special is that it’s fueled by the generosity of individual workers who choose to support the foster kids.
“They’re the ones who are actually going out and purchasing the gifts for our kids and then dropping them off here – and they do it every year,” she said. “It really gives the kids something to be excited about.”