BATAVIA, IL — Batavia United Way (BUW) would like to express its sincere gratitude to nearly 100 sponsors who adopted 139 families, including more than 310 kids, for the 2022 Holiday Adopt-A-Family program. These sponsors included businesses, families, individuals, clubs, church groups, and scouts from Batavia as well as all over the Western Suburbs. Additionally, anonymous donors provided generous monetary contributions and gift cards to support this program. Collectively, sponsors and donors provided thousands of dollars in Christmas cheer to these families at an especially difficult time by providing gifts, gift cards, toys, pajamas, and more. This undertaking is truly a collaborative effort, and BUW would like to share our sincerest thanks to so many that made this all possible.
Without the caring effort of the staff of Batavia Public School District 101, this could not have been possible. Staff identified families, gathered wish lists, and organized the gifts as they were dropped off. BUW simply could not execute this program without this wonderful partnership. Batavia Overseas VFW & Auxiliary 1197 provided a home this year for the Adopt-A-Family program. It was the perfect location to come together in community. BEI Properties also furnished BUW with space to stage and store all the moving pieces that make this event possible.
Once again, the Batavia Women in Business and Batavia Youth Baseball held very successful cash and gift card drives within their organizations to provide families with groceries, restaurant meals, and other necessities. Batavia Lions Club held their annual Underwear Party and raised over $3,000 while also collecting multiple bins of socks and underwear. The Holmstad conducted a successful toy drive, and Hearth & Hammer General held a successful pajama drive to collect sleepwear for teens.
Batavia Women’s Club coordinated beautiful stockings for each of the children. Chip IN provided grocery gift cards for families, and the community along with Batavia Youth Baseball families rallied to provide every family with a bag of non-perishables such as toilet paper, laundry detergent and more. Thankfully, Bethany Lutheran Church stepped up to serve as a drop off spot for these grocery bags. BUW would also like to thank the families of Grace McWayne Elementary School who donated over 700 boxes of cereal for our families! Please visit our Facebook page to see what they did with all that cereal!
Lastly, we have profound appreciation for all the volunteers that pulled the array of details all together for a beautiful presentation delivered to our families. There were tears of joy and tremendous sighs of relief as parents picked up the Christmas that would not have happened otherwise. The collective effort, generosity, and compassion of our community to engage in this program really illustrates the true meaning of the holiday season. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to all who supported Batavia United Way’s Adopt-A-Family program!
This press release was produced by Batavia Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.