By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

With the help of a local non-profit, 16 foster care families in Livingston County received holiday surprises.

Operation Good Cheer began in 1971 and helped deliver gifts to 66 kids in foster care that year. Now, in 2020, they are helping 6,320 foster children in Michigan across 73 foster care agencies. The effort begins each spring, with local social service agencies enrolling children.

Locally, that’s handled by Livingston County Catholic Charities. The kids compile a wish list of half-dozen- or- so gifts they’d like, with those lists then being delivered to donor groups in the fall, who buy at least 3 of them. In normal years, the presents are picked up, loaded and transported to Oakland County Airport, and then flown by volunteer pilots to local airports for pickups by agencies. This year, to avoid large gatherings, all gifts were delivered by trucks. Sixteen kids from Catholic Charities’ foster care program received gifts this year, with one being extra special.

A local woman, “KC” had her two children placed in foster care over a year ago. Working hard throughout 2020 to improve her living situation, as well as her physical and mental well-being, her children were allowed to come home, re-uniting the family in November. Finances were still a struggle though, and while she was worried about being able to provide gifts for her children, she didn’t need to. Operation Good Cheer came to her rescue. KC said, in a release from Catholic Charities, that she can’t put into words how incredibly thankful and grateful she is to see her daughters’ faces lighting up on Christmas morning when they find the gifts waiting for them under the tree.
(Photo- Livingston County Catholic Charities)