RIVERVIEW, Fla. — Sarah Weaver is a Tampa mom that has a mission to help children in the foster care system during Christmas.
What started as a passion project turned into something bigger. It was to make sure children in foster care got the Christmas they deserved with gifts.
“It started as just a way to relieve foster parents of the financial burden that they face whenever Christmas rolls around,” Sarah Weaver said.
Weaver and her husband have been foster parents since May 2016. They realized that Christmas can be expensive and her biggest goal was to make sure the kids have a normal Christmas. Back in 2017, she and her husband created #ChristmasForFosters.
“Like it originally started here at our church and then it grew to the Tampa Bay Community and then it grew nationwide,” Weaver said.
They started collecting gifts from friends. Then, donations started coming, the community stepped in and corporate sponsorships got involved. Now, they are able to provide gifts for children across Tampa Bay in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties.
This was the third year and she has collected Christmas presents for more than 500 foster children.
“Our goal with this is to rally behind foster families to rally behind foster kids,” Weaver said. “On average. It's about 12 kids a day that enters the system and there are roughly 4000 kids in the Tampa Bay area that are in foster care.”
This year, they are extending the hand and provided gifts and giveaways to foster parents to make Christmas easier on them as well.
“Loving on the foster parents while they're here picking up the gifts, said Weaver. “That we did everything that we could just to show them that they are loved they are seen and we are here cheering them on just being a small part of that and just helping with that one day”
Weaver is already planning for #ChristmasForFosters next year. If you would like to make a donation, you can visit their website.
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