By Tanya Steele
A donation of over 200 presents for every child and young person in Anchor’s Foster Care and Kinship Care programs will make Christmas bigger and brighter for care families in the Knox region.
Together Financial Services has been putting a smile on the faces of children in foster and kinship care since 2018, sourcing gift donations from their team and clients – totalling almost 1,200 Christmas presents delivered since starting their annual gift drive.
Anchor CEO, Heidi Tucker said their dedication to brightening the Christmases of foster and kinship families is incredible.
“Each year the pile gets bigger,” she said.
“The commitment from Kris and the team is really heart-warming. These are children and young people who have experienced very traumatic and confronting things at a young age. Christmas can be a hard time for them as they are separated from their parents and families.”
Kris Faife Director of Together Financial Services and Co-Founder Hillary Van Estrop said the origins of their philanthropy began around six years ago.
The two had started business as partners and were working out of the same building as Anchor.
Around the same time, both were becoming parents for the first time and through donating to Anchor the duo learnt more about the core of Anchor’s delivery and the realities of the foster care children and their families.
“It really struck a chord with us,” said Mr Faife.
“For every child, the goal is to get them back with their biological parents, but in many cases, it’s just not possible due to circumstances,” he said.
“It can sometimes be a really difficult situation and these Christmas drives they’re so important, because if it’s not, if it’s not this little present, they get through this drive, maybe it’s nothing.”
Mr Faife said the company work hard as a team to deliver the end-of-year get-together and presents for the foster children.
“I cannot tell you how rewarding it is – it just fills us with so much joy to do this,” he said.
Mr Faife said the gift-buying process is taken on board seriously, with the list delivered annually by Anchor.
“All the staff are given cash and we go out and buy the gifts,” he said.
The team also have clients and communities connected to the businesses that contribute to the foster children alongside them.
“ I think that for a lot of people, you know, they recognize how important this is and how much joy it brings the children,” said Mr Faife.
“’I’ve actually got one client who grew up in foster care herself, and every year, without fail, she’s asked me for 30 gifts, and she and her husband go out and they buy 30 gifts,” he said.
“They always bring in such amazing gifts, just but you can see that there’s so much emotion that’s put into it.
The financial services team have noticed through the cost of living how people are doing it tough and Mr Faife said now more than ever he and Mr Van Estrop say it’s a privilege to support Anchor in this way.
“They’re just tackling it from so many different angles and you can tell that there’s just a lot of passion behind what they do,” said Mr Faife.
Education through connection is key and Mr Fairfe said the annual donations and celebratory Christmas party help raise local awareness.
“The program not only puts a smile on a lot of kids’ faces, but it also creates awareness and I think that’s perhaps even more important,” he said.
Ms Tucker said the work done by the team at Together really helps our dedicated carers to make sure these young children who are deserving of every bit of care and love have a great Christmas.
“The detail they put in is magic. It really makes the young people feel like there is a community out there that cares about them,” she said.
Santa will be on hand to deliver the presents to the foster and kinship families at Anchor’s Foster and Kinship Christmas Party on Friday 6 December.
