Raise the Future gets early start on Holidays in order to get all wish lists filled
Right now, Raise the Future is in the middle of its 2026 Holiday Gift Drive. The goal is to fulfill personalized wish lists for 70 young people, all of whom are foster and adoptive youth actively working with Raise the Future in Colorado. Each wish lists costs on average $150 to fulfill. So far, Raise the Future has enough money to fill 35 of the 70 wish lists. They are looking for corporate and individual donors who will help them raise the $5,250 they'll need to fill all the wish lists.
Recently, CBS Colorado First at Four anchor Mekalayia White went with Raise the Future staff and Senior Vice President Heather McCoy of MidFirst Bank to do the first round of gift shopping.
"It's been a really special partnership over the last decade," McCoy said of the work that MidFirst Bank has done with Raise the Future.
MidFirst Bank donated to the Holiday Gift Drive, and she agreed to spend some time picking out fun gifts for the children.
"Yes, there was someone with cars and trucks...for a four-year-old," said White as the group moves toward the toy department at the Target store in Glendale.
Each of the young people that Raise the Future works with got the chance to fill out their own Christmas wish lists. It's important that these children especially get some say in what they get for Christmas.
"To get something that is random is not a gift, to get something that makes you feel seen is a gift," said Celina Baldwin, a Family Support Manager with Raise the Future.
These are the children who often feel forgotten in the face of their parents' struggles, and the system that decides their fate.
"They're sometimes living with families who are supporting many children, and so to be able to provide those children with something that they wouldn't get otherwise is, I mean, it's an incredible gift," Baldwin explained.
"So if even just for the holiday...to feel important and someone's thinking about you... so the fact that the organization puts that together to provide to the kiddos is a really big reason why we like to support and why it's important," McCoy said of Raise the Future.
LINK: Wednesday's Child on CBS Colorado
Raise the Future's Holiday Gift Drive ends on November 1, 2026, giving Raise the Future enough time to get all the gifts, wrap them and delliver them to the children before Christmas. To make a donation, call Raise the Future at (303) 755-4756 or (800) 451-5246 or go to this donation webpage.
