Unique Holiday Shop Gives Kids Who Have Nothing the Chance to Give Back
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DALLAS (CBS11) - Many struggle to answer the question of what to give the kid who has everything.
On Friday, the United Way Metropolitan Dallas and the Vogel Alcove addressed a different dilemma: what to give the kid who has almost nothing? Not even a home.
The answer, perhaps surprisingly enough, is the same to both: you allow those kids the chance to give to others.
"If they don't have these kind of opportunities where they have the opportunity to be loving and giving as well as receiving, their brain and their life is going to be fundamentally different," says Susan Hoff, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.
So, with one-of-a-kind colored bags in hand, the pint-sized clients of the Vogel Alcove's childcare center for the homeless go shopping for gifts their parents. United Way volunteers from Convergence LLC helped guide them through the tables stacked with goodies—quite often items that most of us take for granted—soap, lotion, feminine products.
Sela, 4, snagged a turquoise hat for his Mom—and waved it around proudly. Experts say women and children are a fast growing segment of the homeless population.
"We don't see them, because they're not standing on the street: particularly not families and children—but, they're there," says Hoff, the United Way's Chief Impact Strategy & Operations Officer.
According to the United Way, during the most recent one night homeless headcount, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance recorded some 3,141 homeless in Dallas and Collin counties. Of those surveyed, nearly 700 reported having children with them.
But, on this day, dozens of those kids sampled a slice of normalcy. The Vogel Alcove has for some 28 years provided high quality childcare for homeless families. But, today, experts called exposing poor kids to the joy of giving-- priceless.
"Even if you have almost nothing to give," says Hoff, "the act of giving is still critically important to us as human beings."
So, we celebrated right along with Samantha as she showed off the toothbrush she'd chosen for her mom. Maya snagged after shave for her Dad.
Still, who among us can resist snagging just a little something for ourselves while shopping— so that's exactly what 3-year-old Demarcus did! He tore into the camouflage colored package on the spot, while explaining with chubby-cheeked sincerity, that he just needed to "fix it."
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