ADOPT-A-FAMILY

Batavia United Way, in collaboration with the Batavia Public Schools, each year organizes the Adopt-A-Family program. BPS staff identify families in need and help those families create wish lists which are then sent to Batavia United Way. We match the wish lists with sponsors who are interested in providing holiday magic for those families.

Batavia United Way’s 2024 Adopt-A-Family is complete and our hearts are full! This year was a record year with this wonderful community adopting 168 families, made up of 364 children, to help make their holidays merry and bright. Families received coats, winter boots, warm clothing, underwear & socks, toys & games, stockings filled with goodies, an Adopt-A-Bag filled with some essentials, cereal, and gift cards to be used for groceries or gas. We are so grateful to each and every person who made this possible! This project is truly a community effort and we’d like to share our sincerest gratitude with so many that made this possible:

We are so grateful to the Batavia Lions Club who kicked off the holiday season in early November hosting their annual Underwear Party at Pal Joey’s. The cost of admission was new socks and/or underwear or $10 (or both if people were generous). Fun was had by all with wonderful raffles, great company, and delicious complimentary snacks. In addition to bags and mounds of new underwear and socks, Batavia Lions also presented us with a check for over $2,900 to ensure that adopted children had new underwear and socks as a part of their gift.

Can we say something about the children of our community? They are amazing! The Grizzlies Kids Club at Grace McWayne School collected over 600 boxes of cereal for Adopt-A-Family! Before they sent it off with us, they had a bit of fun with it. Please click on the video to see what they did. All families received 2-3 boxes of cereal, then extras were shared with the Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry.

An amazing group of Batavia High School kiddos full of the giving spirit, Girl Up, assembled Santa Spa Bags for the single moms of our families to encourage them to take care of themselves as they take care of their families. What a wonderful sentiment! Mr. Clarey’s 3rd grade class also collected socks for Socktober and gift cards to be used for families and the Grace McWayne student council collected funds to be used for this project!

Batavia Mothers’ Club Foundation provided gifts for 20 of our children and Batavia Woman’s Club supplied 140 stockings for our children! We were once again blessed with a collaboration with Batavia Rotary Club and St. Charles Breakfast Rotary Club and their program – Koats for Kids. They provided over 140 warm winter coats for our adopted children! This allowed many of our sponsors to focus on other necessities for their children.

We are thankful for the Batavia Women In Business who hosted a holiday luncheon benefitting both our Adopt-A-Family program and the wonderful Access Toy Drive, which collected funds for Adopt-A-Family shopping.

We are grateful to our friends at ChipIn Batavia whose Adopt-A-Bag project provided necessities like laundry detergent, toilet paper, and soap to our families with extras going to the Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry families, guests at Lazarus House, and seniors in need. Our Batavia Youth Baseball  families also assisted with this project and assembled more than 70 Adopt-A-Bags our families as well as providing additional gift cards for our families.

Our friends at Hearth & Hammer General ran a successful pajama drive to collect pjs for those especially-hard-to-buy-for teens! The residents at Covenant Living at the Holmstad gathered toys during their toy drive for our children and Bikes for Batavia provided some bikes for our kids. The Souper Bowl of Caring provided a generous donation of Hasbro toys for our kids. Families also received grocery gift cards, many of which were provided by Chip In Batavia (who also adopted families) and ALDI corporate. We are thankful for Walmart who awarded us a grant which has also provided gift cards as well as other essentials to our families. We are also grateful to Bomba socks who donated new socks to us, and extras will be going to Lazarus House and Mutual Ground as well as other organizations.

We appreciate Batavia Overseas VFW & Auxiliary 1197 who provided a home this year for Adopt-A-Family! It was a perfect location to come together in community. And a big shout-out to BEI Properties for setting us up in a space to stage and store all the moving pieces that make this event possible in addition to adopting a family AND gathering donations during their customer appreciation event! 

We appreciate the hard work of the staff at Batavia Public School District 101 in identifying families, gathering wish lists, and organizing gifts. We simply could not do this without our wonderful partnership. Not only did they spend countless hours on this project, many also adopted a family. A very special thank you to Amy Nelson, who is the heart of this program! 

Gratitude to all of our sponsors across the western suburbs who adopted families or donated items, funds, or gift cards to bring joy to a family over the holiday season. Sponsors included individuals, families, neighbor groups, book clubs, church groups, scout troops, fire stations, organizations, and companies, a few include QT9, BFC Printing, Target (Batavia), Business to Business Logistics, Brookstone Capital Management, Go To Technologies, Parksite, and Batavia Container, among others.

We are eternally indebted to all of our volunteers without whom we could not carry out this monumental project. From school staff who helped to make sure all children had what they needed, to scouts who helped unload cars, to those who delivered gifts to families who had no way to pick up, to individuals/families and current and former Batavia United Way board members and staff, who jumped in to help where needed, we are tremendously thankful for this community who embodies the true meaning of community and the holiday spirit!

As families came to pick up their gifts, there were tears of joy and sighs of relief knowing that their children would have something under the tree this year. Gratitude from these families continues to pour in through phone calls, emails, and letters of thanks. Our sponsors and contributors can rest assured that they’ve made a difference in their adopted families’ lives.  

Contact AdoptAFamily@BataviaUnitedWay.org with any questions or to find out how you can contribute to our 2025 program!