ADWR employees do “Santa” in a big way for Arizona’s foster kids
On the spare, utilitarian cubicle-divider wall in the corridor of the state-government agency office was a tree.
More precisely, it was a “tree” – a configuration of strands of multi-colored Christmas lights arranged into the shape of a tree. It was a simple thing, meant to convey to whomever would pass by the familiar sentiments of the Holiday Season: Joy. Peace. Goodwill to all.
But above all, joy. Joy as felt by those most in need of happiness in their young lives, but least likely to feel its warm glow.
The tree – a “Giving Tree” is what they called it – was there as a sort of beacon to the employees of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, alerting them that there were kids out there in this often harsh world of ours for whom the joys of the Season promised to be rare, indeed.
On ADWR’s little “tree” were hung heart-shaped paper Holiday “ornaments” on which the names, ages and sizes of dozens of foster kids were written. Within two days of the Giving Tree going up on the wall, all of those names were claimed.
And then, the true spirit of the season – the joy of giving – for a few days in mid-December filled the formerly spare, utilitarian office corridor in ADWR’s third-floor headquarters on W. Washington St. For those few happy days, dozens of toys and gifts of all sorts surrounded the ADWR Giving Tree.
And everyone who passed by – especially those generous ADWR souls who leaped at the chance to light a flickering light of joy in the hearts of needy kids – felt a bit of the year’s Holiday Season’s special, warming glow.
The Giving Tree program is the brainchild of the Arizona Department of Child Safety, which oversees Arizona’s foster-care system.
“Santa is our ADWR team,” said Chantal Medina of the agency’s HR Department. “We partnered with our sister agency, the Department of Child Safety, which runs the Giving Tree program.
“We started with a total of about 20 foster children and, really, they just flew off the tree. Within about two days, they were gone.”
The information written on the tree “bulbs” included a “wish list,” as well as sizes for clothing and other information.
“They flew off the tree so fast that other employees asked, ‘are there any more kids? Are there any more opportunities for giving?’ So, yeah. We got an additional 10 hearts. And these were extra-special because they were kids who had just joined the foster-care program.”