COVID complicates search for large warehouse to store Christmas gifts for foster kids
The Christmas Wish Project has always found a warehouse with enough room to store Christmas gifts for the growing number of foster children in Tarrant County and beyond.
Now, the nonprofit needs about 20,000 square feet of warehouse space to store gifts for around 1,200 children.
Former Fort Worth councilwoman Becky Haskin, who started the Christmas Wish Project with her friend, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, said she cannot find a place with enough space for the toys, bikes and other gifts.
“I have made so many calls. I’ve reached out to over 100 people,” Haskin said.
Haskin said gifts are piled in her house and also crammed into a small storage building. She said the COVID-19 pandemic is a likely factor because so many people and companies are having items delivered.
But Haskin and other volunteers with the Christmas Wish Project are moving forward with purchasing gifts using their own money or donated funds.
“We don’t need heat or air conditioning, just a place to store the presents,” she said.
Haskin said she sees lots of empty storefronts but doesn’t get responses when she contacts people who are listed on the signs at the buildings.
“Everything we’ve been offered is under 10,000 square feet. We’re too big. We’re serving all of the foster kids,” Haskin said.
Haskin said the children let their foster parents know what they want for Christmas. Then, volunteers purchase the gifts.
Then, foster parents come to the site where the gifts are stored to pick up the gifts so that they can put them under the tree in time for Christmas morning.
The Christmas Wish Project serves foster children in the Child Protective Services Region 3B which includes Tarrant, Johnson, Parker, Palo Pinto, Hood, Erath, and Somervell counties.
“It all works. Everything comes together, it’s a God thing. But right now, this whole warehouse thing is about to drive me crazy,” Haskin said.