By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
With just one week left for eligible people to apply for the Adopt a Family program, there are already many families looking for help.
AFL-CIO Community Services Executive Director Nicki Seckinger says already 575 families have been put in to be adopted this Christmas.
Seckinger says the agency will be closed for the holidays, and then people have until next Friday to apply for the program.
"So, we're anticipating that our numbers will increase by another third, so we're guessing we're going to come out around 800 or 900 families all together," Seckinger tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "The good thing is we've had a lot of adopters sign up to take families so that's wonderful."
Seckinger says already 130 people have stepped in and adopted a family through the program
"Which is I think a record for this early in the season for us, which is fantastic, I'm really optimistic that that increased number is going to hopefully shave down that number that we take care of at the end of the program," Seckinger explains. "But then I'm nervous that it just means we're going to have more apply in that last week and nothing's going to really change, we just never know, this is such a weird program."
Seckinger calls it weird because there is really no way to anticipate how many people will apply to be a part of the program.
AFL-CIO Community Services is currently seeking help with financial and physical donations to help with the Adopt A Family program.
An annual newsletter was distributed three weeks late, and officials with the agency says due to that donations are not where they usually are by this point.
Seckinger says currently they have not seen any donations of money or toys for the toy room
"And so we are really hoping that now that these are hitting people's mailboxes that it's going to motivate them to go ahead and donate," Seckinger says. "What we're afraid of is that maybe they have already given what they're giving for their seasonal giving because they didn't get it at the beginning of the month, and that's what we're terrified of."
Toys donated for the toy room must be new and can be dropped off at the agency offices. Money donations can be made at the office or online to help.
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