By Tiffany Merlo Phelps
mail@floridanewsline.com
It began with a simple question that MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation Executive Director Terri Florio posed to a 10-year-old girl: “What do you want for Christmas?”
The answer: “It doesn’t matter. I won’t get anything anyway.”
That’s when the Holiday Angels Program was born at the MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation in 2000 at the same time as it started a comprehensive afterschool program. The foundation realized that many of its low-income participants likely faced holidays without any gifts. The Holiday Angels program at first aimed to get one pair of new shoes, one new outfit and one new toy for its 230 children (K-12) in the program.
“That morphed into not just getting gifts for our kids, but also including siblings of those participants (birth to 18). We serve a total of 500 children through the Holiday Angels program,” said Florio, who has worked for the foundation for 28 years.
The MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation is an afterschool and summer youth development program in Jacksonville’s Urban Core that promotes academic achievement and positive life skills. It was started in 1996 by pro-tennis player, Olympian and Wimbledon finalist MaliVai Washington to introduce urban youth to the sport he loved. It has grown into a comprehensive afterschool youth development program, “Tennis-n-Tutoring.” Washington lives in Ponte Vedra Beach and remains active in all aspects of the foundation, including as a Holiday Angel.
For Makayla H., 16, a recipient of the Holiday Angels program since she was in the second grade, the entire experience has been a blessing.
“The program is like a family. I know that I can count on my friends here — no doubt about it,” she said. “It feels like a warm hug.
Makayla said her very first gift from her holiday angel was a pink bicycle, which helped her to learn how to ride.
“When the bike was delivered, I felt so much love from everyone,” she said.
Makayla, who attends Riverside High School and has an interest in fashion design and forensic science, said angels play a key role during the holidays and even a small gift serves to brighten the life of a child.
Participants can make gift requests, and foundation staff stress that the requests should be made by the child for a true “gift” as opposed to something that could be seen as more of a necessity, such as underwear or pajamas.
Becoming a Holiday Angel simply involves sending an email to the foundation. Angels can indicate whether they wish to adopt a child, a family or to just donate cash ($150 will cover the cost of one child). Requests can be made to adopt a child or family with similar ages as the donating family to make shopping for new gifts easier, said Florio. Participants are also asked to wrap the items per instructions to help save staff time. Gifts are due by Dec. 16 and are delivered to families on Dec. 23.
While gifts are being dropped off, Florio said the office gets transformed into a Santa’s workshop during the final weeks.
“For me, that whole season between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a very crazy time. It is a lot of work, but being able to see the kids and their faces is amazing. It is a very tangible way to see the impact that we have year-round,” said Florio. “The look on their faces when they receive the gifts is pretty exciting.”
For more information or to become a Holiday Angel, email champion@malwashington.com.
Photo courtesy Terri Florio
Holiday Angels gift delivery.
