Why an “impersonal” gift card could be the most personal gift you give this year

By Michelle Schaefer
Director Of Strategy And Impact

As we rush around, shopping for family and friends during the holidays, we often struggle to figure out the right gift for each of our loved ones. The wish to bring joy to others, paired with a lack of good gift ideas, adds to our stress during this busy time of year. Despite the challenge of finding the perfect gift, we tend to think of gift cards as “giving up.” Or that gift cards mean “I just don’t know you well enough to know what you like, or I didn’t have time to shop, so I got you a gift card to pick out your own gift.” It can cause us to feel guilt that we should have tried harder, should have brainstormed more, should have shopped longer. We therefore tend to perceive gift cards as impersonal gifts.

For older youth in foster care, however, receiving gift cards provides a unique opportunity for the youth to shop for themselves and to choose things that truly represent their personal style - their likes and dislikes.

Choice is a luxury that children in foster care rarely experience. So many life altering decisions are outside of their control – which foster family they live with, whether their foster home will change, how frequently they can visit with their birth parents, to name a few. Even when it comes to basic essentials, foster children often don’t get a say. Many youth receive hand-me-down clothing – things that may show signs of wear, may not fit in the most flattering way, or may not last as long as they would hope. When they do receive new items, the new clothing is often provided all at once, based on a requested size, but the purchaser of the clothing doesn’t really know the child’s favorite colors or style preferences. The gift of choice is exceptional for these youth.

For a youth in foster care, a gift card means they can purchase that pink, sequined shirt that they saw in a window display, jeans that fit perfectly and make them feel their best, those red Nike sneakers that they’ve been dreaming of, or a new dress for the party that they’ve been invited to. A gift card to an athletic store or an expensive, stylish clothing boutique lets them buy brand-name sneakers or clothing. This can help foster youth feel proud, confident, and more at ease around friends and peers. A gift card to Target or Amazon might let that youth buy the specific hair or skin care products that they prefer. A Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts gift card helps them indulge during an outing with friends.

Each year, prior to the holiday season, CASAs in Passaic County meet with their CASA children and ask the kids to provide lists of their holiday wishes. Then we share those wish lists with our generous donors, who help to fulfill them. Overwhelmingly, our older youth ask for gift cards and relish the opportunity to shop for themselves. And yet, ironically, donors tend to prefer to give specific items as gifts, rather than gift cards, because of the notion that gift cards are impersonal.

For youth in foster care, though, that “impersonal” gift card gives the rare opportunity to choose gifts that really are personal. So if you’re wondering how to make this holiday season sparkle for a youth in foster care, please consider a gift card donation to Passaic County CASA, and know that the gift card recipient will be overjoyed to receive the gift of choice.

Why an “impersonal” gift card could be the most personal gift you give this year

By Michelle Schaefer
Director Of Strategy And Impact

As we rush around, shopping for family and friends during the holidays, we often struggle to figure out the right gift for each of our loved ones. The wish to bring joy to others, paired with a lack of good gift ideas, adds to our stress during this busy time of year. Despite the challenge of finding the perfect gift, we tend to think of gift cards as “giving up.” Or that gift cards mean “I just don’t know you well enough to know what you like, or I didn’t have time to shop, so I got you a gift card to pick out your own gift.” It can cause us to feel guilt that we should have tried harder, should have brainstormed more, should have shopped longer. We therefore tend to perceive gift cards as impersonal gifts.

For older youth in foster care, however, receiving gift cards provides a unique opportunity for the youth to shop for themselves and to choose things that truly represent their personal style - their likes and dislikes.

Choice is a luxury that children in foster care rarely experience. So many life altering decisions are outside of their control – which foster family they live with, whether their foster home will change, how frequently they can visit with their birth parents, to name a few. Even when it comes to basic essentials, foster children often don’t get a say. Many youth receive hand-me-down clothing – things that may show signs of wear, may not fit in the most flattering way, or may not last as long as they would hope. When they do receive new items, the new clothing is often provided all at once, based on a requested size, but the purchaser of the clothing doesn’t really know the child’s favorite colors or style preferences. The gift of choice is exceptional for these youth.

For a youth in foster care, a gift card means they can purchase that pink, sequined shirt that they saw in a window display, jeans that fit perfectly and make them feel their best, those red Nike sneakers that they’ve been dreaming of, or a new dress for the party that they’ve been invited to. A gift card to an athletic store or an expensive, stylish clothing boutique lets them buy brand-name sneakers or clothing. This can help foster youth feel proud, confident, and more at ease around friends and peers. A gift card to Target or Amazon might let that youth buy the specific hair or skin care products that they prefer. A Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts gift card helps them indulge during an outing with friends.

Each year, prior to the holiday season, CASAs in Passaic County meet with their CASA children and ask the kids to provide lists of their holiday wishes. Then we share those wish lists with our generous donors, who help to fulfill them. Overwhelmingly, our older youth ask for gift cards and relish the opportunity to shop for themselves. And yet, ironically, donors tend to prefer to give specific items as gifts, rather than gift cards, because of the notion that gift cards are impersonal.

For youth in foster care, though, that “impersonal” gift card gives the rare opportunity to choose gifts that really are personal. So if you’re wondering how to make this holiday season sparkle for a youth in foster care, please consider a gift card donation to Passaic County CASA, and know that the gift card recipient will be overjoyed to receive the gift of choice.

Heartwarming holiday stories

By Laura Warne
Communications Coordinator

The holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year at CASA, and fortunately, this year was no exception. CASA volunteers and donors brought care, joy, and warmth to children in foster care through thoughtful gifts and in-person (but cautious) visits.

Relive this joyous time below with stories from our staff and advocates.

The Next Best Thing To Santa

For weeks, gifts for our annual Holiday Wish Drive poured into the Passaic County CASA office. In just a few hours on a frigid Wednesday, they were handed off to our team of dedicated CASA volunteers. These CASAs will make sure the gifts make it to their intended recipients -- a child in foster care -- wherever that child may live.

Our CASAs will drive to West Milford, Paterson, and Passaic. To Clifton, Haledon, and into neighboring (and some not-so-neighboring) counties. Setting up appointments to visit, not to mention traveling there, takes time and effort, but they do this out of genuine care for “their” CASA child or children. Each one wants to do what they can to make sure they have a happy holiday.

These are the children our CASAs have spent months and often years getting to know. These are the children they advocate for, make phone calls for, visit every month, and speak for in court. In November, they found out what each child wanted or needed. Now, the week before Christmas, when to-do lists probably feel a mile long, they will find a way to get the gifts delivered.

We are sometimes asked if donors can give their gifts directly to children. We know there is nothing like seeing a child’s face light up because they’re receiving just what they asked for. Unfortunately, we have a responsibility to protect the identities of these children. The closest we can offer is this glimpse into the “hand-off” of gifts between our office and our CASA volunteers. As they each drive off with their trunk full of gifts, these CASAs have to be the next best thing to Santa. But we never forget it is the generosity of the community of donors who contribute to our annual Holiday Wish Drive who make it possible. So thank you to each and every one!

Giving the gift of normalcy this holiday season

By Erica Fischer-Kaslander

“I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty
I've got whozits and whatzits galore
(You want thingamabobs?
I got twenty)”

“Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid may not be a classic holiday tune. Yet as I was walking around our office this morning trying to make sense of the mass volume of holiday gifts donated to fulfill each of our children’s individual holiday wishes, for some reason “I’ve got gadgets and gizmos” is what started running through my head.

By the end of this week, more than 500 Passaic County youth will have received holiday gifts, thanks to the generosity of Passaic County CASA’s donors. We’ve seen everything from Chromebooks to Barbies, Legos to bicycles, karaoke machines to baby dolls.

Every year, I think to myself, “We couldn’t possibly top this.” Then another year comes and I’m again amazed by the volume of support our community shows for children who have been so traumatized.

This is our first holiday season in our new 4,700 square foot office space. Instead of squashing everything on top of each other like in years past, we now have 6 dedicated wrapping stations, each Advocacy Supervisor has a dedicated area for gifts, and there is a special refreshment station for volunteers. 

Many organizations provide holiday gifts for youth during this season. What makes our organization different is the reason that we conduct this holiday gift collection. We don’t just collect toys for the sake of giving toys for fun. We grant the specific wishes of each and every child in Passaic County’s foster care system. Just like you and I may fulfill our own child’s “Santa” list, we want our youth in foster care to experience a normal holiday season complete with a fulfilled wish list. Our holiday wish program is a component of our organizational value of normalcy. In short, “normalcy” is a term which means ensuring a youth who lives in an out-of-home living arrangement (foster care, residential treatment, group home, shelter, or similar) is able to live a life with experiences as close as possible to a child in a traditional family home environment. By fulfilling each child’s specific holiday wish, we are adding one more “typical” or “normal” experience to their childhood.

I need to share the immense amount of work that this effort takes. Over 100 volunteers have spent hundreds of hours organizing and wrapping each child’s wish list. In total, approximately 1,600 individual gifts were donated.

Holiday gifts, however, only give normalcy during the holiday season. What can give normalcy for life is a safe and permanent home, which our advocates work each and every day to help our children achieve. If you would like to join them in this effort in 2020, please join us at one of our upcoming information sessions to learn more or make a donation to support the training of a new volunteer advocate to ensure a child reaches normalcy for life.