The Pennington Foundation Helps Foster Families With Their Holiday Shopping

RENO, Nev. (775 Times, NV Globe) – Gina Katz’s shopping cart appears to the ordinary consumer to be a normal Christmas haul, filled with gadgets, apparel, and toys.

And that was the purpose of her Target buying binge. Thanks to a generous grant from the Pennington Foundation, Katz is one of many foster parents who can cross items off their children’s Christmas lists.

“The Pennington Foundation has provided enough money to cover each child in foster care with about $500 worth of school supplies clothing and Christmas gifts,” Jesse Brown, coordinator of the Family Engagement Center in Washoe County said.

The $342,500 gift ensures that the county’s 714 foster children do not feel left out this Christmas.

The Katz family is a busy one, with five children of their own and three foster children. Gina expresses her gratitude for this chance.

“Just with our budget- kind of spread it out among all the kiddos. [It] helped us make everything equal on all the kids,” she said. “It helps them just have the thing that their friends have. To wear the clothes from Target, like those are the cool clothes that they get to wear at school. So yeah, it’s been a huge blessing for our family.”

That sense of normalcy is a key reason why the county wants to do this every Christmas.

“They already have enough going on their life, that it’s important for them to have what their peers have,” Brown said. “So the same types of clothing, their peers, the same types of toys. Anything that can help them feel like they’re not a foster child. That’s super important to us.”