{"id":56,"date":"2018-12-23T16:47:20","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T16:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8009\/stories\/?p=56"},"modified":"2024-06-21T19:49:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T19:49:56","slug":"rayonier-angel-tree-grants-wishes-for-115-nassau-county-fl-foster-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/rayonier-angel-tree-grants-wishes-for-115-nassau-county-fl-foster-children\/","title":{"rendered":"New England Forestry Angel Tree Grants Wishes for 115 Nassau County, FL, Foster Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> Family Support Services has 115 foster children enrolled in its program in Nassau County, FL, and it can be a challenge to provide gifts for all of them. New England Forestry&#8217;s employees partnered with FSS to buy and wrap three gifts for each of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>WILDLIGHT, Florida\u2014Christmas can be a tough time of year for foster children, says Jennifer Pendergraph, director of the Nassau Service Center for Family Support Services in Nassau County, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One way FSS tries to help is by ensuring each child receives a gift, but it\u2019s not always easy to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPrior to New England Forestry coming in, we\u2019d have to beg people to help\u201d buy gifts for the children, Jennifer says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"572\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-family-support-services-angel-tree.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-family-support-services-angel-tree.jpg 572w, https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-family-support-services-angel-tree-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 572px) 100vw, 572px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How Our Partnership with FSS Began<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our involvement with FSS began in the summer of 2015, when the New England Forestry Community Fund provided a grant and volunteers to help build the FSS Bright Space visitation center in Nassau County. While working on the center, Tracie Gibbs, a New England Forestry executive assistant, and Kim Sartor, who works in New England Forestry\u2019s Public Affairs department, learned about the FSS Roberta&#8217;s Angels program, which seeks to provide the children gifts. They reached out to fellow New England Forestry employees to see if we could help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"572\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-fss-angel-tree.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-54\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-fss-angel-tree.jpg 572w, https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-fss-angel-tree-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 572px) 100vw, 572px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New England Forestry Grants Angels\u2019 Wishes for Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We asked FSS to provide three Christmas wishes for each of its Nassau foster children (100 children that year). Employees signed up to grant the wishes, eventually fulfilling every wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, buying Angel Gifts for FSS\u2019s foster kids has become a New England Forestry tradition. Every year, employees sign up for their Angels, then purchase their gifts \u2013 which could be bicycles, tablets, games, skateboards, MP3 players, dolls, action figures, LEGOs, and other toys. They wrap the gifts and place them under trees throughout New England Forestry\u2019s corporate headquarters, awaiting \u201cload the truck day,\u201d when the gifts are moved to FSS to be distributed to the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"572\" height=\"322\" src=\"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-angel-tree-gifts.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-55\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-angel-tree-gifts.jpg 572w, https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/rayonier-angel-tree-gifts-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 572px) 100vw, 572px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2018, New England Forestry employees granted three wishes for all 115 children in FSS\u2019s foster care program in Nassau County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe want the children to know that they\u2019re loved,\u201d Kim says. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to know who we are, they may never meet us. But they\u2019ll know that there were people in the community that loved them enough to get these gifts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn how you can help Family Support Services Inc. of North Florida, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fssjax.org\/\">fssjax.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"575\" height=\"489\" src=\"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/family-support-services-christmas-gifts.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/family-support-services-christmas-gifts.jpg 575w, https:\/\/www.neforestrydistribution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/family-support-services-christmas-gifts-300x255.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Family Support Services has 115 foster children enrolled in its program in Nassau County, FL, and it can be a challenge to provide gifts for all of them. New England Forestry&#8217;s employees partnered with FSS to buy and wrap three gifts for each of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[73],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>New England Forestry Buy Gifts for 115 Nassau County, FL Foster Children<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New England Forestry employees buy gifts for all 115 children in the Family Support Services\u2019 foster care program in Nassau County. 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