Adopt-a-Family returns to make Christmas a ‘little more special’

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Figueroa
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The First Sergeants Council brings hope and happiness to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base families through the holidays with the Adopt-a-Family program.

Every year, various organizations and individuals volunteer to sponsor families in need and deliver gifts to children for Christmas.

“The first sergeants took over the program several years ago, and we have been seeing the number of sponsors and children supported increase every year,” said Senior Master Sgt. Timothy Sigafoos, first sergeant at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine.

The program provides confidential assistance to Airmen E-5 and below and civilians GS-5 and below who qualify for being sponsored by any unit, office or organization interested in giving gifts to the children in those families.

“This gives the community a chance to support our military families and provide a special holiday for our military children,” Sigafoos said. “It provides gifts to children and helps make the Christmas morning a little more special for some.

“We have local business, military units, squadrons, divisions and individuals that sign up to sponsor a family and how many children they would like to sponsor, and we assign them to a family or multiple (families), depending on the number of children.”

Sponsors receive a wish list filled out by parents or legal guardians with a child’s information, age, gender, interests or needs so they can purchase the requested gifts. Gifts are then collected and delivered to the families.

Everything is anonymous, Sigafoos added, and sponsors don’t know the names of the families. The deadline for dropping off gifts is Dec. 9.

For more information about Adopt-a-Family, contact Master Sgt. Karla McCool at karla.mccool@spaceforce.mil or Sigafoos at timothy.sigafoos@us.af.mil.

 “For us, this is a wonderful chance to provide an opportunity to any sponsor to support local military families,” Sigafoos said.