NewsHillsborough County

Actions

Station House BBQ, nonprofit Family Forever need help fulfilling Christmas wishlists for foster kids

442 wishlists remain unfulfilled
Station House BBQ Christmas tree.png
Posted
and last updated

LUTZ, Fla. — Christmas is just nine days away and in Lutz, Station House BBQ is still working with a local nonprofit to fulfill Christmas wishlists for more than 400 local foster children.

When Station House opened in October of last year, owner Allison Fonseca said it was less than a month later when she met Missy Saffold, the founder of the nonprofit Family Forever Tampa Bay.

"She came in asking if she could put up a tree with like maybe 50 wishlists and we told her just bring us all that you have," Fonseca said.

Again this year, Station House is working with Forever Family to get people in the community to "adopt" the childrens' wishlists for Christmas.

Family Forever is for foster children and kinship children.

"So that means that it's children who may be living with a grandparent or an aunt or an uncle, and that's not necessarily funded by the state," Fonseca said.

She said getting people in the community to adopt these local foster kids' wishlists has been harder this year. As of Wednesday, Fonseca said there were 442 wishlists that haven't been adopted.

"There's so many left and so little time," Fonseca said. "We're going above and beyond to do this for the children and make sure that they're taken care of."

Joyce Myrick, an adoptive parent and team member with Family Forever, said the nonprofit was there for her when she needed help.

"Back in 2016, we decided to take in three little girls, they're identical triplets," Myrick said. "It wasn't until 2019, six full years that we were able to finally adopt. And without this organization, we would not have made it."

Myrick said Family Forever was there at a time when she didn't know what to do.

"We didn't know what organizations to reach out to. We didn't know where we could get food where we could get clothing," she said. "This organization took us in and loved on us so hard. And I, I get a little teary-eyed because I just don't know, what we would have done without them."

If you want to help fulfill a wishlist, there are several different things you can do.

  • Stop by Station House, grab one of the wishlists off the tree and buy what you can. Then return the gift, unwrapped and with the wishlist attached to Station House and they'll do the rest.
  • Contribute to this GoFundMe. Shoppers will use the money to fulfill what they can from the remaining wishlists.
  • Buy something from this Amazon wishlist.

The deadline to fulfill the wishlists by Christmas is December 18 or, if necessary, December 20.

For more information on Family Forever, click here.