Feature Stories

Charitable Giving

Aeropostale giving The holidays are made brighter for the children of Heartspring thanks to generous gifts from our community. Local companies have been visiting our campus throughout the season, bringing special presents for all the children. Employees from Aeropostale clothing stores visited campus on December 6th, giving special Aero Holiday Bears to each one of our school students and leaving more bears under the tree in Pediatric Services for children coming for outpatient therapy during the holidays. The company says the bears were created for the purpose of putting smiles on children’s faces at a time of year when they may need it most – and there were certainly lots of smiles on the faces of Heartspring children thanks to their generosity.

Bookdrive This year, the Barnes and Noble bookstore at Kellogg and Rock Road in Wichita is doing a book drive for Heartspring. The entire staff at the store has mobilized behind the project, letting people know which books are needed and encouraging them to purchase a book to be donated to Heartspring. The response from the community has been spectacular! So far, over 1,000 books have been donated. These books are used throughout Heartspring, in classrooms, therapy rooms, and group homes. The book drive will continue through January 5th, 2008. One of our neighbors, Cohoon Health and Wellness, is also conducting a wish list drive for Heartspring over the holidays, collecting needed toys and supplies from their clients and staff.

It seems that not a day goes by without a special package arriving in the mail from members of Sigma Alpha and Epsilon Sigma Alpha. These two philanthropic organizations support Heartspring through the Adopt-A-Child program, a special program for children enrolled in the Heartspring School. Students are “adopted” by chapters and receive special cards and gifts throughout the year. During the holidays, the development office stays especially busy taking Adopt-A-Child gifts around to all the classrooms. Watching the children open their gifts is one of the best parts of the holidays at Heartspring. The ladies of Epsilon Sigma Alpha also “showered” Heartspring with gifts during their State Council meeting in November, bringing clothes, sporting equipment, toys and all kinds of supplies for use in the classrooms, homes and therapy rooms.

ICM ICM, a local company, sponsored a Christmas dance for our students again this year. They were on campus December 13th to distribute gifts to all the group homes, treat everyone to pizza and transform the Heartspring Gym into a winter wonderland. The ICM sponsored dance is an exciting part of the holidays for all our students and we are really happy to have ICM join our holiday celebrations.

Volunteers from Spirit AeroSystems are busy making customized stockings for each child enrolled in the school and will be here to distribute them on December 17th. Their Santa hats and friendly smiles are always a big hit with all the children. The Spirit volunteers will also bring extra toys to go under the tree in Pediatric Services for all the children who come for outpatient therapy at during the holidays.