The Ashforth Company along with other local area businesses, supported the Kids Helping Kids’ Fifth Annual Gift of Giving event. Employees from these companies donated many gently used and new gifts to this event. Donations were sorted and placed on display at the KHK pop up store located at The Boys and Girls Club of Stamford, where over 675 children came to shop for their family members for the holiday. Over 10,000 gifts were collected.
Each guest had the chance to have their gifts wrapped and then were invited to join the afternoon festivities in the holiday fun zone, where an assortment of food and entertainment were available for all. Toward the end of the event, parents were also invited into the gift boutique to enjoy some holiday shopping. “This is exactly what the holidays are about. Giving back to the community and others in need” said one Ashforth employee who donated to the event.
The annual “Gift of Giving” project started in 2013 when a team of 5th grade kids, led by Ethan Lange, talked about their love of getting and giving gifts around the holidays. The seed of this idea grew into the Annual Gift of Giving event which is now collecting thousands of gently used and new gifts for underserved kids to go shopping for their loved ones each year.
KHK’s mission is to develop leadership skills through youth-led service projects for middle and school students across the country. All projects begin with an idea from one of the kids and are then designed, managed and led by a group of KHK kids that facilitate the project. KHK now has over 250 kids from 51 different schools involved in one or more projects. Every project is youth inspired, developed and led by a group of KHK kids.