We all remember 2020, right? Even though at times we may want to forget. It was a pivotal year for Stork Support. Without 2020, we may not be the 501(c)(3) nonprofit we are today for many reasons. The story we want to share today though is how the challenges we faced during the 2020 Holiday season inspired a new program: Stork Support’s Virtual Angel Tree. And how it is a program we hope to continue and expand for years to come.

Our founder, Lisa Jensen, was running Stork Support at the time as a small business, even though all of her services were free. She was almost a one-woman show, supporting hundreds of families a year with maternity, postpartum and newborn essentials and baby gear. When lockdown hit March 2020, she knew that Stork Support needed to become an official nonprofit in order to serve the community’s needs. She also knew that she would have to provide her services differently that year in order to keep going. She started conversations on building a team to take over and she continued innovating in the background on how she could keep giving during such a transitional time.

Christmas is one of Lisa’s favorite holidays. She absolutely loves seeing everyone have a giving heart during this season. Bringing Christmas joy became another passion of hers. But 2020 continued to be a challenging year into the Holiday season. Her heart couldn’t handle the idea that some kiddos wouldn’t have a gift for Christmas simply because of physical precautions. We have a virtual world in the palm of our hands. One that she built Stork Support with, working mostly on her phone in her pockets of time as a mother herself. She knew that she could create something to get around the physical barriers of a traditional Angel Tree program.

Many families couldn’t make it to an in-person sign up for Christmas support during 2020 as well as many supporters that wanted to help couldn’t make it to a physical Angel Tree to pick a child’s information to support. So Lisa created a virtual Angel Tree using the free resources available to a small business owner – Google Forms. 

Her goal was also to do things differently in leaving no child behind. She always worried with traditional Angel Trees that one child in the family might get picked, but not all the siblings. It’s fun to get the baby items, but were the teenagers in the family left out?

​So instead of committing to one child, she challenged our community to support a family as a whole. This decision sparked a light that has become a flame of Stork Support’s purpose – Connection. The outcome became such great connection as neighbors were truly getting to know each other and supporting each other. We continue to see this amazing level of gratitude from both receiving and giving families. 

With using Facebook, Google Forms and Email, Lisa was able to connect 38 families with a supporter family or group for Christmas. Her own heart was filled with joy as the totes of wrapped presents started to show up on her front porch. She worked to arrange pick up from the receiving family or delivered the gifts herself. With her typical services being put on hold for the nonprofit formation and handoff, her home was filled with service again, this time she was serving Christmas joy!

In 2021 we recognized that this was a program that had to continue. Many families were still lacking in-person access to Christmas support programs in Northern Colorado and if it wasn’t an issue with transportation, it was not being able to fulfil all the requirements.

Many resources in our community require documentation to receive services, such as proof of identification, proof of residency and proof guardianship. Many families in our community to do have access to the resources needed to provide such documentation. For example a birth certificate can cost anywhere from $20 to $50. For some that is a meal for their family or more. If you don’t have access to transportation, does it make sense to pay for an Uber to ask for charity? If you are living in a hotel or home-hopping with friends, there is no such thing as proof of residency. 

Despite these hurdles, these families never let go of the dream of providing Christmas magic for their children. Stork Support believes in this dream too and works to remove these barriers.

A question we get often is how do you know someone actually needs help? The answer is a simple one in our opinion: They ask for it.

So, we launched our second Virtual Angel Tree sign up and were a bit overwhelmed. Within less than two hours, more than 90 families had signed up requesting support for Christmas. A little over our goal of 40 families to beat the pervious 38. We didn’t know if our community would be able to meet the need.

We were surprised, amazed and also regained our confidence in the abundance within our community when 38 families were matched with their Christmas Angel in only two days! We kept loading more families to the SignUp Genius, another free resource, until 91 families were matched with a committed supporter.

Now it was both Lisa and Nikola’s, our current Executive Director, front porches that were being loaded up. And once again our community showed up with care, kindness and so much Christmas joy! The presents were wrapped beautifully. They were placed in storage bins with care to keep them clean and ready for Christmas morning. And this time it wasn’t just Lisa coordinating all the pick ups and deliveries. From those that signed up to support a family, 50 volunteered to deliver the gifts as well! It was a Christmas to remember for sure with a community that showed up in so many ways.

In 2022 our goal is to match at least 50 families with a supporter for Christmas. We’d love to match more, but we know this year has been incredibly difficult for everyone. This year our sign up for support was filled up within less than an hour. That means more than one family every minute was signing up.

Requirements have changed a bit as our growing organization is still run out of Nikola’s home. In order to continue to serve our community’s needs for maternity, postpartum and newborn essentials as well as being an emergency service for those in the community that do not have what they need to feed, diaper or bathe their baby, Nikola’s house is already at capacity and can not be a drop off/pick up location for Christmas gifts as well. So this year the requirements are that those that receive will have to communicate with those that give and vice versa to coordinate pick up or delivery. 

In today’s society that can feel really awkward. Who even uses their phone to make actual phone calls today anyway? However, this is the connection that we spoke of in the beginning. It is powerful! And it is what makes our community so special. When you get to meet who you are serving, when you get to meet who has committed to supporting you, everything changes. Your heart changes. The way you see things changes. The way you think about your community changes. And it is a very good change. It is the type of change that grows your heart, your commitment. It is the type of change that roots you to the truth that we are all inherently worthy.

Now you know how this beautiful program got started and where it’s going in its third year. One day we hope to have an automated system with endless capacity. We will continue to dream big. In the meantime, can you bring the dream of Christmas joy to a family in need this year. Sign up HERE to commit to supporting a family today and we promise you, you will experience the magic.