Zach knows a lot about foster care, because his parents are also foster parents, so he has grown up seeing how painful it can be. Christmas is hard enough when you are separated from your family, your friends, and dropped into a new situation in possibly a new school.

Now imagine having the holiday pass unnoticed, because nobody cared enough to buy you a Christmas present.
Zach wrote to say that he is having a hard time getting businesses in the midcoast to support the project.  Part of the problem is that he is only one person, and can’t contact everyone.  Also, many stores he has contacted are supporting Toys for Tots, and can’t give to older kids.

Toys for Tots is a great program, and we applaud those businesses for helping the young kids out, but teens are still kids, too.  Everybody is a child at Christmas.

At the Coastal Journal, we will have a wrapped Christmas box in our front office beginning on Friday morning.  We encourage everyone to stop by and drop off cash to be used to help Zach buy gifts for these kids.  Any amount ... large or small ... will help. 

Main Street Bath is also helping out with the effort.  For more information, you can contact us or Sarah at 442-7291.
If you have a business that would like to help Zach and his 140 kids out, you can call us and we will be happy to put you in touch with him.  You can put your own Christmas box on your counters.  Or you can hang one of his flyers in your window.  Or you can donate gifts or money directly. Or you can, like we have, pledge to ‘adopt’ one or more of these kids for the holiday.

Zach reminds us that our gifts are tax-deductible, but that’s a side issue.  The real benefit is the warm feeling we will all get knowing that we have helped a teenager, who has been given reason to doubt it, know that somebody out there cares.  Let’s make this a holiday to remember for everyone.