Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Donations are being sought for a non-profit that serves local foster children and their families.

Livingston County Kid’s Closet, part of Foster Closet of Michigan, is gearing up for its annual Christmas basket project for children in foster care in the county.

The non-profit provides support, services, supplies, and aid to children in foster care, children in need, and children who are at-risk, struggling, and/or facing a crisis. It’s located at 10140 West Grand River in Fowlerville and is an all-volunteer operation.

President Ashley Setty told WHMI foster families can come in whenever kids outgrow clothes and shoes, they get new placements, or during season changes and they are always there to help with continuous needs. She says they help families struggling and needing extra assistance, foster children and relative kinship placements, under-privileged or at-risk children referred to them by an outside source, and families devastated by fire or other disasters.

Setty says they provide new socks and underwear; new and gently-used clothes, shoes and boots; baby items and equipment; children and teen hygiene products; backpacks and school supplies; new and gently used toys; and kids furniture or other necessities.

Setty said they always have a need for all items but the biggest is for donations of new clothes and shoes, or monetary donations to purchase those. She said all shoe sizes are greatly appreciated, from walking to teenage.

Every year, the non-profit is part of the Annual Foster Parent Christmas Celebration on December 19th that provides a themed basket to every foster family in the county – which is anywhere from 48 to 53 families with a value of $150.

This year’s theme is STEAM or Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math. Donations relative to that theme are currently being accepted for the baskets, or monetary donations to purchase items.

Some examples are STEAM or STEM kits, Legos, arts and crafts, math related games, or science experiment-type kits. Donations are preferred by December 13th. Setty said she thinks it’s a pretty cool theme and educational but more importantly - something that foster families can do together to connect, grow, and improve skills.

Setty said they’re also actively looking for local businesses willing to put a donation box in their lobbies to encourage employees and others to donate new pairs of shoes. One open to the general public to drop off new show donations is Armor Protective Packaging at 1551 North Burkhart Road in Howell, during normal business hours.

Setty said they are “forever grateful” for any support and want to continue to provide the most vulnerable children in the community with clothing, shoes, and toys to bring them joy but also help take that burden off of the foster families. She said it can be very stressful to get a child or multiple children at any hour of the day with nothing but the clothes on their back – often times clothing or shoes that are too small or too big - so they want to come alongside those families and help ease that financial burden.

More information is available in the provided links.