This article was first published in the Fox Montana site and written by Stella Sun.
The holiday season is a joyful time of year, but for families whose children have life-threatening illnesses, the Christmas joy can be overshadowed by financial stress.
“One of the things we found is a lot of the families would not have a Christmas because of financial burdens. When [the families] get home from the hospitals they don’t have any money, so this is one way we can help them have a joyous Christmas,” Jadyn Fred Foundation Executive Director Lynn Fred said.
The Jadyn Fred Foundation, a Missoula organization that helps families with children who have life-threatening illnesses, organized a Christmas event this evening at Zootown Church to grant the Christmas wishes for 32 families.
“I get pictures of the children, all the children in the family, and they give me a list of 8-10 [presents] that they’d like for Christmas, then I find sponsors to go out and buy presents for them,” Lynn said.
Lynn said he found 32 sponsors from around Big Sky country to help buy Christmas gifts for the families. His son Britt said his organization wanted to host the event to give the families a few hours of Christmas joy.
“We wanted to have community with these families and not worry about raising funds, but more or less just blessing these families. What better way then having a meal together, having some presents, having Santa and surrounding it by the Christmas season,” Britt said.
According to one family the the Christmas event this evening, the acts of kindness makes a difference.
“It just kinda gets lonely, and maybe start to lose hope and so when you see all this support and love it really lifts your spirits. It’s just a wonderful thing that they do for families in Montana,” Mother of four Moriah Cochran said.
Lynn said the happiness on the families faces is what makes the event special.
“Just to look at the smiles, and the tears on the parents for what we do is tremendous,” Lynn said.
Britt said if you need help with medical costs for your child or if you would like to donate to the Jadyn Fred Foundation, you can head to their website.