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Tampa General foster angels
Christmas presents are on the way to hundreds of foster kids throughout Hillsborough County thanks to TGH/USF Health employees. FOX 13’s Lloyd Sowers reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - Tampa General-USF Health staffers are making sure hundreds of foster children have presents to unwrap Christmas morning.
On Monday, 1500 gifts donated by TGH team members were loaded into a large truck to be delivered to 500 foster children in time for Christmas.
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Kim Christine, a TGH employee, said, "It's my favorite day of the year."
The backstory:
Last July, the children began making their Christmas wish lists.
Last month their lists were placed on a Christmas tree in the hospital.
Staff members could select the age and gender of the child they would shop for.
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"Some people like to get the little kids and the babies; we get a lot of teens," Christine explained.
Dig deeper:
Stephanie McNeel was adopted and her parents were foster parents in the community.
She said her father noticed that many foster kids didn’t get a lot of Christmas presents, so he, along with longtime TGH employee, the late Delwyn Collins, created the program 36 years ago.
Since then, tens of thousands of gifts have been given to Hillsborough County foster children.
The Source: This article was written with interviews with Tampa General Hospital/USF Health and Foster Angels, conducted by FOX 13’s Lloyd Sowers.