This year’s Gift Gallery was an incredible experience! Generous donations from individuals and corporate partners made it possible for 428 individuals we work with to shop for brand new holiday gifts at no cost. Volunteers from community partners Netsmart, Sprint, KeyBank and Partners in Primary Care made everything run smoothly, and your generosity provided more than 1,000 gifts for families to choose from. Here are just a few of the special moments from the Gift Gallery shared by families and volunteers.
Shoppers
"The Gift Gallery is wonderful. It’s super wonderful. You guys have done a really great job. It’s nice because I feel like a lot of places that do stuff like this they don’t go out of their way — it’s just like they do the bare minimum and you guys really went above and beyond. I don’t know, I’ve been working with Cornerstones of Care for a year and it seems like you guys do that with everything so it’s nice to have people that actually care. When I walked in, I felt like I wanted to cry. It’s extremely overwhelming to see all the gifts and people to help and it’s really awesome that you guys do this. Without the Gift Gallery we probably would have only been able to get each of our two kids one gift."
—Lacey
"It’s been a rough year — we’ve been barely doing the day-to-day. So the Gift Gallery is exciting because I can actually get something for my kids for Christmas. It’s a little overwhelming when you first come in with all the gifts, but everyone is so welcoming."
—Nikki & Josh
"It’s helpful for the kids. They get a little bit more presents — something that they really like."
—Bobby
"We’re a family of 12, and this is awesome. My income is very low and if it weren’t for this I don’t know what we would do. I really appreciate this, and it’s a huge blessing for us."
—Sharice
"The Gift Gallery is awesome — it's great. It definitely helps out, especially with the kids."
—Randon
Volunteers
"I volunteer with Cornerstones of Care because I love how connected they are to the community. With the Gift Gallery, I really like the idea that families get to come in and pick the gifts that their kids actually want and even pick something for themselves, which I think is extra awesome. I feel like you guys are extra generous. I love all the little stocking stuffers and books that they can pick, and the essentials which are not even part of the deal, so I’ve been really impressed. Netsmart gives us a great opportunity to get out of the office and connect with the community that we serve twice a year if we want to and so we were happy to help out with this today. It was great to see everything come together and their smiling faces when they leave."
—Amanda
"We’ve been involved with Cornerstones of Care for the last 10 years and we as a team at Sprint, we’ve come down probably for the last five years to help out at the Gift Gallery. There are tons of gifts. We’ve typically helped set up but it’s nice to have a change of pace and help the families coming in with shopping and wrapping. Volunteering with Cornerstones of Care is a great way to give back, to help the community, to help the families. You know, you realize that your life isn’t too bad when you see some of the challenges that folks face."
—David
Thank you to everyone who made the 2018 Gift Gallery a success!