If you’ve visited Hi De Ho Comics recently, you might have had the pleasure of being helped by my wife Kristen and know that she’s quick with a smile, a handy comic book recommendation and a friendly joke. What you don’t know about her is that every year, for over twenty years, she singlehandedly runs the Los Angeles based Adopt-A-Family program that helps homeless families in need during the holidays.
The Adopt a Family program serves to help families struggling with homelessness to have as normal a holiday as possible. When a family is homeless or in shelter, there are often very limited funds. Therefore, it is very difficult to provide any type of gift giving for the children. This is often a very low point for homeless families or families struggling to get back on their feet. The Adopt a Family Program matches community members to families and individuals in need. The adoptive family chooses the size of the family in need that they are able to provide for and is provided with a Wish List personally filled out by that family. The adoptive family then chooses items from the list that they would like to provide to the family in need for the holiday.
In simpler speak, Kristen matches all the donors to all the families in need, picks up or receives all the gifts and needed items from each and every donor and ensures that they all make their way to the correct family in need in time for the holidays. This is no easy task and one more fitting of a small army. Yet, every year I watch her work from morning to late night and pull off what should be the impossible…all while holding down a regular day job! Every year I’m witness to the stress and endless driving in holiday traffic that Kristen endures running such a program. Each December, Kristen and I joke with each other that she gets a free pass from cleaning, laundry and all other household chores that no longer fit into her overloaded schedule for the month.
What’s a lone husband to do to help his better half as she toils away at bringing so much holiday cheer to those who have so little? I give her my store! Same as last year, Hi De Ho Comics will be partnering with the Adopt a Family Program for the 2016 Holiday Season. Hi De Ho Comics will sponsor the Adopt-A-Family program by serving as a drop off location for donations from participating adoptive families at 1431 Lincoln Blvd. and by also providing comic books and toys for children in the program. As a thirty-nine year member of the Santa Monica community, Hi De Ho is more than happy to assist a program that does so much good for those unable to enjoy the normal holiday delights that you and I take for granted.
So when you visit Hi De Ho Comics this December and see a mountain of presents around the shop, don’t assume that Santa Claus has moved his workshop to Hi De Ho…unless that Santa is a sassy little lady quick with a smile, a handy comic book recommendation and a friendly joke.
If you are interested in participating in or learning more about Kristen’s Adopt-A-Family program please go to www.adoptafamilyla.com. You may also email her at kristen@adoptafamilyla.com or call her at 626-399-2288 if you have any further questions.
