Payless Shoes 4 Kids Donates 100 Shoes to Los Angeles Charity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) January 8, 2010 -- (PASADENA, CA) – Selected as partner in the Payless Shoes 4 Kids program, Hillsides received one hundred $15 gift certificates for shoes to give to families living in Los Angeles County that are in crisis and financial hardship.
“Each Holiday season, Hillsides provides support, relief and safe places for children and youth,” said John Hitchcock, the foster care children’s charity executive director. “Through the support of our friends and donors, Hillsides is able to help our low income and at-risk families have a meaningful holiday season.”

Families who look to the Los Angeles charity for counseling and parenting assistance are often victims of extreme poverty. Hillsides programs help needy families through Hillsides’ Holiday “Adopt-A-Family” program, nearly 100 families are “adopted.”
“These are families that we have treated and counseled year long, and are indeed families in need and the downturn has hit them particularly hard. The majority of our families depend on local industry of contracting like housekeeping and food business to survive, however many have experienced reduced hours or have lost their jobs,” said Hitchcock, adding that, Hillsides is experiencing a dramatic short fall of private donors.
At Hillsides, priceless moments will become a reality for families through the generosity of community support like the Payless Shoes 4 kids program.

For one of the families, who received Payless Shoes gift certificates for their three children, this was an answered prayer. Tragically, the father was violently attacked several months ago, after cashing his paycheck at a check cashing business in South Los Angeles. He was ruthlessly beaten; his wallet was stolen and never recovered.
This money was desperately needed to pay the family’s rent, utilities and basic necessities. Two weeks later, his wife became ill with bronchitis, her condition worsened, turning to pneumonia. Unable to work for three weeks, this traumatized family became two months late on their rent, was behind on utility payments, they had no money for groceries, let alone anything for Christmas. Hillsides stepped in and provided money for rental and utility assistance, food vouchers, and some clothing and Christmas gifts for each of the three children, including Payless Shoes gift certificates.

When the Los Angeles children’s charity’s staff delivered the gifts and clothes last week, 15-year-old *Emily said she had been praying that someone would help her family this Christmas. With a big smile and laughter in her voice, she asked the charity’s social worker to tell those wonderful friends at Hillsides “thank you for hearing my prayers.”
For many children like Emily, answered prayers come in the form of charities in the community doing good deeds and striving to continue with the mission, creating safe places for children in Los Angeles County.

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