Wisdom Family Foundation launches Christmas gift campaign for families in need
After 12 years in existence, the nonprofit Wisdom Family Foundation is broadening its scope while continuing its mission to serve children and families.
The foundation, formerly of Elgin and now based in Wayne, launched its first “Christmas Wishes” campaign that will match donors with local families in need. Donors will get the children's names, ages and Christmas gift lists, will buy the gifts and will deliver them directly to the families, said Kristi Wisdom, the foundation's co-founder.
“I think it's really cool if we can work with local community members and be able to provide families that wouldn't normally be able to have a special Christmas or many presents, and really help them have a special Christmas, and really help them have those special moments for those children.”
The foundation also will donate a turkey or ham and a $50 gift card to each family with a goal of sponsoring 100 families with about 250 children.
The Christmas Wishes campaign has a Nov. 15 deadline for donors to sign up, foundation director Heather Kirsebom said. “The holidays tend to get very busy and bogged down, and we want to make sure we get awareness early on,” she said.
The 100 families will be identified in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Elgin and Elgin Area School District U-46, with whom the foundation has worked for years, Kirsebom said. “We believe that change has to happen at a societal level,” she said, “and what better way can we get than to have local families, businesses and individuals come along with us and truly make an impact on these families' lives?”
The foundation was started in 2007 by Kristi Wisdom and her husband, Jeff, who at the time was running Wisdom Adhesives Worldwide in Elgin, a fifth-generation family company that he sold nearly three years ago.
The foundation initially was funded by business profits and now is largely funded by the Wisdom family with some contribution from relatives, friends and other organizations, Kristi Wisdom said.
The foundation was among the founding donors of Food for Greater Elgin and contributed $250,000 for a new stadium at South Elgin High School, both in 2011, Kristi Wisdom said. It also has given out about 50 scholarships of $1,500 each to U-46 students and some private school students, she said.
The foundation's work took a temporary break after the sale of the business in January 2017 and now is back in full swing, Kristi Wisdom said. “We started rethinking about how we wanted to make an impact,” she said.
Most notably, the foundation gave a $1 million donation earlier this month to the Boys & Girls Club of Elgin to help open a new facility in South Elgin.
Kirsebom was hired earlier this year for the newly created director position and the Wisdoms' three daughters have joined the board of directors and are involved in all decision-making, Kristi Wisdom said.
“We are very committed to giving back. Obviously with the sale of the business, we felt it was even more our responsibility to give back,” Kristi Wisdom said. “My husband was very lucky to get a nice financial profit from the sale, and our goal is to do the best we can to give back and benefit the community.”