Shelburne House Holiday Fund

The program that I work for is home to three amazing boys who continue to work through an immense amount of challenges and treatment work this year. Our residents have experienced severe trauma, abuse and neglect in their pasts and do not have the same positive association with the holidays that so many take for granted. Many of these boys do not have family to spend the holiday season with and lived through conditions of extreme poverty. Changing these boys perceptions on the holiday season and showing them that people out there do really care and listen to them is a huge drive in why I have been raising funds for them. For the second year in a row, I want to be able to prove to these boys that they are loved and supported by their community and the adults around them. I want to be able to prove that they can trust others and ask people for help; a concept that is very difficult to accept when so many adult in their past have let them down in so many ways. Most importantly, it is to show these boys that they live in a world that is good, and that they have things to look forward to in their lives.

Funds from this project will be used to purchase gifts for them during the holiday season, including but not limited to: clothes, winter gear, art supplies. shoes, yoga balls, sports equipment, games, meditation pillows, vouchers for art and acting classes, etc.

All gifts are chosen to not only help in their treatment, but to cater to the individual interests of each resident in a therapeutic way.

The Shelburne House is a non-profit residential behavioral treatment program for adolescent boys and is a part of NFI and NAFI. If you would like to find out more about the program you can visit our page:

www.nfivermont.org/nafinfi/Programs/BehavioralHealth/ShelburneHouse.aspx